Journey to the Twilight Zone with SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE!

Susannah Wells, Don Bearden, Jeremy Zoma, Andrew Hodge, and Amber McDonald Good star in SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE in the TWILIGHT ZONE, now playing at the Red Barn Theatre.

“There is a sixth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone.”

With these words back in 1959, writer Rod Serling opened his ground-breaking anthology television series, “The Twilight Zone”. He and his cadre of exceptional co-writers fashioned stories of imagination, fantasy, science fiction, horror, the paranormal, intelligent Kafkaesque comedy, and in some cases – as we look back now – prophecy. The show was an immediate hit, and ran for five highly successful seasons, and produced some 190 episodes now looked on as classics of the genre.

As the third mainstage production of its remarkable 40th Anniversary season, Key West’s Red Barn Theatre will resurrect the spirit of “awe and imagination” that Serling’s series inspired with the new rendition of their always-popular show, “Short Attention Span Theatre”, which they are subtitling, “In the Twilight Zone”. The show will run February 18 through March 14.

“We’ve put together seven short, ten-minute plays that fit the mold of Serling’s ‘Twilight Zone’,” said the Red Barn’s Gary McDonald, who, with his wife Mimi, son Jack, and daughter Amber, will produce and direct the show. “And one of them is an adaptation of one of Serling’s actual ‘Twilight Zone’ scripts. Two of the other scripts were winners of the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival of Plays last year. One was written by Tennessee Williams, believe it or not, and another is by Nina Mansfield, as well-known mystery writer.They’re all pretty exceptional pieces of theater.”

The McDonald family – who have been behind the Short Attention Span Theatre shows for the last several years – have brought together a stellar group of local and New York actors to populate the evening’s fare: Amber McDonald Good, Susannah Wells, Don Bearden, Andrew Hodge, and Jeremy Zoma. Hodge and Zoma were recently seen in “Prime Time” at The Studios of Key West, Bearden in “The Classics of Comedy” – also at the Studios, and Wells just completed a run of “Life Sucks” at the Red Barn. Good was last seen in the 2019 edition of SAST.

“What we all liked best about ‘The Twilight Zone’ was the way it was the social consciousness of that time,” McDonald said. “There was a moral to the stories, even with their bizarre natures. And actually, when you think about theater, most shows are little ‘Twilight Zones’, aren’t they?”

Expect to see the full range of “Twilight Zone”-style stories…from the hilarious to the off-kilter bizarre. Some will have Serling-type narrative introductions. “But they’re all most-definitely little journeys into ‘The Twilight Zone’,” McDonald said. “You’ll be impressed with each of them.”

The McDonalds have recruited a few more local celebrities to brighten up the stage and show this year. One of note is Gary Marian – better known as Sushi – who will be creating some very special “bug” costumes for one of the sketches. “I can’t wait to see what he comes up with,” Gary said.

Tickets for “Short Attention Span Theatre in the Twilight Zone” are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling the Red Barn box office at 305-296-9911. There will be a Reduced-Price Preview on Monday, February 17, and ticketholders for the Opening Night performance on February 18 will be invited to join the cast and crew for a catered Opening Night Reception in the Zabar Courtyard of the Red Barn.

The show is sponsored by Key TV, Design Group Key West, and by grants from the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Tourist Development Council.

COME TO THE ROARING 20'S GALA FOR THE RED BARN!

The special invitation to the Gala…make sure you’re in the “in Crowd” with Jay Gatsby and Daisy!

It’s time to join Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan and help celebrate 40 years of top professional theater at the Red Barn Theatre! A night of Roaring 20’s fun and shenanigans in a gorgeous home on the water in Key West, with nothing but the finest in food, drink, and entertainment.

It all happens Sunday, February 9th, from 5-8 pm at the spectacular home of Kay and John Behmke, 51 Front Street in Truman Annex. Long known for its elegance — and the stunning sunset view over the water — the Behmke’s have opened their home to the Red Barn for this special evening.

