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

For Immediate Release

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God knows there hasn’t been much to laugh about the last couple of years. Pandemics tend to lean that way.

But thanks to Hy Conrad – the writer/producer of the very funny “Monk” series – we’ll get a chance to shake off a little of the downside of things when his new play, “Quarantine For Two”, opens a four week run February 15th at Key West’s Red Barn Theatre. The production marks the play’s American premiere.

“Hy and I were chatting one day,” said artistic director Joy Hawkins, “and we thought a funny play about this might be good for people, to lighten things up a bit. And who better to do that than Hy Conrad?”

The play centers on a typical, middle-aged, suburban couple – played by David Black and Mimi McDonald – who have been quarantining at home for more than a year. But it hasn’t gone well. In fact, they’ve driven each other crazy, to the point that each has come to the conclusion that for their own sanity, they need to kill the other. How they go about that – with the involvement of a somewhat dim and double-dealing poolboy-turned-hitman played by Rhett Kalman – leads to a very hilarious escalation of complications.

“I tend to write toward comedy and crime,” Conrad said. “The idea of two people in lockdown who desperately want to kill each other seemed to make comic sense, if we want to make light of our fears in the moment. Balancing the truth in the Covid situation with finding the humanity in the characters and making it funny was the challenge.”

But Conrad makes it work exceptionally well. In a private reading of the play last summer, it was hard for cast and crew to get through the script without breaking into laughter.

“The last two years have been so surreal and ludicrous and crazy,” Hawkins said. “So let’s just jump in and laugh at the predicament we’ve all been in. Because somewhere in all of this, we really do need to find a laugh.”

And as she said, who better than Hy Conrad to give that to us?

Tickets for “Quarantine For Two”, the second of the Red Barn’s season of “Bright and Brilliant Comedies”, are available now at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. Ticket holders for the February 15th performance will also be treated to an Opening Night After-Party, sponsored by Jeff Johnson and Hy Conrad, catered by Teresa Wright, where patrons can meet and chat with the cast and crew.

The Red Barn is a Covid Compliant Theatre and asks that all patrons follow Covid protocols. If they prefer, they can voluntarily offer their vaccination card. Masks will be required inside the theater, and seating is limited more than normal due to a social distancing seating plan.

The play is sponsored in part by Jane Gardner Interiors, the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

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

For Immediate Release

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You might not recognize him on the street nor know his name, but you’ve probably seen him onstage and you’ve most certainly have heard him…probably many times.

Vail Johnson is his name, and he’s a bassist. Not just any bassist, mind you, but THE bassist when it comes to studio work, recordings, and live performance.  He’s been doing it for over 40 years with some of the top names in music, and he’s bringing a career-ful of behind-the-scenes stories and almost every note of the great music he’s had a hand in to the Red Barn Theatre in Key West.

His one-man show, “Bassically Incorrect: Around the World in 40 Years” will have a limited engagement at the Barn Sunday and Monday, March 6 and 7 only. Tickets are available now at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911.

Want some names he’s put the bottom under? How about Kenny G, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Nicks, Keb’ Mo’, George Benson, Michael Bolton, James Ingram, Gil Scott Heron, Paula Abdul, MC Hammer, T. Graham Brown, David Cassidy, Steve Perry, Patti Austen, Peabo Bryson, Edgar Winter, and Christopher Cross, just to name a very few.

“It just sort of happened,” Johnson said recently. “I was playing in a lounge band back in the late 70’s, and Kenny G’s percussionist sees me, brings Kenny to the gig, and the next thing I know, I’m playing in Kenny G’s band. We go to LA, and Stevie Nicks sees me at a gig, and asks me to do her record. It just snowballed from there.”

It wasn’t all luck, however. Johnson was ready when the door opened. The youngest of seven brothers (one of his older siblings is Key West’s Jeff Johnson), Vail was immersed in all kinds of music through his family – classical, choral, gospel, bluegrass, Dixieland, Top 40. He absorbed it all, mixing in whatever he came across, including jazz, hip-hop, metal rock, and pure improvisation. His virtuosity, passion, and humor were his calling card, and his ability to play virtually any style extremely well sealed the deal.

And all of it is on display in his one-man show – from Kenny G’s, George Benson’s, and Herbie Hancock’s jazz to Steve Perry’s and Stevie Nicks’s rock, to Peabo Bryson’s soul and Keb’Mo’s blues.

“I tell stories about the artists I’ve played and toured with, and then play and sing along with the tracks I’ve done with them or played on tour. I do some of my own stuff too. And what I do is not just ‘play bass’…people are surprised what I can do on a bass in terms of playing music. Look…it’s a guitar. It just happens to be a bass. I can make it sound like a Spanish guitar, or bluesy finger-picking, or monster slapping.”

