Showing posts with label Scrooge in Rouge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scrooge in Rouge. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
A Zany Christmas Carol In Asbury Park
Two River Times
December 12, 2008
Scene On Stage
A Zany Christmas Carol
In Asbury Park
Check your bah-humbug at the door. . .
By Philip Dorian
And now for something new and different: a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Say what? New and different? There’s one around every corner, isn’t there?
Well, yes, but they’re not like ReVision Theatre’s Scrooge in Rouge, running through December 28 in Asbury Park. And ‘thanks’ are definitely in order for this irreverent and outrageously funny tale of ye olde Scrooge.
What to do when all but three , Lottie Obligato (Linda Marie Larson), Vesta Virile (Katherine Pecevich), and Charlie Schmaltz (Doug Shapiro), to play all 23 roles.
And healthy they are. The three careen through the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future; various Cratchits; numerous Fezziwigs; and assorted other Victorian Londoners. The result is a fast-paced 90 minutes with lively song-and-dance and about a hundred gags that are corny, bawdy or a combination thereof. That nearly all (nobody’s perfect) are laughworthy is a tribute to a performers and to writers Rich Graham (book and lyrics) Jeffery Roberson (additional material) and Yvette Hargis, who is credited with “other interesting bits,” which is the year’s most intriguing credit.
Ms. Pecevich plays Ebeneezer and a couple of other bit parts along the way. She’s as accurate (if offhand) a Scrooge as I’ve seen locally. Out of character, commenting in asides to the audience, she’s a droll delight. (If “walk this way” isn’t among your favorite comic bits, go watch Miracle on 34th Street again.)
Mr. Shapiro’s antic take on Marley’s Ghost is supremely funny, but darned if he doesn’t top himself with his loose-limbed Fezziwig nephew. (His manic cavorting would drive even a kind-hearted uncle away.)
You cannot acquire pinpoint-perfect timing. Like Ms. Larson, you must be born with it. Introducing the show with the wrong author’s name – an excellent joke so obvious I’m surprised I never heard it before – and slipping in and out of a dozen fully realized roles, including a pickle (see it to believe it), she doesn’t miss a beat – of music or comedy.
Musical director Justin Stoney is positioned off to the side with his piano, where he provides faultless accompaniment and an occasional impertinent out-of-the-blue remark, and choreographer Mimi Quillin keeps the flailing arms and legs under control (barely). Costumer Abby Walton deserves co-star status. It’s not just the number – 23 outfits for 23 characters – that impresses. The outlandish styles and even the colors provide a comic context on their own.
The key to staging a deceptively loose show like Scrooge in Rouge lies in balancing control with freedom. Michael Barakiva’s direction is disciplined, but not at the expense of devil-may-care. (His rest-cure is progressing nicely, I hear.)
A song lyric promises “fancy scenery and acting with panache.” Kip marsh’s sets might not be fancy, but you’ll fancy the clever devices that enhance the goings-on. (An upright bed on the back of a door? Why not?) As for panache, “flamboyant confidence of style or manner,” that’s an understatement!
“Scrooge in Rouge” runs through Dec. 28 at the refurbished VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue, Asbury Park. Performance are Thurs-Sat at 8 pm (no performance Dec. 25); Sun. at 7 pm; matinees Sat. Dec 27 at 3 pm and Sun. Dec. 28 at 3 pm. For information and tickets ($25 - $35): 732-455-3059 or online at www.revisiontheatre.org.
December 12, 2008
Scene On Stage
A Zany Christmas Carol
In Asbury Park
Check your bah-humbug at the door. . .
By Philip Dorian
And now for something new and different: a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Say what? New and different? There’s one around every corner, isn’t there?
Well, yes, but they’re not like ReVision Theatre’s Scrooge in Rouge, running through December 28 in Asbury Park. And ‘thanks’ are definitely in order for this irreverent and outrageously funny tale of ye olde Scrooge.
