Curt Dale Clark News

Maine State Music Theatre opens its 60thseason with a new title to the Pickard Stage. Million Dollar Quartet is produced in association with the Fulton Theatre and is the electrifying story of how four stars made music history! Million Dollar Quartet runs from June 6 to June 23. 

Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark has been elected as Vice President of The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT).

In preparation for their 60th summer season at the Pickard Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre will host three special Teaser Tuesday films on May 8, 15 and 22 at Brunswick's Curtis Memorial Library this May.

Anniversaries are customarily times to reflect on the past, but for Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director, Curt Dale Clark, the 2018 gala celebration of the company's sixty years is not only a time to celebrate history, but also to use the significant milestone as an opportunity to look to the future. 'We are thinking forward and not resting on our laurels. We are accentuating what works, trying to fix what doesn't, and trying to find new ways to engage the community and make them happy,' Clark explains his philosophy about the Brunswick-based theatre's upcoming historic season.

Only a week ago, in my review of The Mousetrap, I praised the Fulton in their decision to bring a drama back to the mainstage. I will now 'double-down', and share how much fun it was to attend a musical in their intimate fourth floor theater.

The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre is proud to present this jovial celebration of The Irish And How They Got That Way, January 23 now extended through February 25. Join us for a fun-filled time as we explore the ways of the Irish and how they have fit into the tapestry of America over the past 150 years.

The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre is proud to present this jovial celebration of The Irish And How They Got That Way, January 23 now extended through February 25. Join us for a fun-filled time as we explore the ways of the Irish and how they have fit into the tapestry of America over the past 150 years.

On a bitter cold blizzard day in January, the Maine theatre community was deriving some warmth and cheer by celebrating its achievements with the 2017 Broadway World Audience Choice award winners. The sixteen theatre artists voted by Maine theatre-goers as the best in each category of performing and technical achievements were selected from a group of 69 finalists, culled from over 9000 nominees rwho epresented less than % of all those in contention for the accolades, and voting for the winners was close and competitive to the very end of the process.

Creating magic on the Pickard main stage each summer is what Maine State Music Theatre does each season and does with consummate skill. But increasingly in recent years, MSMT has been expanding its community outreach and finding ways to attract new audiences and serve diverse and often underserved constituencies. The latest endeavor in a long list of community events was to host a holiday party for the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters at the MSMT rehearsal studios on Saturday, December 9, 2017.

Members of the staff of Maine State Music Theatre gathered to accept the 2017 Broadway World Critic's Choice Award. For the fifth year in a row MSMT has headed the list of Maine theatre producing extraordinary work. Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold's citation praised the company's 'amazing trajectory into the stratosphere, producing a 2017 that somehow astonishingly managed to top the previous blockbuster season in artistic merit and audience appeal.' Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark said the acknowledgement was made him 'very happy' and he was 'grateful to everyone at Broadway World.'

Maine boasts a vibrant, varied theatrical landscape, is home to a significant local community of fine artists, and plays host each year to artists from New York, Chicago, and all the leading regional theatres in the country. Moreover, Maine can be proud of its sophisticated, loyal, and warm-hearted audiences, who appreciate thoroughly the dedication and creativity that goes into producing professional and community theatre and who are generous with their support and acclaim. I am honored to continue to serve as Broadway World's Maine editor, and I remain excited and energized by the richness of the state's theatre scene. As we come to the end of another year, here are my personal choices of the 2017 best in Maine, grouped by theatre and show.

You win some, you lose some; you have to roll with the punches! Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark says with a broad smile. He is talking about the process of acquiring the theatrical rights to produce the shows he does each year a process which is the inevitable and crucial departure point for any theatrical season. And yet, despite Clark's seemingly sanguine attitude toward these negotiations, the reality is that crafting the sensational seasons he has each year for the company is anything but a game of chance. It is the product of planning, strategy, hard work, and the increasing respect in which MSMT is held by the industry.

Actress, singer, comedienne extraordinaire Charis Leos has performed over one hundred roles on more than twenty-eight leading regional theaters across America. Known as a brilliant and endearing character actress with a powerful voice, she has made a name for herself in major roles like Rose in Gypsy, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Jolene in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Louise in Always Patsy Cline, and countless more parts that speak to her versatility and charisma. While Leos performs all over the country, Maine holds a special place in her heart.