A full menu of mouth-watering foods will be provided by the Iron Chefs, an Open Bar will serve you drinks of the day, and entertainment will be provided by the one and only Bobby Nesbitt. AND…as a special “Thank You” to all who attend and support this fundraising effort…everyone will receive a special token bottle of bubbly with which to raise a glass in support of the very special lady the Red Barn Theatre is.

And that’s not all! One lucky bidder in the only auction of the night will be taking home a special bottle of Rye Whiskey, bootlegged in Templeton, Iowa from the same recipe and by the same family that used to make the whiskey for none other than Al Capone back in the 20’s. It took a special trip and a nefarious bit of “under the radar” bargaining to get the bottle, but one was procured and will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. For those wishing to give it a taste, the Red Barn crew managed to get a second bottle, which they will be offering at the bar that evening.

So it’s time for the ladies to don that flapper dress and the men to strap on the cummerbund…Jay and Daisy will be making a special appearance at the gala, and you’ll definitely want to get yourself in a photo with them!

And don’t worry about the Oscars that night…the party will be over just as Hollywood’s big night is getting started, so you won’t miss a glamorous moment.

All proceeds benefit the Red Barn Theatre as they move into their next great 40 years. Come and raise a glass to her, and have yourself a swinging good time!

Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 302-296-9911.

DOES YOUR LIFE SUCK?

George DiBraud, Jessica Miano Kruel, David Black, Susannah Wells, Aaron Duclos, Karl M. Stahl and Caroline Taylor star in Aaron Posner’s hilarious LIFE SUCKS.

You may not think that life sucks, or that the world is somehow messed up and you’re getting a sour bite of the apple. You may, in fact, think that life is everything you hoped it would or could be. Or maybe it just doesn’t matter to you…you’re cool, no matter what.

But you’ll certainly give that question some thought, and may even get the chance to voice your opinion on it when you take advantage of seeing the Red Barn Theatre’s delightful production of playwright Aaron Posner’s “Life Sucks”, now playing on their stage through February 8.

“Life Sucks”, loosely based on Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” (stress the “loosely based”), is, quite simply, a hilarious take on love, longing and loss, falling in love with the wrong people, and trying to change a life you very often perceive as being miserable, but in reality, is pretty much okay.

In two hours, we meet a group of characters, each of whom is on that ‘life sucks’ spectrum somewhere. In a grand old estate house, come together the Professor, whose sexy young wife, Elle, everyone else in the place is in love with. Either her, or the handsome, pretty-much-always-inebriated Dr. Astor. Or they’re longing for a love they’ve never had, as is the adorable Pickles.

Then there’s the middle-aged, dispirited Vanya, who with the Professor’s daughter, Sonia, manages the property. Sonia firmly believes life sucks because Dr. Astor won’t give her the time of day, and Vanya’s the guy who feels he bit the sour apple. The only balanced person in the place is a wise woman named Babs, who tries to impart love, affection, and wisdom to all the others, often without success.

And the spark that lights the fuse of this very funny play? The Professor announces that he intends to sell the estate because he needs money, throwing all of their lives into disarray. That’s when the fun really begins.

And that fun often will involve the audience, as the characters every now and then will break the fourth wall and address them, asking what they think, and actually hoping for a response. So if your life sucks too, you’ll get a chance to let them know.

Director Joy Hawkins couldn’t have asked for a better cast of actors to bring Posner’s hilarious play to life: David Black, George DiBraud, Aaron Duclos, Jessica Miano Kruel, Karl M. Stahl, Caroline Taylor, and Susannah Wells are wonderful. Each of them is perfect in their role, able to play any line for the laughs or poignancy the play requires. There’s not a moment they won’t engage you completely…including, quite literally, the end of the play…but you’ll need to see it to enjoy that final bit of fun…don’t want to spoil it for you.