What to do when all but three , Lottie Obligato (Linda Marie Larson), Vesta Virile (Katherine Pecevich), and Charlie Schmaltz (Doug Shapiro), to play all 23 roles.
And healthy they are. The three careen through the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future; various Cratchits; numerous Fezziwigs; and assorted other Victorian Londoners. The result is a fast-paced 90 minutes with lively song-and-dance and about a hundred gags that are corny, bawdy or a combination thereof. That nearly all (nobody’s perfect) are laughworthy is a tribute to a performers and to writers Rich Graham (book and lyrics) Jeffery Roberson (additional material) and Yvette Hargis, who is credited with “other interesting bits,” which is the year’s most intriguing credit.
Ms. Pecevich plays Ebeneezer and a couple of other bit parts along the way. She’s as accurate (if offhand) a Scrooge as I’ve seen locally. Out of character, commenting in asides to the audience, she’s a droll delight. (If “walk this way” isn’t among your favorite comic bits, go watch Miracle on 34th Street again.)
Mr. Shapiro’s antic take on Marley’s Ghost is supremely funny, but darned if he doesn’t top himself with his loose-limbed Fezziwig nephew. (His manic cavorting would drive even a kind-hearted uncle away.)
You cannot acquire pinpoint-perfect timing. Like Ms. Larson, you must be born with it. Introducing the show with the wrong author’s name – an excellent joke so obvious I’m surprised I never heard it before – and slipping in and out of a dozen fully realized roles, including a pickle (see it to believe it), she doesn’t miss a beat – of music or comedy.
Musical director Justin Stoney is positioned off to the side with his piano, where he provides faultless accompaniment and an occasional impertinent out-of-the-blue remark, and choreographer Mimi Quillin keeps the flailing arms and legs under control (barely). Costumer Abby Walton deserves co-star status. It’s not just the number – 23 outfits for 23 characters – that impresses. The outlandish styles and even the colors provide a comic context on their own.
The key to staging a deceptively loose show like Scrooge in Rouge lies in balancing control with freedom. Michael Barakiva’s direction is disciplined, but not at the expense of devil-may-care. (His rest-cure is progressing nicely, I hear.)
A song lyric promises “fancy scenery and acting with panache.” Kip marsh’s sets might not be fancy, but you’ll fancy the clever devices that enhance the goings-on. (An upright bed on the back of a door? Why not?) As for panache, “flamboyant confidence of style or manner,” that’s an understatement!
Doug Shapiro, Linda Marie Larson and Katherine Pecevich as three of the 23 characters they play in Scrooge in Rouge.
“Scrooge in Rouge” runs through Dec. 28 at the refurbished VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue, Asbury Park. Performance are Thurs-Sat at 8 pm (no performance Dec. 25); Sun. at 7 pm; matinees Sat. Dec 27 at 3 pm and Sun. Dec. 28 at 3 pm. For information and tickets ($25 - $35): 732-455-3059 or online at www.revisiontheatre.org.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Scrooge in Rouge in Asbury Park - Star-Ledger
Actor Linda Marie Larson and Actor Katherine Pecevich,who's playing Ebenezer Scrooge under strange circumstances. SCROOGE IN ROUGE is a show where a troupe of British Musical Hall actors intended to put on A CHRISTMAS CAROL -- but then most of the troupe got sick from food poisoning. As a result, this WOMAN, Vesta Virile, must play Scrooge PHOTO BY NOAH K. MURRAY/THE STAR-LEDGER
Scrooge in Rouge in Asbury Park - Star-Ledger
Katherine Pecevich,who's playing Ebenezer Scrooge under strange circumstances. SCROOGE IN ROUGE is a show where a troupe of British Musical Hall actors intended to put on A CHRISTMAS CAROL but then most of the troupe got sick from food poisoning. As a result, this WOMAN, Vesta Virile, must play Scrooge . PHOTO BY NOAH K. MURRAY/THE STAR-LEDGER
Scrooge in Rouge in Asbury Park - Star-Ledger
