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!"
'It has been a very cool year for me!' Matt Farcher exclaims, as he reminisces about the last twelve months since he made his Maine State Music Theatre debut as Che Guevara in Evita last summer. The actor, who will star as Jack Kelly in the upcoming production of Disney's Newsies that begins performances at Brunswick's Pickard Theater August 9, has had a very busy and artistically stimulating year - 'working back to back shows for most of the time' - appearing as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and in his role debut as Jack Kelly at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA.
Producers today announced full casting for 'IT HAPPENED IN KEY WEST" The Musical Developmental Lab being presented at the Fulton Opera House. It will star WADE MCCOLLUM (Broadway: "Wicked"), the Award-winning star of the Off -Broadway hit 'Ernest Shackleton Loves Me".
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre will present the Pennsylvania Premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical Disney's Newsies, June 6 through July 23. The inspirational Disney's Newsies, based on the real-life Newsboys strike of 1899 and the 1992 film, was the toast of Broadway for more than two years.
Pennsylvania's theatre gem, The Fulton, is currently presenting the Pennsylvania Premiere of the Tony® Award-winning musical, Disney's NEWSIES, June 6 through July 23, 2017.
'We wanted to go big and grand. We knew we had Christine [Mild] with her powerhouse performance and Charis [Leos] so we wanted to play it large and create an environment that would support them. The production concept we came up with turned out to be a wonderful envelope to wrap around the show and the entire staging fell into place.'
Co-director/choreographer Marc Robin was talking about his and Curt Dale Clark's vision for their new staging of Always, Patsy Cline, which opened Maine State Music Theatre's 2017 season on June 7th. Robin was part of a panel that also featured Patsy star Christine Mild and stand-by Heidi Kettenring, MSMT Charge Scenic Artist Sean Cox, and MSMT Board Vice President Kristine Ganong. The discussion on June 14th, moderated by Broadway World Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold was the first in the now four-year-old summer series of free public forums, A Peek Behind the Curtain, held at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. The series, designed to give theatre-goers insight into the creative processes of producing each of the summer main stage shows, featured a lively and far-reaching conversation about Patsy Cline, MSMT's Theatre for Young Audiences program, and the theatre's burgeoning role in the community.
MSMT opens its Theatre for Young Audiences with three performances of Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark's musical retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale, Sleeping Beauty, in a striking visual production, performed with energy, conviction, and style by a company of young actors. The hour-long musical version puts a contemporary spin on the familiar story and subtly raises issues and values which seem remarkably current, despite the fact that the show was written more than twenty years ago.
About half way through the musical, Always, Patsy Cline, Louise says of the legendary singer, 'She blew the roof off that old honky tonk!' And much the same could be said for the electric atmosphere at the Brunswick's Pickard Theater, where MSMT opened its 59th season with a dazzling production of the musical that includes twenty-seven songs made famous by the singer, who remains to this day - fifty-four years after her untimely death - a towering presence in the world of country and pop music.
With true betes de scene, Christine Mild as Patsy and Charis Leos as Louise, accompanied by a virtuoso band, performing an unforgettable songbook, this production delivers not only powerhouse vocal-dramatic values, but also offers the audience a vibrant and poignant journey to another time and place that magically come alive through in the charismatic story of its protagonists. The Ted Swindley musical which focuses on the last six years of Patsy Cline's life and on her friendship with a Texas divorcee and fan, Louise Seger, is so much more than a catalog of songs strung together by a chronological narrative. Indeed, the book is touching well-constructed - funny, sad, warm and human by turns - and the songs are integrated into the story with a seamlessness that lets the play move from reality to memory.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre will present the Pennsylvania Premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical Disney's Newsies, June 6 through July 23. The inspirational Disney's Newsies, based on the real-life Newsboys strike of 1899 and the 1992 film, was the toast of Broadway for more than two years.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre concludes its 2016/2017 Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series season with the emotionally powerful 4000 Days in the Tell Studio Theatre. The Peter Quilter drama runs through June 4.
The nationally regarded Maine State Music Theatre celebrates music legend and cross-over sensation Patsy Cline, June 7 - 24. The touching true story, Always… Patsy Cline combines humor, heartache and 27 of Patsy's most unforgettable hits, such as "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "Sweet Dreams," and more.
"It Happened in Key West," the new musical by 'A Tale of Two Cities' writer Jill Santoriello, Jason Huza (Book, and Additional Lyrics), and Jeremiah James (Book & Original Concept), will receive an August developmental lab culminating in 4 public performances at The Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA, Aug. 25th-27th.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre celebrate music legend and cross-over sensation Patsy Cline, April 18 through May 21.
'At the end of last summer I told myself that we were not going to try to top the 2016 season. I was going to think of 2017 as a completely separate and unique adventure, but the end result is that we are already topping our previous metrics in terms of ticket sales.' The speaker, Curt Dale Clark, Maine State Music Theatre's energetic and charismatic Artistic Director, is reflecting on the sold out 2016 season which garnered the company lavish critical and audience acclaim and made an MSMT ticket one of the hottest items in the region.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre adds five performances to the existing run of In The Heights as presales break records. Added performances include Sunday, March 19 at 7:30 pm, Thursday, March 23 at 2:00 pm, Sunday, April 2 at 7:30 pm, Monday, April 3 at 7:30 pm and Tuesday, April 4 at 7:30 pm. In The Heights must close April 4.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre continues its 2016/2017 Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series with the gripping Disgraced in the Tell Studio Theatre. The Ayad Akhtar drama runs through March 12 with #FridayNightConversations after each Friday Night performance.
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