New England Premiere of BUBBLE BOY Comes To Portland

The cast is set for the New England debut of BUBBLE BOY THE MUSICAL.

Cast Aside Productions ' July 12th Portland premiere will be one of the first professional presentations of this new musical based on the 2001 film of the same name.

Composer and co-author Cinco Paul described the film version of Bubble Boy in a 2013 interview as "...a mass failure. It was our first movie that ever got made and it was a critical and commercial disaster." It was with this thought in mind that Cinco and writing partner Ken Daurio determined to put their disaster to music.

"The bananas concept grabbed me," Cast Aside Productions Artistic Director David Surkin explained. "Despicable Me, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, pretty much every movie my son loved growing up was written by Cinco and Ken. When I heard they had rewritten their own Jake Gyllenhaal flop into a musical I was immediately interested."

The musical centers on Jimmy Livingston, born without immunities and forced to spend his life confined inside a plastic bubble room. Enter Chloe, the girl next door, who becomes his friend and steals his heart. When Chloe suddenly leaves town to get married to the school bad boy, Mark, Jimmy travels cross-country in a homemade bubble suit in order to stop the wedding and finally tell her how he feels. Along the laugh-filled journey, he deals with a crazy cult, a biker gang, a dead cow, and a controlling mother who will stop at nothing to get him back in the bubble.

WICKED composer Stephen Schwartz called BUBBLE BOY: "One of the cleverest, funniest, and most endearing musicals I've seen in a long time."

The cast features Jacob Sutherland as Jimmy "The Bubble Boy" Livingston, Amy Torrey as Mrs. Livingston, Holly Hinchliffe as Chloe, and Michael Jenkins as Mark. The esteemed ensemble includes Nathan Galvez, Alex Magnaud Jeffrey, Danny Gay, Kyle Aarons, David Surkin, and Hayden Jones. The pit band features Music Director Evan Cuddy on Keyboard 1, Thomas Brown on guitar, Mike O'Neal on bass, Bill Manning on percussion, and J.D. Raines on Keyboard 2.

BUBBLE BOY THE MUSICAL runs July 12-22 at the Studio Theater at Portland Ballet (517 Forest Ave. Portland, Maine). Tickets are on sale now at castasideproductions.com

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