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August 5, 6,
& 7, 2010 - Adult Musical Production, "Annie Get Your Gun" FCHS 7:30 PM (tickets $15/10) *In Production* "Annie
Get Your Gun" is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister
Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), who was a sharpshooter from
Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.[1] The 1946 Broadway
production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals (including
a scaled down production at the Young Vic in October 09), a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits
include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a
Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do." ~~~
November 4, 5, & 6, 2010 - Comedy - "Arsenic and Old Lace" Worthington Civic Center, 7:30 PM (tickets $10/8) In 1941, New Yorkers were looking for some entertainment to take their minds off
of the war in Europe and the growing fear that America would be pulled into it. On January 10, Broadway gave them exactly
what they were looking for in the form of a hilarious new play by Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace. The play became
an immediate critical and popular success, running for 1,444 performances. It also became a hit in England in 1942 as theatergoers
who were suffering through post-blitz London lined up for tickets. In 1944, Hollywood produced a film version staring Cary
Grant that became a huge box office success. The play, a clever
combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood
for their numerous acts of charity. Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their
home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is
Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells ‘‘charge’’ as he bounds up the stairs.
Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having
just escaped from a mental institution. In his adroit mixture of comedy and mayhem, Kesselring satirizes the charitable impulse
as he pokes fun at the conventions of the theater. |
