Footlight Players to celebrate the Tonys
Coshocton Footlight Players under the direction of Sheila Mayse presents Celebrating the Tonys a Musical Showcase Feb. 4-6, at the Triple Lock Theater. Friday and Saturday’s showtime is 7:30 p.m. and Sunday’s is 2:30 p.m.
“The production is essentially a musical review highlighting Tony Award winning musicals that were also award winning productions,” Mayse said. “This years theme is a celebration of the Tonys, staging and showing the songs in a little different way. We are giving history about the shows, also reimagining the shows. So many of us who love musical theater we have found ways of incorporating musical theater in our lives in a variety of ways. The first half is dedicated to various forms of love not only how the composers and writers interpret love but different kinds of love and how we incorporate those songs and ideas into our lives in different ways. For example a song that I’ll be singing is called ‘There is a Castle on a Cloud,’ from the show Les Miserables and while it is a song from the show, I use it as a lullaby for my children.”
In the second act they will be highlighting the way that Broadway mirrors what’s happening in real life.
“Often times people think of musical theater as being a lot of fluff while in reality the songs we’re performing, for example a song from ‘Come From Away,’ really deals with a terrorist action,” Mayse said. “We have a song from ‘Titanic’ where we are dealing with these hard topics but we find images of hope and salvation in some cases. These shows are considered fluff because it’s a musical but musical theater really is about the theater of life and they do touch on all kinds of areas. It’s not meant to be dark, we’ve picked some of the most uplifting songs. In the first act most of the songs are about love but the second act deals with hope. In not every song but the majority, the theme has some type of hope running through it.”
They are offering a little bit of history in the show but it has all kinds of themes, one being war, yet there are these beautiful songs mixed in that can be used in so many ways in daily lives.
“Another song we are highlighting, ‘What I did for Love’ from a chorus line shows that in particular because the young girl who is singing was first introduced to musical theater by her father,” Mayse said. “That was a show he told her about and they talked about. It was one of the first times she was introduced to theater, how she developed a love of theater and now she has been involved in theater since she was very small . We’re incorporating some personal information about why the songs are important to us or how we found ways of working them into our lives and also how they originated. The staging will be different but we hope it provides a lot of entertainment for the audience and we are really glad to be back in the theater.”
Mayse said they are hoping people will come and enjoy the show and experience being in the theater.
“We think this show will be interesting to folks because we’re offering traditional elements but also updated elements,” she said. “Were doing songs like ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ from Hamilton to the most contemporary shows. Also songs from the ‘King and I,’ ‘Chicago’ and more traditional shows. We’re trying to do a nice blend of some of the songs the audience will be familiar with to some not as familiar but still just as impactful in these Tony award winning shows. I think it will be fun. We’re doing some different things with a little more staging this year, because we want to welcome people back to the theater where they will feel like they are getting a more theatrical experience. Its a nice way of easing back into the theater. We encourage everyone to wear a mask. We want to keep everyone as safe as possible so that we can continue to enjoy a theater season.”
Membership and tickets are available online at https://www.footlightplayers.com.
Category: Arts & Entertainment