Actors Doug Shapiro ,Charlie and Katherine Pecevich,who's playing Ebenezer Scrooge under strange circumstances. SCROOGE IN ROUGE is a show where a troupe of British Musical Hall actors intended to put on A CHRSTMAS CAROL -- but then most of the troupe got sick from food poisoning. As a result, this WOMAN, Vesta Virile, must play Scrooge . Asbury Park, NJ 12/2/08 4:15:28 AM NOAH K. MURRAY/THE STAR-LEDGERMonday, November 24, 2008
Press Release: Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ReVision Theatre in Asbury Park Announces
The East Coast Premiere of
Scrooge in Rouge
An English Music Hall Christmas Carol
3 actors play 23 roles in the fast paced, quick change musical
A Holiday Family Comedy
December 4th-28th
Asbury Park, New Jersey – ReVision Theatre kicks off their 2008–2009 inaugural season with the holiday family musical comedy, Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol, is a fast paced, quick change musical version of the Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, set in a Victorian music hall where three actors perform 23 characters. Running December 4th – 28th, ReVision Theatre will present the East Coast Premiere of the show which was created last holiday season in New Orleans. Directed by Michael Barakiva the cast features Linda Marie Larson (Broadway’s Jackie, Deuce, Morning’s at Seven), Katherine Pecevich (National Tour of Annie), and Doug Shapiro. The show is choreographed by Mimi Quillin and music directed by Justin Stoney, who will also be at piano. The creative team includes scenic design by Kip Marsh, costume design by Abby Walton, lighting design by Nick Francone, and sound design by Benjamin Furiga.
The show was created by a company of actors at the cabaret Le Chat Noir, with book and lyrics by Ricky Graham, additional material by Jeffery Roberson (aka Varla Jean Merman), other interesting bits by Yvette Hargis, and original music composed by Jefferson Turner.
A mixture of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Noises Off, Scrooge in Rouge is a Victorian-era music hall version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which 17 members of the Royal Music Hall 20-Member Variety Players have taken ill from the cast party the night before, leaving only Charlie Schmaltz (Shapiro), an animated character actor; Lottie Obligato (Larson), a bubbly, over-the-hill ingénue; and Vesta Virile (Pecevich), a male impersonating diva, to play and sing all the male and female parts in the show. The Gambit Weekly wrote, “Though we tend to associate this type of gender bending with our confused, postmodern world, it actually has a history on the stage that reaches back to music hall entertainment and beyond.”
Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol will preview on Thursday, December 4th and open on Friday, December 5th and run through Sunday, December 28. Performance times are: Thursday at 8:00 pm, Friday & Saturday at 8:00 pm, and Sunday at 7:00 pm. Scrooge in Rouge will be performed at the VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue, in Asbury Park. ReVision Theatre will be transforming this 100 year old building into a 350 seat theatre. Single adult tickets, priced $35 and $25, and half price tickets for children under 12 are now on sale. Call the ReVision Theatre box office at 732-455-3059 or go on line at www.ReVisionTheatre.org for tickets and information.
ReVision Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)3 professional regional theatre company dedicated to producing invigorating theatre with a fresh new perspective reaching the diverse community of Asbury Park and Monmouth County. ReVision Theatre produces reinventions of previously produced classics, overlooked or forgotten work in a new way, and new work with a fresh voice. The company serves as a home for local artists and writers. ReVision Theatre also believes in the importance of theatre education and teaches children and adult theatre classes. ReVision Theatre produces readings, workshops, cabarets, concerts, and mainstage productions. ReVision Theatre’s 2008-2009 Season includes the new hip hop musical, Kingdom (April 16-May 3), a one night only benefit performance of Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (July 11), and the blockbuster musical, The Full Monty (August 12-September 6).
