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| What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| When did it end? How did it work. The shows played a week at each theater I think. Any info appreciated. |
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| thanks for the answers | |
| Posted by: bobby2 11:49 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| I grew up near the Pocono Playhouse. It was just an amateur type theater in recent years (all one of those amateurs grew up to be Audra McDonald. She did Evita and I think Aldonza.) anyway reading the history of it makes me feel like I was born to late. Helen Hayes, Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, and on and on all appeared there. Right in my own backyard practically. It must have been glorious. |
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| Straw Hat Auditions | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 07:24 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| This reminds me of going to Straw Hat auditions back in the early 90s. You'd stand on a stage and audition for like 40 to 50 summer theaters all at once. Do they still do this? I ended up working two summers at the Forestburgh Playhouse from this. A young unknown Jason Danieley played Che in EVITA and Perchick in FIDDLER while I was there. Also Neva Small who played one of the daughters in the movie of FIDDLER played Golde in the Forestburgh production. The Forestburgh Playhouse still exists today. Douglas Carter Beane is directing a production of BABES IN ARMS there. | |
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| re: Straw Hat Auditions | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 08:27 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 08:26 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: Straw Hat Auditions - KingSpeed 07:24 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| This reminds me of going to Straw Hat auditions back in the early 90s. You'd stand on a stage and audition for like 40 to 50 summer theaters all at once. Do they still do this? Yes. The producer of the StrawHat auditions these days is Broadway's own Kirsti Carnahan. There are a number of other major regional/unified audition organizations as well. |
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| Wow! | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 01:10 am EDT 08/15/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Straw Hat Auditions - Chromolume 08:26 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| That is a blast from the past. I was in a production of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA in 1996 in which Kirsti played Amy. She was wonderful! Good times. | |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: shaggyhair 05:19 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| In my distant youth, seeing shows in the round under the tent at the Storrowtown Music Fair in West Springfield, MA: Barbara Eden and Theodore Bikel in The Sound of Music, The Cowsills in concert, The Hudson Brothers in Godspell, Carol Channing in Lorelei, Ann Blyth and Butterfly McQueen in Show Boat and Angela Lansbury in Gypsy (I'm probably forgetting some...). | |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: crewbway 02:36 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| When we were young, my parents would take us each summer to see a show at the Melody Tent in Hyannis....I remember seeing Man of LaMancha there. I think my parents saw Mame there. We weren't allowed to see Hair when it was there because of the nudity (we were too young) but my older sister got to go. They don't do shows there anymore...just concerts. I still go to Ogunquit and Cape Playhouse.....it's a fun way to spend a summer afternoon or evening. |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: JohnDunlop 02:43 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - crewbway 02:36 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| Carousel Tent Theater in Framingham, Massachusetts Gertrude Berg in A Majority of One Anthony Perkins in Damn Yankees Ethel Merman in her nightclub act Ella Fitzgerald in concert |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: Guillaume 01:51 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| Here's a wonderful article about it from the NY Times archives. I saw the production of Gypsy Angela Lansbury describes in the 70s in a theatre tent in Massachusetts. | |
| Link | straw hat anecdotes |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: tandelor 03:03 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - Guillaume 01:51 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| Saw that same production of Gypsy with Angela Lansbury at Melody Fair just outside of Buffalo, along with Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof, Rock Hudson in Camelot, Giselle Mckensie in The Sound of Music, Ted Neeley in The Who's Tommy and dozens more. At first was really just a round circus like tent, later replaced by a brick and mortar building. How lucky we were to be able to see these stars in live theater and at such affordable prices. | |
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| re: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 01:47 pm EDT 08/14/21 | |
| In reply to: What was the Strawhat Theater circuit like? - bobby2 01:00 am EDT 08/14/21 | |
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| Thanks for the question since it encouraged me to read the Wikipedia entry on summer stock theatre. Looks like the Elitch Theater in Denver CO is where it kicked off in 1890. I was lucky enough to be part of a family that vacationed in Maine every summer so I was taken to the Ogunquit Playhouse from the age of 10. There was a season of about ten plays and musicals: the plays would usually run a week and the musicals would run two weeks. In the 1970's pretty much every show had a star in it, sometimes a veteran theatre or opera star but more often a TV name. I got to see John Raitt in both Shenandoah and Carousel (at 65!), Patrice Munsel in Mame, Paul Lipson in Fiddler, James MacArthur and Cybill Shepherd in Lunch Hour, David McCallum and Carole Shelley in Donkey's Years and Shaun Cassidy, Betsy Palmer and John McMartin in The Subject Was Roses (during the years 1976-82). By the late '80s there were fewer names above the title. Sugar Babies featured Rudy Tronto and Susan Elizabeth Scott, both accomplished performers but hardly the same wattage as Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney. Ogunquit has been successful in maintaining (and even improving) its reputation presenting only musicals for many years now and casting working New York actors with many Broadway credits, with an occasional star name thrown in. (Sally Struthers makes an annual appearance most seasons, this year as Frau Blucher- cue the horse- in Young Frankenstein.) I know that on some of the circuits in the past, only the star would tour and in each city he or she would be joined by a different supporting cast, who would serve that function for all the plays in the season. There is a great, chatty memoir I found at Larry McMurtry's book store in Archer City TX written by a woman who opened a barn theatre in Connecticut in the 1950's and it's full of great anecdotes about the epic effort to get the first season up. I do remember one of those star shows was Springtime for Henry, which Edward Everett Horton toured in for years. There is a similar circuit in Canada called Drayton Entertainment, which operates seven or eight summer theatres- many barn like in appearance- throughout Southern Ontario. They are cast with many of the best musical performers in Canada and occasionally a star from the USA will drop in: recently Cindy Williams played Mrs. Meers in Millie and George Wendt was Willy Loman in Salesman and Don Most was one of the trio in Art. |
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