Key West artist Rick Worth – along with the Red Barn’s Gary and Jack McDonald – has provided one of his very special painted sets, depicting the formal gardens of the family estate. It’s a colorful backdrop to this delightful play.

Tickets for all remaining performances of “Life Sucks” are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. The production is sponsored by KONKLife, Design Group Key West, Wonderdog Studios, and by grants from the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Tourist Development Council.

‘TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS’ OPENS RED BARN’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

How do you open your 40th Anniversary Season of professional theater? What play could possibly encompass and express the full range of what’s been accomplished on the same stage you’ve trod for those forty years and at the same time give your patrons a kind of love letter for all their support?

This was the dilemma Artistic Director Joy Hawkins faced as she went about planning this landmark season at Key West’s iconic Red Barn Theatre. And to all our benefits, Ms. Hawkins found a beauty.

The cast and director of TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS:
(l. to r. front): David Black, Nicole Nurenberg, Arthur Crocker, Morgan Fraga Pierson. (back): Director Joy Hawkins

The Red Barn will open its landmark fortieth season with the powerful, endearing, lovely, illuminating, often funny, sometimes heart-rending, and always relatable “Tiny Beautiful Things” – and yes, all those descriptors aptly fit this play – which was adapted for the stage by Broadway and film star Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) from Cheryl Strayed’s smash hit book of the same name.

“Tiny Beautiful Things” opens Tuesday, December 10 and runs through Saturday, January 4, 2020. The Red Barn is at 319 Duval Street, in the courtyard behind the Woman’s Club.

The story centers around a woman – a non-descript homemaker in a non-descript town – who calls herself “Sugar”, and who finds herself inheriting an online advice column. Not having any experience in such a realm, Sugar just starts winging it, dispensing what she calls a kind of “radical sincerity” to those whose letters she receives.

(Spoiler Alert: “Sugar” was the nom de plume of author Strayed, who, between 2010 and 2012, actually wrote an advice column for an online literary magazine. Her book – and now this play – chronicles those years and her experiences.)

Key West’s Nicole Nurenberg takes on the role of Sugar, supported by David Black, Morgan Fraga Pierson, and Arthur Crocker as the various letter writers who interact with Sugar over the internet. Hawkins directs.

The beauty of the play is in how everyone in the audience will be able to relate to the letter writers in some way, as they will no doubt see themselves and something of their own lives expressed by the actors on the stage. It’s a beautifully-written expression of the similarity of the problems we all face as human beings…we all struggle when our loved ones die, we all tend to have a terrible time letting go of grudges, anger is easy, forgiveness is hard.

Some of the letters Sugar receives are wacky, a good many are ribald (this is certainly an adult play), and a few are profoundly sad. They are all looking for help of some kind. Sugar, being new and not knowing any better, embraces not having pat solutions to her callers’ harrowing problems, and shares some of her own experiences of addiction, abuse, chaos, and loss.

In doing so, Sugar teaches us all how to pick ourselves up after tragedy. She insists that it’s the “tiny, beautiful things” that make up the love that pulls us from the abyss. It’s the reaching out that helps us move past what we don’t need anyway, that helps us leave our worst selves behind.

There will be a Reduced-Price Preview on Monday, December 9. Ticketholders for the Opening Night on December 10 are invited to join cast and crew for an Opening Night party after the performance that evening. For those planning their holidays, there will be a special Christmas Night performance (no performance Christmas Eve) and another on New Year’s Eve (no performance New Year’s Day). All curtains are at 8 pm. The play runs about 80 minutes, no intermission.

For more information and tickets, visit redbarntheatre.com or call the Box Office at 305-296-9911.

“Tiny Beautiful Things” is sponsored by KONKLife Magazine, Wonderdog Studios, Design Group Key West, and is supported by the Tourist Development Council and the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

Red Barn Theatre Launches Into 40th Season with Sparkling New Website and Stellar Lineup

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the SEPTEMBER 12 issue of PARADISE

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Red Barn Theatre Launches Into 40th Season with Sparkling New Website and Stellar Lineup

Forty years. It rolls off the tongue easily: Forty years.

