Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 129, Number 29, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 20 July 2006 — Page 27

Round Bam Theatre schedule complete for 2007

Staff Report The production rights to six shows for the 2007 musical theatre season at The Round Bam Theatre at Amish Acres provide the ingredients for delicious musical compote. Finding five shows to mix with the 21st annual production of Plain and Fancy is a difficult recipe to concoct. Royalty houses must clear all potential conflicts created by current Broadway productions and coming revivals, national tours, regional theatre commitments, and author's approval, before a license can be issued and a contract signed. Despite these obstacles, July is the earliest the coming year's season has been official. National tour groups clamor for the schedule to be announced as early as possible to make print deadlines for their 2007 catalogs. Nunsense and Pump Boys and Dinettes, two of the most durable small cast classics, will be joined by Tony award winning Best Musicals Thoroughly Modem Millie (2003) and Will Rogers' Follies (1991). Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the first musical using his music written since 1962, will fill the holiday months. The Round Bam Theatre's Artistic Director, Scott Saegesser says, "With a season like record breaking 2006, expectations become very high among our patrons. Having this lineup for 2007 should satisfy everyone who loves musical theatre. What an exciting line up of shows! lam pleased to be able to present these truly outstanding and, above all, entertaining musicals to our audiences. It is going to be a great season." Nunsense, winner of four Outer Critics Awards including Best Off-Broadway Musical, is

the story of the Little Sisters of Hoboken who are trying to raise money to bury four of their recently departed sisters. Creator Dan Goggin, from Alma, Michigan, writes, ”1 wrote Nunsense because I wanted to share what I knew to be "the humor of the nun." He certainly accomplishes this with such song titles as "Nunsense is Habit-Forming," "The Biggest Ain't the Best," "We've Got to Clean Out the Freezer," and "Holier Than ThC>u." Goggin's early life experiences, including being schooled by the Marywood Dominican Sisters, influenced him in such a positive and dramatic way that those experiences reverberate in his works. Nunsense has been rolled out into a worldwide franchise of sequel musicals, proving that the universality of the humor is not restricted to those of the Catholic faith. Pump Boys and Dinettes tells the story of four males and two females who work at a gas station on Highway 57 somewhere between Frog Level and Smyrna, N.C. Across the blacktop is a roadside eatery called .the Double Cupp Diner. The four guys at the station, Jim, Jackson, Eddie and L.M., have been known to do some auto repairs, but only when aided by quantities of time and a certain refreshment. The Cupp sisters, Prudie and Rhetta, celebrate their home cooking with the same zeal they bring to being neighborly with the boys. This is their musical tribute to life by the roadside! In February 1982 the little show moved to the Princess Theatre for its Broadway premiere and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. Within two years the show opened in Chicago and became the longest running musical in The Windy City's history selling 575,000 tickets in four and one

half years and has now been seen all over the world. The show was created and written by its original cast members: John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. Thoroughly Modern Millie, winner of six 2002 Tony Awards including Best Musical, is this season's most awarded new show on Broadway. Based on the 1967 Oscar-winning film, Thoroughly Modem Millie takes audiences back to the height of the Jazz Age in New York City, when "modems" - including a flapper named Millie Dillmount were bobbing their hair, raising their hemlines, entering the workforce, and rewriting the rules of love. A delightful valentine to the longstanding spirit of New York City and the

people who seek to discover themselves there, this new stage version features 15 songs, including two from the 1967 film, four standards from the 1920 s and nine new songs by composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist Dick Scanlan. Julie Andrews starred in the title role in the movie, supported by Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Charming, and Beatrice Lillie. Set in 1922, the story revolves around the adventures of Millie, who escapes to New

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Explore Wa-Nee • July 27,2006

York City determined to get a job as a stenographer in order to marry her wealthy boss. Shedding her country girl clothing for the modem look of a "flapper”, she takes a room at the Priscilla Hotel for Women, unaware it's a front for a white slavery ring. In short time, she finds herself involved with Jimmy Smith, an apparently ne'er-do-well paper clip salesman, Miss Dorothy "Just Perfect" Brown, a genteel aspiring actress, Trevor "Swell" Graydon, her no-nonsense boss, and Muzzy "Raspberries!" van Hossmere, a madcap heiress with a zest for the high life! Will Rogers Follies is a musical about the famed humorist that first opened in 1991 at the Palace Theatre, where Will Rogers himself played during

his vaudeville years. Rogers began as a lasso rope twirler in Wild West Shows and became popular for his quips that followed his failed rope tricks. As a humorist, he became one of the most quoted American's of all time. Directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune, with music by Cy Coleman, book by Peter Stone, and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, all of whom collaborated in On The Town and Wonderful Town. Will Rogers Follies ran for over 900 performances and went on to win the Tony awards for Best Musical, Score, Costume and Lighting Designer, Director of a Musical, and Choreographer. An avid booster of aviation, Rogers undertook a ’round-the See THEATRE, Page 17

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