Interview: Mackenzie Zielke of ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE at Omaha Community Playhouse

Get ready to escape to Margaritaville! Jimmy Buffett’s music is set to send you off on a tropical adventure at the Omaha Community Playhouse April 18 through May 11 on the Hawks Mainstage Theatre. Students are offered a special $7 ticket price on April 18 and 19 with student ID.

I spoke with Director Mackenzie Zielke about her background and the musical she is currently directing. Mackenzie has an MA in Theatre from Regent University and BA in Music Theatre from the Conservatory at UMKC. 

While living in Kansas City she worked with the Lyric Opera, Barn Players, bar Natasha, Chestnut Theatre, Musical Theatre Heritage and Padgett Productions in various capacities. 

She most recently directed White Christmas and The Girl on the Train at Bellevue Little Theatre and Into the Woods at Chanticleer. Mackenzie served as director of theatre at Grace University from 2009-2018, directing 11 productions and 8 cabarets there. 

Being both a director and a performer, her favorite local acting roles have been: Narrator in Murder Ballad, Fiona in Shrek, Francesca in Bridges of Madison County, Heather Chandler in Heathers, and Irene Malloy in Hello Dolly, for which she received Omaha Entertainment Arts Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a musical.

Mackenzie, tell me a little bit about the story.

The plot follows Rachel and Tammy who are vacationers at the Margaritaville Hotel and Bar. There they meet Tully who is the singer and Brick who is the bartender. Tully and Rachel have a fabulous vacation fling and seem to really have a connection. But Rachel is going home. Tully has to decide where this is just another one of his flings or is this something real. What happens after that is a spoiler.

This is a Jukebox musical. Do you think the story fits the music and vice versa?

I think that the way the music is written into the musical is pretty genius. Is there ever a good time to sing about cheeseburgers? I don’t know. But in the show it kinda works. So in terms of whether the music really moves the plot I would say yeah! I feel the way they’ve crafted the music into the story is pretty smart.

It did not have a long run on Broadway. In fact, it was pretty short and had some negative reviews. What would you say to those reviewers?

(Laughs) I would say that they should not look at everything as needing to be high art. Sometimes things need to exist just because they are fun, like MARGARITAVILLE. We can’t always go see really thought provoking things. Our minds would explode. What’s so great about this show is that it allows us to escape, because life is hard. Frankly, I think we all deserve a little vacation even if it’s only sitting in a theater watching other people go on vacation.

What is the strong point of your cast?

Oh man. How much fun they have!  With a show like this you can’t take it too seriously. You have to lean in to how silly and fun things are. And this cast absolutely excels at that. There are so many things that happen in this show that I wish I could take credit for, but it’s absolutely the brilliant comedic minds of every single person on that stage.

What is your biggest challenge in directing this show?

Probably how quickly it moves in terms of location. We’re on an island. Then we’re on a plane. At one point we’re on a boat. Then we’re in Cincinnati. Then we’re on a volcano. What my team and I focus on is how to move from place to place and moment to moment without it feeling rushed while giving the audience just enough information to follow the story.

Does that mean there will be big set changes?

You would think. But my set designer, Matthew Hamel, has created the most incredible set that …I don’t want to give too much away, but the set is mostly stationary with pieces that move on and off telling us where we are. He created these pieces to suggest locations but not so much that we are changing a ton of things.

What will the audience enjoy the most from seeing this show and do you need to be a Parrothead to enjoy it?

I think definitely the audience will enjoy the high energy that the cast brings through the music and the dance. No, you do not need to be a Parrothead to enjoy this show! I think Jimmy Buffett’s music really speaks for itself and I love all of the arrangements. One thing that I’ve come to understand is the philosophy behind the music- that it’s about having fun and escaping, but also understanding that those things are necessary in order to find joy in life every so often.