Entertainment
Town players of New Canaan’s summer show is Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt’s musical "The Fantasticks"
By Press Release
Jul 15, 2008 - 6:38:33 AM

Director Michael Day joyfully invites everyone to "come play in my backyard" and see "The Fantasticks!"

With producers Lynne Bolton and Sheri Dean at the helm, rehearsals at the Powerhouse are progressing well for the Friday, July 25th opening night of Town Players’ summer show, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s musical "The Fantasticks." Director Michael Day and musical director Stan Wietrzychowski are working with their talented singer/actor cast to make the show's complicated music and intricate choreography sound and look like simplicity personified.

Performances at the air conditioned, handicapped accessible Powerhouse in Waveny Park will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 25, 26, August 1, 2, 8 & 9 at 8PM and on Sundays, July 27 and August 3 at 2:30 PM. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors (age 62 and older). Before each performance the Town Players will accept donations for the Food Bank of New Canaan, which serves over 100 people each week. The audiences' contributions will be delivered to the Food Bank on the Monday morning following each weekend’s performances. To reserve seats, please call the Town Players box office at (203) 966-7371 or visit www.tpnc.org.

"The Fantasticks" Cast Shot

Originally produced Off-Broadway, "The Fantasticks" is the world's longest-running musical, having run for 42 years and 17,162 performances at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. It is only the fifth play which the Town Players have presented for a second time in their sixty-one year history of providing community theatre to New Canaan. At the heart of its breathtaking poetry and subtle theatrical sophistication is a light romantic musical fable. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl—a simple tale of youthful illusions and romanticism moving into a season of maturity and reality. Filled with fifteen musical numbers including "Try To Remember," "Soon It's Gonna Rain," "Plant A Radish," and "Round & Round," it tells the story of two fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love because children always do what their parents forbid.

Michael Day, who has appeared with the Town Players as the father in "Proof" and as Reverend Morell, Candida's husband, in "Candida," began his Broadway career as the dance captain in "A Chorus Line," has toured with dance companies across the United States and overseas, and is an accomplished director. Mr. Wietryzchowski has created over 25 original musicals, written more than a decade of scores for The Downtown Cabaret Theatre of Bridgeport, and is Professor of Voice at the Hartt School of Music.

Liz Sharpe and Matthew Lai will play the young lovers Luisa and Matt in the Town Players of New Canaan's production of Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt's longest running musical in theatre history, "The Fantasticks."

Liz Sharpe and Matt Lai will play the young lovers Luisa and Matt. Both were very active in theatre during their high school days and have continued on at college. Mr. Lai played the title role of "Pippin" at New Canaan High School and also at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer, while previously he appeared in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Noises Off," "Guys and Dolls" and "Pygmalion" at the high school and in "The Sound of Music" and "Cinderella" with the Summer Theater of New Canaan. A graduate of New Canaan Country School, Ms. Sharpe appeared in "Little Shop of Horrors," "Pippin," and "Our Town" while a student at Rye Country Day School. She continued on as a Theatre and Dance major at Trinity College, from which she graduated this spring, and had roles in "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," "Lysistrata," and "Cloud 9" while Mr. Lai, soon to be a sophomore at Georgetown University, appeared in "Cabaret" as a freshman.

George Baker, who will play Bellomy, Luisa's father, has appeared with the Town Players as Eldwood P. Dowd in "Harvey" and in "Next Station to Heaven II," and also roles with the Sterling Barn Theatre and the Westport Community Theatre. For the past fifteen years he has written for and appeared in New Canaan's annual Gridiron Club Show and in February, March and April of this year, he appeared with Regina Todd for Sunday afternoon concerts at the New Canaan Library, featuring songs of Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, and Duke Ellington. Beginning this spring he has portrayed the character of President John Adams in his one-man show performed more than 25 times throughout New England.

Don Martocchio played the role of Matt at the Charles Playhouse in Boston and now thirty years hence, a little wiser and more experienced, will portray El Gallo. While at Harvard, Mr. Martochhio also had leading roles in "Dames at Sea," "Cabaret," "Company" and "Candide," and before moving to New Canaan sang with the Blue Hill Troupe in New York City. More recently, he has performed his one-man shows, "Life Is A Cabaret," Midlife Crisis Cabaret," and "Give Me A Voice" at the Regency Hotel and the Metropolitan Room in New York, as well as the Inn at Longshore in Westport, CT.

Appearing as Hucklebee, Matt's father, will be Bill McGaughey. Over the past ten years he has performed regularly with the Connecticut Choraliers in over twenty cabaret/revue style productions doing a variety of musical theatre, jazz, pop and standards. Most recently he has had roles in “The Music Man” at Curtain Call and in "Yeoman of the Guard" with the Troupers Light Opera Company. Mr. McGaughey traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe with the Collegiate Singers, a professional performance ensemble that shared the stage with such notables as Bob Hope and Dinah Shore.

In the role of The Mute, who never speaks but is always present propelling the play's action forward, will be Terry Le Bel. She appeared this year with the Troupers Light Opera in Gilbert & Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard" and since 2000 has performed in two musicals reviews per year with the Connecticut Choraliers Show Chorus. Ms. Le Bel has produced two musical reviews for the Connecticut Nurses Association, "Celebrating the Decades" and "Nursing, Yesterday and Today."

P. J. Morello of Old Greenwich, who plays, Henry, the old actor, Stan Wietrzychowski of Shelton, the show's music director, and Ed Donahue of Bridgeport, who plays Mortimer, the man who dies. On the ladder are Don Martocchio of New Canaan, who will portray El Gallo and Terry LeBel of Shelton who will appear as The Mute.

P.J. Morello and Ed Donahue will play, respectively, Henry, the old actor and Mortimer, his sidekick. "The Fantasticks" marks Mr. Morello's comeback from a hiatus of nearly fifteen years from the stage while he raised his boys and after his wife gave him the gentle encouragement, "Get out of the house and DO something. Will you?" Prior to this he had performed on virtually every stage in Fairfield County during his twenty years of community theatre, which also included almost every aspect of backstage production when he served as President of the Connecticut Playmakers. Mr. Donahue's musical theatre credits include Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady," Marcus Lycus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and leading roles in "Zorba," "Oliver," "South Pacific," "Big River," "The Music Man," and "West Side Story." He also appeared as Henry VIII in the Town Players’ production of "A Man For All Seasons."

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