Visit www.RevisionTheatre.org or call 732-455-3059 for show calendars and more information.
Fast Facts:
Who: ReVision Theatre
David E. Leidholdt, Thomas Morrissey, and Stephen Bishop Seely
Producing Artistic Directors
PO BOX 973, Asbury Park, New Jersey 07712
What: Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol
East Coast Premiere
December 4th – 28th, 2008
Book & Lyrics by Ricky Graham
Additional Material by Jeffery Roberson
Other Interesting Bits by Yvette Hargis
Music by Jefferson Turner
Directed by Michael Barakiva
Choreographed by Mimi Quillin
Music Directed by Justin Stoney
Scenic Design by Kip Marsh
Lighting Design by Nick Francone
Sound Design by Benjamin Furiga
Costume Design by Abby Walton
Cast includes Lisa Marie Larson (Lottie), Katherine Pecevich (Vesta), &
Doug Shapiro (Charlie)
When: December 4th – 28th
Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays at 8:00 pm
Sundays at 7:00 pm
(No show on Christmas Day)
Friday, December 26th at 8:00 pm
Saturday, December 27th at 3:00 pm & 8:00 pm
Sunday, December 28th at 3:00 pm
Where: VFW Hall
701 Lake Avenue
Asbury Park, New Jersey 07712
Entrance on Bond Street between Lake and Cookman Avenues
How: Buy tickets online at www.ReVisionTheatre.org
Or call 732-455-3059.
Adults $35.00 & $25.00
Children under 12 $17.50 & $12.50
Limited seating is available.
Friday, November 7, 2008
ReVision Theatre Announces 2008-2009 Season
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Asbury Park, New Jersey – After a successful run of Hair at the Carousel House, ReVision Theatre announces their 2008-2009 Premiere Season.
The 2008 – 2009 inaugural season begins with the east coast premiere of the family musical comedy, Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol (written by Ricky Graham, Jeffery Roberson, Yvette Hargis, and Jefferson Turner). Set in a British Music Hall in the 1800s, three actors perform 23 characters in the musical version of the Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. A mixture of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Noises Off, this fast paced comedy will be performed at VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue, on December 4th through December 28th in Asbury Park. The show will be directed by Michael Barakiva, choreographed by Mimi Quillin, and music directed by Justin Stoney. The cast includes Linda Marie Larson (Broadway’s Jackie, Deuce, Morning’s at Seven), Katherin Pecevich (National Tour of Annie), and Doug Shapiro.
A controversial new musical, Kingdom, is scheduled for ReVision Theatre’s Spring slot. The music is by Ian Williams and the book and lyrics are by Aaron Jaferis. This hip hop style musical is inspired by the true stories of current and former gang members of the Latin Kings. The show chronicles the journey of two kids from the barrio in a quest to belong and the power struggle that tears the two friends apart. The show will be performed April 16th through May 3rd at the VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue in Asbury Park.
The Second Annual ReVision Theatre Benefit Concert is set for Saturday, July 11, 2009. This season, the one night only performance will star Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. Steven Brinberg, the premiere Barbra Streisand impressionist, will star in the lead role of Fanny Brice. This will be the first time in history that a man will play the female lead. This special performance will be directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher and music directed by John Fischer.
The Full Monty will be the finale to ReVision Theatre’s season with performances August 12th through September 6that the Carousel on the Boardwalk, 700 Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park. The story of unemployed steel workers frustrated with life, women, and work decide that regardless of looks or ability they are going to be the best male strippers anyone has ever seen! In the process they find renewed self-esteem, the importance of friendship and the ability to have fun.
Single tickets and season subscriptions are available online at www.ReVisionTheatre.org or by phone 732-455-3059.
