Summer Theatre Season 49

Musical of Musicals

June 13-18
Music By Eric Rockwell
Lyrics by Joanne Bogart
Book by Eric Rockwell and Jonne Bogart
Directed by Carlen Gilseth

The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) is a musical about musicals! In this hilarious satire of musical theatre, one story becomes five delightful musicals, each written in the distinctive style of a different master of the form, from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. June is an ingenue who can't pay the rent and is threatened by her evil landlord. Will the handsome leading man come to the rescue? The variations are: a Rodgers & Hammerstein version, set in Kansas in August, complete with a dream ballet; a Sondheim version, featuring the landlord as a tortured artistic genius who slashes the throats of his tenants in revenge for not appreciating his work; a Jerry Herman version, as a splashy star vehicle; an Andrew Lloyd Webber version, a rock musical with themes borrowed from Puccini; and a Kander & Ebb version, set in a speakeasy in Chicago. The Musical of Musicals: The Musical is produced through special arrangement with Samuel French.
 

See How They Run

June 26-30
Directed by Dr. Conrad Davidson

So swift is the action, so involved the situations, so rib tickling the plot in this London hit that at its finish audiences are left as exhausted from laughter as though they had run a foot race. Galloping in and out of the four doors of an English vicarage are an American actor and actress (he is now stationed with the air force in England), a cockney maid who has seen too many American movies, an old maid who "touches alcohol for the first time in her life," four men in clergyman suits presenting the problem of which is which, for disguised as one is an escaped prisoner, and a sedate Bishop aghast at all these goings on and the trumped up stories they tell him. See How They Run is produced through special Arrangement with Sameul French.

Spamalot

July 8-12
Book and Lyrics by Eric Idle
Music by John Du Prez
Directed by Chad Gifford

Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, SPAMALOT retells the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and features a bevy of beautiful show girls, not to mention cows, killer rabbits, and French people. Did we mention the bevy of beautiful show girls? Monty Python’s Spamalot is produced through special arrangement with Theatrical Rights Worldwide.

Big River

July 18-23
Music and Lyrics by Roger Miller
Book by William Hauptman
Adapted from the Novel by Mark Twain
Directed by Kevin Neuharth

Twain's timeless classic sweeps us down the mighty Mississippi as the irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, a slave, escape to freedom at the mouth of the Ohio River. Their adventures along the way are hilarious, suspenseful and heartwarming, bringing to life your favorite characters from the novel-the Widow Douglas and her stern sister, Miss Watson; the uproarious King and Duke, who may or may not be as harmless as they seem; Huck's partner in crime, Tom Sawyer, and their rowdy gang of pals; Huck's drunken father, the sinister Pap Finn; the lovely Mary Jane Wilkes and her trusting family. Propelled by an award winning score from Roger Miller, the king of country music, this jaunty journey provides a brilliantly theatrical celebration of pure Americana. Big River The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn produced though special arrangement with Rogers and Hammerstein.