CALL ME MADAM Takes Lakewood Theatre Stage Tonight

The Lost Treasures Collection, a series of rarely performed musical gems presented in concert/cabaret version on Lakewood Theatre Company's Side Door stage, presents the final offering in its third season, the 1950 musical Call Me Madam. Food, wine and other beverages will be available for purchase before and during the show.

Call Me Madam with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse is directed by by Ron Daum. Musical direction is by Yvette Starkey.

Performances will be two nights only, tonight, April 19 and Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 7:00 PM. The show is presented script-in-hand, with minimal staging. No sets, no props (free from the usual trappings of a fully staged production). Ticket prices are $20 for all seats. Contact the Lakewood Theatre Box Office at (503) 635-3901 or order securely online at www.lakewood-center.org

The Story: Ambassador Sally Adams, with slim credentials, is sent off to administer in the tiny duchy of Lichtenburg. Her down-to-earth and undiplomatic manner surprises and charms the local gentry, especially the handsome Prime Minister. Love is threatened by the stuffy opposition, who eventually succeed in wrangling Sally's recall, but not before all has resolved happily for the lovers.

The cast includes: Annie Kaiser, Bruce Blanchard, Alan Anderson, Jennifer Davies, Megan Misslin and Adam Elliot Davis.

Lakewood Theatre Company's Side Door Stage is an intimate 90-seat cabaret-style venue with general admission seating in the Community Meeting Room at Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S. State Street in Lake Oswego. Food and beverages are available to purchase before and during the show.

History of the Play: Directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, Call Me Madam opened on Broadway October 12, 1950 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 644 performances. In addition to Ethel Merman as Sally Adams and Russell Nype as the lovestruck press attache, the cast included Paul Lukas, Pat Harrington, Sr., Lilia Skala, and Richard Eastham.

Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times thought it offered one of Berlin's "most enchanting scores: fresh, light, and beguiling, and fitted to lyrics that fall out of it with grace and humor", and the New York Post called Merman "indescribably soul-satisfying", "a comedienne of rare skill", and "one of the joys of the world." Merman remained with the show for the entire run and appeared in the limited four-week engagement staged to celebrate the reopening of The National Theatre in Washington, D.C., but her understudy Elaine Stritch starred in the national tour.

The musical won Tony Awards for Best Original Score, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Merman) and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Nype).

The musical later opened in the West End at the London Coliseum on March 15, 1952 where it ran for 486 performances and starred Billie Worth.

The New York City Center Encores! semi-staged concert version starring Tyne Daly was presented in February 1995. A regional production ran at the Paper Mill Playhouse, in April-May 1996 and starred Leslie Uggams.

In the fall of 2012 the production was revived in London directed by Michael Strassen. It starred LuCy Williamson and Gavin Kerr. Reviews were excellent across the board. Michael Coveney noted. 'The show is carried by LuCy Williamson who possesses the Merman role as of right, not with too much camp impudence, but with a glorious tonality and just the right mixture of sassy vulgarity and winking, lubricious intent."

60 Years of Live Theatre: Founded as a not-for-profit organization in 1952, Lakewood Theatre Company is a professional theatre dedicated to the study and presentation of drama in all its forms; the training and development of actors; and the creation, maintenance and operation of a theatre in which to present plays and other forms of entertainment. Lakewood Theatre Company is the oldest continually operated, not-for-profit theatre company in the Portland Metropolitan area. It annually provides more than 400 theatre artists the opportunity to learn and display their craft and attracts more than 40,000 people to its shows.

To post a comment, you must register and login.