That’s 1980, in case you don’t want to do the math. Gas was seventy-nine cents a gallon. CNN, Rubik’s Cube, and Post-it Notes debuted. A decent house cost $13,000. And Key West’s Red Barn Theatre lit its stage for the first time.

This fall, the venerable Red Barn will play those lights across that stage for its 40th professional season with a mix of new, classic, and original work, featuring top local, regional, and national talent. From the unequaled Terrence McNally to the currently white-hot Nia Vardalos and Aaron Posner, the Red Barn has pulled out all the stops to celebrate this landmark season with Broadway-quality shows.

And to top it off, they’ve launched a brand new interactive website that features not only everything Red Barn – from profiles to tickets to subscriptions and more – but provides a look back at the theater’s stellar 40 year run as well. The new redbarntheatre.com is now up and running and open for business.

“Our old web host changed their hardware and software, making our website pretty much obsolete,” said Bob Bowersox, head of Publicity for the Red Barn. “The new website is terrific – it looks new and clean, and it’s much easier to navigate and use. Our thanks to designer Susannah Wells and Wonderdog Studios for a great job.”

A visit to the new website will give a full rundown of the new 40th season:

Opening December 10 and running through January 4 of 2020 will be Broadway darling Nia Vardalos’ adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s provocative book, “Tiny Beautiful Things,” wherein a struggling writer takes over an advice column and humorously addresses questions that sometimes have no answers. The show will feature national actress Jessica Patton Pellegrino, along with local favorites David Black, Morgan Fraga Pierson, and Arthur Crocker. It will be directed by Joy Hawkins.

Playwright Aaron Posner’s playful new hit play, “Life Sucks”, will take the stage January 14 through February 8, starring David Black, George DiBraud, Aaron Duclos, Jessica Miano Kruel, Karl Stahl, Caroline Taylor, and Susannah Wells, again directed by Hawkins. A group of old friends, ex-lovers, and occasional enemies gather to grabble with life’s thorniest questions and each other. What could possibly go wrong?

The Red Barn’s always original and very popular “Short Attention Span Theater” returns February 18 through March 14, with this year’s theme, “The Twilight Zone”. The evening of very funny, very oddball short plays will be produced and directed by the Red Barn’s founding family, Mimi and Gary McDonald and their now-adult kids, Jack and Amber. Expect anything and everything to happen.

And this stellar season will end with Broadway legend Terrence McNally’s classic “Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune”, running March 24 through April 18. Directed by Murphy Davis, the play is a timeless love story about a waitress and a short order cook, their one-night stand, and their longing for more. It will star Erin McKenna and an as-yet unnamed actor.

There will also be two Special Events (not part of the Subscription Series): “The Mood I’m In”, a special two-night musical evening with singer, pianist, arranger Jim Rice (whose talent has graced many a stage show in Key West) will run February 2-3; and “John Wells is Still Alive and Well and Living In Key West” will run March 8 and 9, featuring raconteur and troubadour John Wells, one of the founders of the Red Barn, who will offer his audiences over 40 years of his stories and songs.

All in all, a great season at one of Key West’s true gems. For more information and tickets for this big 40th season, visit the new website at redbarntheatre.com or call the box office at 305-296-9911.

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FUNNY, ABSURDIST “METEOR SHOWER” IS CLASSIC STEVE MARTIN

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the March 14 issue of PARADISE

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FUNNY, ABSURDIST “METEOR SHOWER” IS CLASSIC STEVE MARTIN

In the world of comedy, there are few true originals. This is particularly true with Broadway comedy. The Great White Way has always embraced roustabout farces and repurposed stand-up routines – there are a half a dozen of them running right now, one mostly like the next.

But every once in a while, a writer will come along like a shot out of left field – a playwright with a singular ability to take the mundane and using a sharp wit and hilarious perspective, elevate it in unexpected ways that make you laugh out loud simply because you really didn’t see it coming. In fact, you couldn’t even imagine it.

