Wilton Playshop and Troupers Light Opera Present WALL $TREET 10/1-10/2

 

This weekend, The Wilton Playshop will partner with The Troupers Light Opera Company to present the world-premiere of a new musical that uses Gilbert & Sullivan melodies beloved by billions worldwide to tell a brand-new story. The new show is Wall $treet the Musical, a topsy-turvy tale of contemporary Wall Street greed, passion, betrayal, global domination . . . and office romance.

"It's a lot of 'firsts,'" says Zelie Pforzheimer, President of the Wilton Playshop. "We're thrilled to be working with all the wonderfully talented folks at Troupers Light Opera Company of Darien." Shawn Amdur, President of Troupers, concurs. "We're excited to be on a new stage, working for the first time with director Jorie Janeway (who's been involved in several other Wilton Playshop productions) and singing melodies we know, but in a whole new context and with a whole new sound!"

Shawn went on to explain that the melodies in Wall $treet are derived from eight immortal operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan, performed by Troupers for 65 years, but since the melodies have been combined in new ways, with women's voices appearing where they'd never been heard before, the result is "fresh and new and magical.

Director Jorie Janeway is also excited about the production and also loves working with the very talented and highly-credentialed cast. "Great comic timing, both for their spoken lines and their lyrics," she says. Playing the lead role, is Chris Wilkes who performed with the NY Gilbert & Sullivan Players as "Prince Hilarion" in Princess Ida, "Frederic" in The Pirates of Penzance, and "Ralph Rackstraw" in H.M.S. Pinafore, among others.

Co-star Nancy Sturgis has performed in the New York and Connecticut region include, My Fair Lady (Eliza Doolittle), Kiss Me Kate (Kate), The Music Man (Marion), The King and I (Anna), Fiddler On the Roof(Hodel), and Oliver! (Nancy).

Adding to the "firsts," Wall $treet has already won first prize in the Academy for New Musical Theatre's search for new musicals competition. ANMT will be performing the work at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, California this November in its West Coast premiere. Also in November, Troupers has been invited to take Wall $treet to New York to present to the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Society in Manhattan.

Understandably, author Charles Veley, a Wilton resident for seventeen years who now lives in Hartford, is delighted with the Playshop - Troupers production. "Working with such a talented cast and company, and watching them laugh at the funny parts in rehearsals - it's just what I'd hoped for." Charlie began his musical-writing with scripts for The Wilton Singers Elizabethan Feasts nearly fifteen years ago. He started Wall $treet in 2000, around the time of the dot-com crash. He's also published five novels, and at work manages large real estate planning and development projects for United Technologies Corporation.

Performances of Wall $treet are Friday, October 1st at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, October 2nd at 7:30 p.m., at the Wilton Playshop. For tickets, go to tickets or call (203)762-7629.