Showtunes! Presents Coward's 'Sail Away'

Showtunes! Theatre Company wraps up its successful 2007-2008 season with a production of the rarely staged Noël Coward musical comedy Sail Away. The Showtunes! book-in-hand, concert staging plays two performances only at the Kirkland Performance Center (350 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland, WA): Saturday May 3, 2008 at 8 PM and Sunday May 4, 2008 at 2 PM.

Veteran director/choreographer Jim Hutchison directs and stages the production, with music direction by Scott Warrender. The cast of Sail Away is headed by popular Seattle favorite Bobbi Kotula in the key role of Mimi Paragon, a part that was written for and originated by one of Coward's favorite performers, the caustic Elaine Stritch. Matt Owen, recently seen as the older Patrick in 5th Avenue Theatre's Mame, portrays Mimi's love interest Johnny Van Mier. The supporting cast includes Timothy Glynn, Darla Cardwell, Mary Jo Du Gaw, Laura Kenny, Anthony Curry, Laurie Bialik, Peter McDonnell, David-Edward Hughes, Patricia Britton, Marcus Wolland, Kyle Fitzgerald, Nancy Martin Hughes, Spencer Fairbanks, Nichole Elise, Jacob Mahoney, Moriel Behar, Rudy Behar, Joshua Pehrson and Gabriel Pehrson.

Sail Away, with book, music and lyrics by the late, great Mr. Coward, wasn't a big hit on Broadway when it opened in 1961, running a scant 167 performances. However, the show eventually encountered a better reception in London in 1962, where it ran for 252 performances. In 1999, Elaine Stritch recreated the role of Mimi at Carnegie Hall in a week's worth of in-concert performances linked to the Coward centenary.

A bona-fide star vehicle with a slew of fun character parts to boot, the original Coward book centers on divorcee cruise director Mimi Paragaon who attends to a typically oddball assortment of passengers while delicately balancing a shipboard romance with a dashing, younger passenger, Johnny Van Mier. The Coward score includes two songs which outlived the score, the wistful title song and the hilarious eleven o' clock number "Why Do The Wrong People Travel?" as well as such other Coward charmers as "Later Than Spring," "Useless Useful Phrases," and "Something Very Strange."

Tickets for Sail Away are $24 general admission, $20 for seniors and $15 for students. For show tickets and group sales visit the Kirkland Performance Center on-line at www.kpcenter.org or call 425-893-9900. To learn more about Showtunes! Theatre Company visit us online at www.showtunestheatre.org. 

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