The memories are in the music, and Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage's latest co-production struts, sizzles smiles, and sparkles with energy and latent emotion. Classy, funny, lively, touching, vocally and instrumentally beautiful, this tightly constructed revue, The All Night Strut, offers a journey to an era where the world was in turmoil, time moved more slowly, hearts were worn on sleeves, and swing was the thing. Performed in a stylish production with a quartet of stunning soloists and a trio of fine musicians, this soundtrack of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s tells its story in song and dance and offers theatre-goers a wholly satisfying and warmly memorable experience.

"Newsies is a hit wherever you take it; it had a highly successful Broadway run and national tour and now in these first regional productions, it is the kind of show that brings people from all over to see it again and again. It reaches so many people with its great music and dance and inspiring story. It's a brilliant piece of theatre, and I am honored to be a part of it."

In a season that continues to top itself, one show after the other, Maine State Music Theatre's fourth and final main stage production of Disney's Newsies is an epic accomplishment for the company and one that firmly establishes it as one of the finest regional theatres in the country. As one of only three companies to get the regional rights to this mega Broadway hit, MSMT has mounted a thrilling, large scale production that is an electrifying, heart wrenching, and profoundly uplifting theatrical experience that will leave you in what Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark has called a state of “ecstatic exhaustion.”

"The All Night Strut will transport you to a time when life was happier, and the fun was the music. This show will prove that it is still about the music. The audience will go nuts for the production; they will eat it alive and want more and more of it." Curt Dale Clark knows from whence he speaks. The actor, director, author, and Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre has had the benefit of performing this songbook of the1930s,1940s, and 1950s in four prior productions, and he is confident that Maine audiences are going to love the production. "It is similar to The Irish," he says of last year's award-winning, sold-out collaboration, Frank McCourt's play The Irish and How They Got That Way, "in that the footprint exists for the show. Different actors populate it each time, but the end result is always the same. It is a huge hit!"

Midway through the first act of The Who's Tommy, the young protagonist invites his mates and listeners to ride together on his amazing journey. And truly, Maine State Music Theatre's production of the Pete Townshend/DesMcAnuff musical, seen for two performances only at the Pickard Theater July 31 offers its audience just that - a riveting, often raw, perennially relevant, piercingly beautiful account of a boy's painful but ultimately uplifting journey through the darker side of human experience and into the light. The rarely staged 1992 musical version based on the 1969 concept album and rock opera with its sung-through score, narrative told largely in dance, and its sometimes disturbing material poses significant challenges to any company, but MSMT once again proves its artistic mettle. Under the inspired direction of Curt Dale Clark, with the complex choreography of Raymond Marc Dumont and the rousing musical direction of Patrick Fanning, this company of young artists marshals its considerable talents to tackle the ambitious project with energy, passion, and complete professionalism.

'We are all there for each other,' Kevin Nietzel asserts, affirming the bond that is making Maine State Music Theatre's Grease so electric. 'It is very rewarding,' adds Neil Starkenberg, MSMT's Danny Zuko. Co-star Chelsea Williams, who plays Sandy to Starkenberg's Danny, continues the thought: 'Neil and I have had conversations about how we could do this show for a really long time. It is so much fun, and I think that must be obvious to the audience. The energy is so palpable that it is a special joy to work that hard every night. Everyone is having the time of his life!' These three actors together with principals Gerrianne Perez (Rizzo), Charis Leos (Miss Lynch), Costume Designer Travis M. Grant, and MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark all joined BWW's Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold for the third panel discussion in the theatre's Peek Behind the Curtain series held each summer at Curtis Memorial Library. In an especially lively and far-ranging conversation that highlighted not only the challenges but also the camaraderie of this ensemble, the panel and capacity audience explored the history, characters, and production process for MSMT's summer mega hit.

'I imagine that Danny is the youngest in a family of boys, and he feels he has to live up to the name Zuko at Rydell High. In the movie he says 'I've got a reputation to protect,' and I think that goes a long way to explaining his behavior.' Neil Starkenberg is commenting on his role debut in Maine State Music Theatre's upcoming production of Grease, which begins a run at the Pickard Theater on July 19. For the twenty-eight year-old actor, the iconic part of the fifties greaser, Danny Zuko, is a dream come true, and Starkenberg has spent a great deal of time preparing for the part.