So it is with comedian Steve Martin, who in recent years has turned his absurdist, off-the-wall comedy mind to crafting exquisite, intellectual comedic gems for the stage. His latest Broadway hit, “Meteor Shower” will make its south Florida debut at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West next week.

Starring Dave Bootle, Michael Castellano, Elena Devers, and Susannah Wells, and directed by Joy Hawkins, “Meteor Shower” will run Tuesday, March 26 through Saturday, April 20. It is important to note that only the Reduced-Price Preview on Monday, March 25 and the Opening night performance on Tuesday, March 26 will be at 8 pm. All others will be at 7:30 pm.

The play – true to Martin’s oeuvre – is conceptual comedy. The funny action and dialogue are attached more to the theme he’s exploring than the characters he uses to explore it. And as the New York Times said, “Mr. Martin is peerless at crafting tiny wit bombs,” which he uses perfectly and liberally throughout the play.

The story revolves around two couples – Norm and Corky, and Gerald and Laura. The first two have been married for 19 years, and most of that time has been spent working on their relationship with the help of magazines, books, and a lot of psychobabble (the play takes place in the 90’s, after all). Any conflict between them is immediately addressed with trite rituals: “I understand you probably did not know you hurt me”, or “I honor your feelings.”

Repressed though they may be, Norm and Corky invite Gerald and Laura over for drinks and to watch the coming Perseid Meteor Shower about to light up the sky over the boutique town of Ojai, California. But unbeknownst to them, the latter couple have a nefarious agenda – they have come to conquer and destroy: ”Let’s go for total collapse” Gerald tells his wife as they make their plans to crack open the perfect balance Norm and Corky have seemingly achieved in their relationship.

While the meteor shower definitely plays an important role in the play (wait ‘til you see how), it is the emotionally alluring moves by the interloping couple that leave Norm and Corky reeling. Like us, they didn’t see it coming.

Martin’s theme here is the vulnerability of marriage and a commentary on the obstacles faced in keeping a modern marriage together. But true to his absurdist roots, he’s not going to just hand it to us. He uses temporal shifts to go back in time and re-run a scene, offering funny, completely unexpected, alternative outcomes to the evening’s confrontations.

It’s all an hilarious exercise completely true to Steve Martin’s absurdist, intellectual, very humorous view of the world, and one that will leave you laughing at the ideas he’s presented while at the same time, thinking how much you related to what he was saying.

Tickets for “Meteor Shower” can be purchased at redbarntheatre.com/tickets or by calling the box office at 305-296-9911. Ticketholders for the Opening Night performance are invited to join the cast and crew for the Opening Night party immediately following the show that night. The engagement is sponsored by Jane Gardner Interiors, Wonderdog Studios, and Design Group Key West.

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TROUBADOUR JOHN WELLS IN SPECIAL SHOW AT THE RED BARN

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the March 7 issue of PARADISE

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TROUBADOUR JOHN WELLS IN SPECIAL SHOW AT THE RED BARN

It’s been said that all you need to do to wind up a “Living Legend of Key West” is hang around long enough, know everybody in town, and be a really good guy everyone likes to be around, and you’ll just kind of end up in the Legend category.

If that description doesn’t fit musician/thespian/storyteller John Wells, it probably won’t fit anyone. Because Wells is all those things and more.

If you’re lucky enough to grab one of very few tickets available for his upcoming one-man show at the Red Barn Theatre, you’ll also see that the man is a consummate entertainer. His unique combination of storytelling and song makes for an intimate, very personal and engaging evening.

Wells will be appearing at the Red Barn Theatre for two nights only, March 10 and 11, with his very original new show, “John Wells is (Still) Alive and Well and Living in Key West.”  Showtime is 8 pm each night.

