Voilà!
August 22nd 2004 (The Herald Press by Josh Mrozinski)
Goodspeed Musicals to hit the road with Andrews directing
EAST HADDAM -- Goodspeed Musicals is taking a road not yet traveled in 2005 by initiating a national tour of "The Boy Friend" under the direction of Oscar and Emmy Award-winner Julie Andrews.
The tour, which begins in Wilmington, Del. in fall of 2005, will be directed at the Goodspeed Opera House from July 15 to Sept. 24, 2005.
"Who can imagine a better way for Goodspeed to launch its first national tour than with Julie Andrews directing ‘The Boy Friend?’" Michael P. Price, Goodspeed Musicals executive director, asked in a press release from the theater. "We plan to do this every year in an effort to bring the ‘Goodspeed Experience’ to cities across the country."
Bob Alwine, director of touring and line producer, said the national tour was something Price had always wanted to do. He said Price always wanted to promote the theater’s shows to a national audience.
And, although there is revenue potential, Alwine said, there is also brand name recognition.
He said a lot of people know about the theater, but haven’t seen a show.
"There is a brand name to Goodspeed," Alwine, who was hired in 2002, said.
Alwine previously worked at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, Calif., and the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minn.
He said the theater feels there is a national audience for "The Boy Friend", because it is family oriented and enjoyable.
"What Goodspeed does is rediscover musicals that merit to be played again and we feel that there is a national audience for that type of musical," Alwine said.
The show would be produced at the theater with theater cast, the set would be made larger to fit larger theaters and then there would be rehearsals and a technical phase, Alwine said.
The locations for the tour were chosen in cooperation with a booking agency, he said, to give the theater exposure to the Midwest and northeastern areas. Also, the cities chosen are close enough to go from one city to the next in a short time
"We chose these cities because we would like to work with them in the future," Alwine said.
The tour will also go to Boston, Chicago, Greenville, S.C., Hershey, Pa., East Lansing, Mich., Green Bay, Wis. and St. Paul, Minn.
Andrews performed in the 1954 Broadway debut of "The Boy Friend," which is about an English heiress who falls in love with the delivery boy. The musical is a jazzy spoof of 1920s musical comedies.
She also performed in "My Fair Lady," "Camelot," "Victor/Victoria," "The Sound of Music," and "Mary Poppins." In 1973, Andrews won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Musical Series in her television show "The Julie Andrews Hour."
Her directing career began in August 2003 at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, N.Y. when she created her own version of "The Boy Friend."
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