ReVision Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)3 professional regional theatre company dedicated to producing invigorating theatre with a fresh new perspective reaching the diverse community of Asbury Park and Monmouth County. ReVision Theatre produces reinventions of previously produced classics, overlooked or forgotten work in a new way, and new work with a fresh voice. The company serves as a home for local artists and writers. ReVision Theatre also believes in the importance of theatre education and teaches children and adult theatre classes. ReVision Theatre produces readings, workshops, cabarets, concerts, and mainstage productions.
Visit www.RevisionTheatre.org or call 732-455-3059 for show calendars and more information.
ReVision Theatre in Asbury Park Announces
2008-2009 Premiere Season
4 MUSICALS --2 BRAND NEW AND 2 REVISIONED
A Christmas Family Musical Comedy, Scrooge in Rouge
Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl
4 MUSICALS --2 BRAND NEW AND 2 REVISIONED
A Christmas Family Musical Comedy, Scrooge in Rouge
Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl
Asbury Park, New Jersey – After a successful run of Hair at the Carousel House, ReVision Theatre announces their 2008-2009 Premiere Season.
The 2008 – 2009 inaugural season begins with the east coast premiere of the family musical comedy, Scrooge in Rouge, an English Music Hall Christmas Carol (written by Ricky Graham, Jeffery Roberson, Yvette Hargis, and Jefferson Turner). Set in a British Music Hall in the 1800s, three actors perform 23 characters in the musical version of the Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. A mixture of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Noises Off, this fast paced comedy will be performed at VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue, on December 4th through December 28th in Asbury Park. The show will be directed by Michael Barakiva, choreographed by Mimi Quillin, and music directed by Justin Stoney. The cast includes Linda Marie Larson (Broadway’s Jackie, Deuce, Morning’s at Seven), Katherin Pecevich (National Tour of Annie), and Doug Shapiro.
A controversial new musical, Kingdom, is scheduled for ReVision Theatre’s Spring slot. The music is by Ian Williams and the book and lyrics are by Aaron Jaferis. This hip hop style musical is inspired by the true stories of current and former gang members of the Latin Kings. The show chronicles the journey of two kids from the barrio in a quest to belong and the power struggle that tears the two friends apart. The show will be performed April 16th through May 3rd at the VFW Hall, 701 Lake Avenue in Asbury Park.
The Second Annual ReVision Theatre Benefit Concert is set for Saturday, July 11, 2009. This season, the one night only performance will star Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. Steven Brinberg, the premiere Barbra Streisand impressionist, will star in the lead role of Fanny Brice. This will be the first time in history that a man will play the female lead. This special performance will be directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher and music directed by John Fischer.
The Full Monty will be the finale to ReVision Theatre’s season with performances August 12th through September 6that the Carousel on the Boardwalk, 700 Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park. The story of unemployed steel workers frustrated with life, women, and work decide that regardless of looks or ability they are going to be the best male strippers anyone has ever seen! In the process they find renewed self-esteem, the importance of friendship and the ability to have fun.
Single tickets and season subscriptions are available online at www.ReVisionTheatre.org or by phone 732-455-3059.
ReVision Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)3 professional regional theatre company dedicated to producing invigorating theatre with a fresh new perspective reaching the diverse community of Asbury Park and Monmouth County. ReVision Theatre produces reinventions of previously produced classics, overlooked or forgotten work in a new way, and new work with a fresh voice. The company serves as a home for local artists and writers. ReVision Theatre also believes in the importance of theatre education and teaches children and adult theatre classes. ReVision Theatre produces readings, workshops, cabarets, concerts, and mainstage productions.
Visit www.RevisionTheatre.org or call 732-455-3059 for show calendars and more information.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
ReVISIONIST HISTORY IN THE MAKING
by Tom Chesek
Red Bank Orbit
Steven Brinberg brings his uncanny and un-campy Streisand characterization back to Asbury Park, when ReVision Theatre Company presents a special performance of FUNNY GIRL.