“It was back in 1978 that Joy and I moved down here to Key West,” Wells said. Joy is his wife, Joy Hawkins, actress and artistic director of the Red Barn. “I had been very successful with my band up in the Washington, D.C. area, and Joy had just left the Dean Martin show as ‘Tiger Girl’, and we were both looking for something new.”

John and Joy spent a couple of nights camping on Simonton Beach – “You could do that back then,” Wells said – but eventually found a nice place to rent – “For $160 a month, if you can believe that!” – and settled in.

It wasn’t long after that Hawkins, Wells, their good friends the McDonalds, and several others founded the Red Barn Theatre, where Wells put his musical and acting chops to work in nearly a hundred shows over the last 40 years. There are a lot of stories that have piled up over that time.

“I do about 14 songs, some original, some not,” Wells said. “But they all fit in with the stories. I tell about things that have changed me here – like founding the Red Barn, and the people I’ve met, and amazing dolphin encounters, insider Mel Fisher stories, and about my trip to Africa, where I was asked to sing with the indigenous tribal members who were our crew. That was incredible. So many stories. So much good music.”

Forty years of them, to be precise. Hand-delivered by a Key West Living Legend in Key West’s most intimate theater. A new story to add to the list. Tickets can be had at redbarntheatre.com/tickets or by calling 305-296-9911.

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BECOMING ROSEMARY CLOONEY

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the February 28 issue of PARADISE

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BECOMING ROSEMARY CLOONEY

When you meet Kim Schroeder Long, the first thing that strikes you is her smile. It’s big, bright, and sincere, underlining a sparkle in the eyes above it. Her long hair frames a pretty, petite face that unaffectedly expresses joy and contentment.

But within seconds, the first thought you have is: how in the world does this woman transform herself into the sassy, brassy girl next door with a troubled soul she is in the hit play, “Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical”, now playing to sold out houses at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West?

Because the transformation is nothing short of remarkable, both externally and internally. Kim Long doesn’t just “play” Rosemary Clooney. She “becomes” Rosemary Clooney. Literally everything about her is different offstage to onstage.

“I’m really trying not to ‘perform’ Rosemary,” Long said recently. “There’s a fine line between an impersonation of someone who existed in real life, and an honest ‘embodying’ or ‘inhabiting’ that person. What I want is to let her essence come through me. And I’ve done the work, and performed this play enough that I feel I can trust that what is coming through me is her…true and honest.”

She makes it sound easy. But Long has spent years finding that essence of Rosemary Clooney, arguably one of the biggest stars in American entertainment history…a star who crossed records, radio, TV, films, and concerts, and who was best friends and onstage colleagues with the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and many more.

Long started finding Rosemary years ago.

“I watched every video of her I could,” Long said. “Her TV shows, her interviews, her guest appearances, and even the show Password – she did a lot of those. You get a real sense of who she really was by watching her reactions. I could see how she coped with things. I got a sense of the nuances.”

And then, of course, there was the music. Clooney was one of the most successful recording artists of all time, and Long listened to every song she ever sang a thousand times. Long knew her voice was very similar to Clooney’s in tone and color, but it was the phrasing, the touch, the perfect control Clooney had that she went after. And when you see the show, and you hear Long sing those many Clooney hits, you realize how perfectly she nails it.

But the show is so much more than just the music. It delves deeply into the troubled woman Clooney was, and is a compelling story about the true cost of fame.

“I did a lot of research into her intimate, internal idiosyncrasies, nuances, and struggles,” Long said. “I went to California and talked with people from her life – her showbiz acquaintances – and they gave me a lot of insights into who she really was behind the veneer of being a ‘star’.”

Clooney was an incredibly conflicted person, Long said. She had a rough time melding who she really was and who she felt the rest of the world wanted her to be. Her involvement with drugs and alcohol, and the many disappointments and tragedies in her life led her to a nervous breakdown from which she very nearly didn’t recover.

