"A Letter to Harvey Milk" The Musical Is Overflowing with Milk and Honey and Schmaltz

"A Letter to Harvey Milk" is churning with good intentions, humor and delightful musical numbers provided by a live quartet situated above the sparse San Francisco set.  The play is curdling in a loaded plot, partly an homage to Harvey Milk, the 1st openly gay mayor and a heavy handed humanitarian message.  "If everyone held hands no one could hold guns."  (I preferred the poster in the March for Our Lives which read "Arms are for Hugging".  Milk was assassinated the first year he held office in SF in 1978.  Since his death Milk has become a legendary icon in SF and throughout the nation for courageously representing LGBT communities.  Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom '09.  This is not a biopic play but a clever construct for communicating the need for tolerance and living one's own truth.  Harry Weinberg (B'wy veteran Adam Heller) is the affable, widowed senior who signs up for a writing class.  His young teacher is Barbara Katsef (Julie Knitel).  She wears a Star of David which connects her with Harry through their shared Jewish heritage.  A bond of friendship is formed until she dares to share TMI and identifies as a lesbian; or as Harry dotingly dubs a "lesbianalah".   Barbara assigns Harry to write a letter to someone and the letter he so eloquently writes is to Harvey Milk (Michael Bartoli) whom he knew back in the Haight before Milk's political aspirations.  There are plenty of ghosts that come out from the closet including his deceased wife Frannie (Cheryl Stern).  Frannie banters with Harry and sings her protestations against gays & goys.  Oy!  Still there's plenty to enjoy thanks to earnest performances that tug at your heart and the entertaining musical score by Laura Kramer & lyricist Ellen Schwartz.  The buried past of Harry's life in the concentration camps are shared with Barbara after he curtly dismissed her for publicly sharing her sexual orientation.  The inspirational communications & back story in the camps are spread with schmaltz but there is a lot of honey to savor in this musical production "A Letter to Harvey Milk."