Red Bank has the Two River Theater Company and its gleaming, glass-facade showplace of a home stage. Long Branch boasts the New Jersey Repertory Company, which works some pretty potent magic in its converted downtown storefront while they preparing for an eventual move to new custom-made digs.
There’s a third professional stage company headquartered in this neck of Monmouth County, and if you haven’t quite processed the name ReVision Theatre Company, don’t sweat it. The based-in-Asbury Park troupe is still really getting itself established, having set up shop in Asbury’s historic VFW building with a busy slate of classes, workshops and readings.
And when we say it’s “based in Asbury,” we do mean that its members use the whole city as their canvas; inhabiting historic halls, rejuvenated business buildings and long-vacant boardwalk structures like a bunch of wondrous hermit crabs.
These are the guys, after all, who famously teamed with boardwalk developers Madison Marquette to convert the amazing Carousel building into a viable venue for live performance — something it had never managed to be in its long history — when they mounted their smash revival of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical last summer. And to think they almost considered moving to Paducah.
An actual season’s worth of entertainments was always on the drawing board for ReVision’s triad of Producing Artistic Directors (Thomas Morrissey, David Leidholdt and Stephen Bishop Seely; all veterans of Manhattan’s Genesius Theatre), and this past Saturday night, the partners and board president Bob Angelini convened a special season announcement party at Mattison Park Restaurant, itself a re-visioned bank building. Red Bank oRBit, as you probably figured, was on the scene, working the room and knocking back rootbeer martinis.
The cast of ReVision Theatre’s HAIR posed with the groundbreaking show’s co-creator James Rado, when he took in one of their sold-out performances last August.
Cast members of Hair were on hand, performing numbers from the 1967 show as well as from a couple of the new projects announced onstage by the producing partners. As Liedholdt, Morrissey and Seely revealed to the packed house, the ReVision company’s inaugural season begins in earnest on December 4, with the East Coast premiere of Scrooge in Rouge, a “British music hall Christmas Carol” that puts a manic spin on the well-roasted holiday chestnut.
In the comic piece conceived and adapted by book writer and lyricist Ricky Graham, a circa-1900 theatrical troupe is in the midst of preparations for their Christmas Carol show when seventeen of the twenty actors take ill — leaving three intrepid players to perform 23 Dickensian characters in what can only be described as a tour de farce. Presented at Asbury’s VFW Post 1333 on Lake Avenue and Bond Street, the show offers sixteen performances through December 28.
ReVision returns in 2009 with Kingdom, a “Hip Hop musical” study of two friends from the barrio whose need to belong — in this case, to the Nation of the Latin Kings — tears them apart. Featuring a score by Aaron Jafferis and Ian Williams, the show runs from April 16 to May 3 at the VFW building.
Last summer, the ReVision crew presented a one-shot fundraiser event at the historic Paramount Theatre; a revival of Hello Dolly! starring Carol Channing tribute artist Richard Skipper in the role made famous by Channing herself. “In the spirit of Dolly,” ReVision takes over the Paramount once again on July 11 for a benefit performance of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical Funny Girl. Steven Brinberg, an actor-vocalist whose celebrated portrayal of Barbra Streisand has won him raves throughout the cabaret circuit (including Tim McLoone’s Supper Club) channels Babs as Fanny Brice in the show that made her a star.
Still coming together as we post this, ReVision’s summer-show production of The Full Monty comes to a location that’s yet to be determined, on the confirmed dates of August 12 through September 6. Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally wrote the book to David Yazbek’s musicalization of the hit British film, in which a group of unemployed steelworkers find a new sense of purpose as male strippers. Doing this show in the round at the Carousel would make it the Full Monty and then some.
Info on single-ticket prices and subscription plans can be found right here. Watch Red Bank oRBit for updates; and we’ll let David Leidholdt have the last word.
“We have three specific challenges,” says the veteran director. “To find pieces that represent us, to develop shows that are able to be produced anywhere — and to get people off the beach and into the theatre!”