“What really made the difference for me,” Long said, “was going to her hometown in Kentucky. I met people who knew her just as ‘one of the Clooneys from town’. And her family gave me an enormous insight into who she really was. They took me to her little house on the river in Augusta, KY, and I sat there a long time just absorbing it all. That’s where I really found her…the real her.”

And when you watch the show, it’s apparent that Clooney found Long as well. Her interactions with co-star David Black – who is also remarkable in no less than ten different roles of people in Clooney’s life – are so startlingly three-dimensional that without even realizing it, you’re sure you are really seeing Rosemary Clooney on that stage…you really feel her in front of you. Kim Schroeder Long has disappeared.

“The last thing I do before going onstage every night,” Long said, “is sit and find her ‘headspace’. I just get quiet and open myself up to feeling everything I’ve learned about her, everything I’ve seen or heard. It’s like water closing up over me and she emerges. It brings me such joy to feel her come alive.”

“Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical” runs through Saturday, March 16th. Tickets are already in high demand. You can get them at redbarntheatre.com/tickets or by calling the Box Office at 305-296-9911.

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TENDERLY: The Rosemary Clooney Musical: Delightful, Enchanting, and Very Real

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the February 7 issue of KONKLIFE – COVER STORY

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TENDERLY: The Rosemary Clooney Musical: Delightful, Enchanting, and Very Real

Spoiler Alert: Don’t expect the Red Barn’s new show “Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical” to be one of those jukebox musicals where a long-gone star of yesteryear is reanimated by a talented actor who fills the evening rendering a string of dusty tunes.

Oh, there are songs a-plenty, to be sure, sung by a very talented songstress, but this is most certainly not a simple string of golden oldies. What it is, is an exquisite portrait of a woman whose grace and voice were the perfection of elegance and professional success in her day, while her private life devolved into a shambles of alcohol and drug addiction, philandering husbands, and personal tragedy. But as with all great stories, her resurrection from her dark times leaves us elated, cheering, and moved.

It is, in the end, what you might call a “play with music”. But it is so much more than that.

“Tenderly” opens Tuesday at the Red Barn and runs through March 16. It stars the multi-talented Kim Schroeder Long as Rosemary, who has flown in to play the role, supported by Key West’s David Black, who plays a multitude of different characters who figured prominently in Clooney’s life. The play is directed by the Red Barn’s Joy Hawkins. All curtains are at 8 pm.

“Her story’s pretty compelling,” Long said. “Superficially, it’s the music, of course, but it turns out to be so much more than that. The songs just help tell the story. There’s a lot of profound truth about the human condition and experience that we get to mine through that story. That’s what’s most satisfying to me.”

Written by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, “Tenderly” takes us deep into the life of Rosemary Clooney, who found success across many fields – recordings, movies, television, and concerts. Using songs as touchstones, the imaginative script moves back and forth through more than 30 years of the singer’s life. It looks at her challenging childhood – abandoned by her family, and forced to be responsible for her siblings at a young age; at her early success; and at the betrayals and tragedies that she had to walk through while trying to maintain that “my life is perfect” image that celebrities are expected to show us.

The play opens in a rehab facility in 1968, after Clooney has had a nervous breakdown, a product of her addictions to pills and alcohol, stress, and the loss of her best friend, Robert Kennedy – she was just a few feet from him the night he was assassinated. She talks through her life’s moments with a psychiatrist – one of the many roles Black inhabits, and the play takes off from there, using Clooney’s many hits to draw us through her life’s moments—both the up’s and the down’s.

The music’s wonderful – songs you’ve heard but may not have attributed to Clooney: her big hits like “Come On-A My House”, “Mambo Italiano”, “This Old House”, “Straighten Up And Fly Right”, “Hey, There”, and “Tenderly” are joined by those she garnered in later life when she emerged from the dark times as a respected jazz singer – “I Remember You”, “Have I Stayed Too Long At The Fair”, and many more.