Red Bank Orbit
Red Bank has the Two River Theater Company and its gleaming, glass-facade showplace of a home stage. Long Branch boasts the New Jersey Repertory Company, which works some pretty potent magic in its converted downtown storefront while they preparing for an eventual move to new custom-made digs.
There’s a third professional stage company headquartered in this neck of Monmouth County, and if you haven’t quite processed the name ReVision Theatre Company, don’t sweat it. The based-in-Asbury Park troupe is still really getting itself established, having set up shop in Asbury’s historic VFW building with a busy slate of classes, workshops and readings.
And when we say it’s “based in Asbury,” we do mean that its members use the whole city as their canvas; inhabiting historic halls, rejuvenated business buildings and long-vacant boardwalk structures like a bunch of wondrous hermit crabs.
These are the guys, after all, who famously teamed with boardwalk developers Madison Marquette to convert the amazing Carousel building into a viable venue for live performance — something it had never managed to be in its long history — when they mounted their smash revival of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical last summer. And to think they almost considered moving to Paducah.
An actual season’s worth of entertainments was always on the drawing board for ReVision’s triad of Producing Artistic Directors (Thomas Morrissey, David Leidholdt and Stephen Bishop Seely; all veterans of Manhattan’s Genesius Theatre), and this past Saturday night, the partners and board president Bob Angelini convened a special season announcement party at Mattison Park Restaurant, itself a re-visioned bank building. Red Bank oRBit, as you probably figured, was on the scene, working the room and knocking back rootbeer martinis.
Cast members of Hair were on hand, performing numbers from the 1967 show as well as from a couple of the new projects announced onstage by the producing partners. As Liedholdt, Morrissey and Seely revealed to the packed house, the ReVision company’s inaugural season begins in earnest on December 4, with the East Coast premiere of Scrooge in Rouge, a “British music hall Christmas Carol” that puts a manic spin on the well-roasted holiday chestnut.
In the comic piece conceived and adapted by book writer and lyricist Ricky Graham, a circa-1900 theatrical troupe is in the midst of preparations for their Christmas Carol show when seventeen of the twenty actors take ill — leaving three intrepid players to perform 23 Dickensian characters in what can only be described as a tour de farce. Presented at Asbury’s VFW Post 1333 on Lake Avenue and Bond Street, the show offers sixteen performances through December 28.
ReVision returns in 2009 with Kingdom, a “Hip Hop musical” study of two friends from the barrio whose need to belong — in this case, to the Nation of the Latin Kings — tears them apart. Featuring a score by Aaron Jafferis and Ian Williams, the show runs from April 16 to May 3 at the VFW building.
Last summer, the ReVision crew presented a one-shot fundraiser event at the historic Paramount Theatre; a revival of Hello Dolly! starring Carol Channing tribute artist Richard Skipper in the role made famous by Channing herself. “In the spirit of Dolly,” ReVision takes over the Paramount once again on July 11 for a benefit performance of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical Funny Girl. Steven Brinberg, an actor-vocalist whose celebrated portrayal of Barbra Streisand has won him raves throughout the cabaret circuit (including Tim McLoone’s Supper Club) channels Babs as Fanny Brice in the show that made her a star.
Still coming together as we post this, ReVision’s summer-show production of The Full Monty comes to a location that’s yet to be determined, on the confirmed dates of August 12 through September 6. Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally wrote the book to David Yazbek’s musicalization of the hit British film, in which a group of unemployed steelworkers find a new sense of purpose as male strippers. Doing this show in the round at the Carousel would make it the Full Monty and then some.
Info on single-ticket prices and subscription plans can be found right here. Watch Red Bank oRBit for updates; and we’ll let David Leidholdt have the last word.
“We have three specific challenges,” says the veteran director. “To find pieces that represent us, to develop shows that are able to be produced anywhere — and to get people off the beach and into the theatre!”
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