“I think the music and the story blend perfectly,” Long said. “I think a lot of times we look at celebrities and their problems as something only celebrities have, but with Rosie, her struggles were very essentially human. She struggled with her identity as Rosie the person and Rosie the star, as many of us do with who we are and how that’s different from the way we’re perceived by others. I’m glad that people leave the show thinking, wow, that was really true about me too.”

Musical accompaniment for the show will be provided by an extraordinary band, made up of Jim Rice on piano, Joe Dallas on bass, and Daniel Clark on drums.

Tickets for “Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical” can be had by visiting redbarntheatre.com/tickets or calling 305-296-9911. There will be a catered reception following the Opening Night performance on February 19 and ticketholders for that evening are invited to join the cast and crew. And there will be a Talkback Session with the cast and director after the performance on Friday, February 22. The audience that night is encouraged to remain and discuss the play.

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WITH BELLS ON: A Christmas Story with Balls

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For the DECEMBER 6 issue of PARADISE

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WITH BELLS ON: A Christmas Story with Balls

Canadian playwright Darren Hagen doesn’t really like Christmas all that much. So he didn’t really mean to pen a Christmas play.

“Well, it’s not quite like a Christmas play,” Hagen said recently, “but yet it is…there’s Christmas music playing in the elevator.”

Wait, wait. Elevator?!? Okay…let’s rewind a minute and start at the beginning.

“With Bells On” is Hagen’s newest play, which will have its American Premiere at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West for a four week run, December 11 through January 5. It stars Trey Gerrald and Don Bearden and will be directed -- and maybe more anticipated – costumed by Key West’s unequaled man with a needle and thread, Christopher Peterson.

The elevator is just that, and it’s the only thing on the stage. And it’s stuck between floors. Ted (Bearden) appears to be a short, quiet, emotionally unassuming, dweeb accountant who has entered the elevator in his not-so-luxurious apartment building, where he’s been living since his recent divorce. Standing next to him – or maybe “towering” over him would be more appropriate – is Natasha (Gerrald), a six-foot-seven-inch (in heels) drag queen dressed like a Christmas Tree, who is completely beside herself because this stalled elevator will cause her to miss her chance to be crowned Christmas Queen in the holiday pageant at the Magic Crystal Palace downtown.

If you’re thinking this is a perfect set-up for some hilarity, you’d be correct. You’re going to laugh a lot. The juxtapositioning of two such opposite characters in such a situation is full of comic possibilities, and Hagen takes complete advantage of them all. The puns and comic lines fly fast and furious, as Ted and Natasha try to find a way to extricate themselves from circumstances neither of them is comfortable in.

But the play is about more than that. Because Ted is not the sadsack milquetoast we initially think him to be, nor is he a prig or homophobe. He actually grows curious about the exotic creature he’s met. And this interest begins to work some magic on an initially hostile Natasha.

Says Hagen: “It’s ultimately about creating a common ground among seemingly opposite strangers – not just between the two characters on stage, but across cultural and age barriers in the audience as well.”

Peterson agrees. “What appeals to me the most is that it brings together two of my most favorite things in Key West: nervous men and drag queens.” (Big laugh) “And how a friendship can come out of something as strange as two completely different kinds of people thrown together in a weird situation.”

So, yeah, it’s a holiday show…there’s the Christmas music in the elevator and all. And it’s a very funny premise, very funnily written. But “With Bells On” is so much more than that. As Peterson put it: “The play ultimately encompasses our motto here in Key West – One Human Family.”

And the costume for Natasha?

“Oh, wait until you see it,” Peterson said, a note of pure joy in his voice. “She lights up like a Christmas tree – because she’ll be dressed like one, balls and all!”

Tickets for “With Bells On” are available now at redbarntheatre.com/tickets or by calling 305-296-9911. There will be a Reduced-Price Preview on Monday, December 10 and Opening Night ticketholders on December 11 will be invited to the Opening Night Party in the courtyard of the Red Barn, where they can mingle with the cast and crew. For more information, visit redbarntheatre.com or the Red Barn’s FaceBook page, Red Barn Theatre KW.

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