Ask Johnson who was the most fun he’s had with any artist, and the answer might surprise you. “Edgar Winter,” he said. “For me to play ‘Frankenstein’ with Edgar Winter? Man, that was freakin’ fun!”

It doesn’t matter what style of music or what particular artist you like personally – there’s a very good chance Vail Johnson will tell you a story about touring with them, or play something you’ve heard by them in his show. And odds are you’ll say, “Oh, yeah! I know that one! He played bass on that?”

Tickets for “Bassically Incorrect” are two-tiered. For the Sunday, March 6 show, all tickets are $60. For Monday night’s show, they’re $75, but that gets you an invite to the catered after-party in the Red Barn courtyard, where you can meet and talk music with Vail Johnson and enjoy some delish foods.

You’ll also be able to purchase some of Vail’s own CDs both evenings, the proceeds from which will be going directly to the Florida Keys SPCA.

The Red Barn is a Covid Compliant Theatre and asks that all patrons follow Covid protocols. If they prefer, they can voluntarily offer their vaccination card. Masks will be required inside the theater.

This show is sponsored in part by Design Group Key West, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

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

For Immediate Release

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RED BARN PRESENTS SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT “WALKING HAPPY” FEBRUARY 3-5
A Tribute to Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme

There are very few married couples who have reached the rare air of the entertainment world’s pinnacle of success. George Burns and Gracie Allen come to mind, and Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

But one couple stands above them all in the music sphere: Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

And February 3-5, you would not be blamed for thinking that dynamic duo is somehow standing on the outdoor stage of Key West’s Red Barn Theatre when singers Jim Rice and Valerie Roy bring Steve and Eydie back to life in their celebrated tribute, “Walking Happy”. All three shows will be presented under the stars on the courtyard stage in front of the theater.

The special engagement features Rice, a pianist, singer, and arranger who has worked closely with many top acts, including Key West’s Randy Roberts. Joining him will be Valerie Roy, a lauded singer on her own, and one of Rice’s closest friends.

“We’ve known each other 25 years,” Rice said recently. “I’ve done a lot of her arranging work, and we’re so attuned to one another now – on stage and off – that it’s like we’re married. Like Steve and Eydie, we’re on the same page every moment, and it’s very obvious on stage.”

That tight friendship and musicality serve Rice and Roy well as they re-animate Steve and Eydie in their Vegas-style show. Hit songs like “This Could Be The Start Of Something Big”, “Make Someone Happy”, “A Lot Of Living”, “What Did I Have”, and “A Room Without Windows” complement the easy and entertaining banter Steve and Eydie had on their many network specials and appearances on “The Tonight Show”.

Steve Allen’s version of that show is where Lawrence and Gorme met, in fact, when she was hired as a solo performer and ran into the show’s staff singer and co-star. “I fell in love,” Gorme has said. “I fell madly in love with him instantly.”

They were inseparable after that night, married soon after, and began their remarkable run of Grammy and Emmy awards, hit Broadway shows, and tours with their mentor and close friend, Frank Sinatra.

“Steve Lawrence was a really fine singer,” Rice said. “In fact, Sinatra said many times that Steve Lawrence was a much better singer than he was. And Eydie was a perfect match for him.”

Tickets for the limited engagement of “Walking Happy” at the Red Barn are available now at redbarntheatre.com or 305-296-9911. Seating will be limited, so early reservations are suggested.

The Red Barn Theatre is a Covid Compliant Theatre and adheres to those protocols. Proof of a negative Covid test taken no less than 48 hours in advance of any performance is required, or if patrons prefer, they can voluntarily offer their Proof of Vaccination.

The shows are sponsored in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

Key West’s Red Barn Theatre has announced the new Opening Night for the pandemic-delayed first show of its 42nd season.

Cats Talk Back, the critically-acclaimed mock-docu-comedy by New York’s celebrated young playwright, Bess Wohl, will open a three-week run Monday, January 10, 2022. Tickets are now available for all performances through January 29. The play will be presented outdoors under the stars in the Red Barn’s expansive courtyard. All curtains are at 8 pm.

The health and safety of cast, crew, and audience have been foremost on artistic director Joy Hawkins’ mind the last month, as events forced the postponement of the original opening.

“You can’t imagine how very much we want to bring you our production of Cats Talk Back,” said Hawkins. “We regret that our original opening had to be postponed, but this virus is unpredictable, to say the least. But every precaution is being taken to keep everyone safe and healthy.”

Critics call Cats Talk Back “a winner…funny, poignant, and observant…” (Backstage) and “…a bubbly, easy-going treat of theatre…” (Time Out). You’ll call it wonderful

The magic of the play’s unique concept – an interview session with several former cast members of Cats, one of the most successful musicals in Broadway history – lies in its realism. That realism is effected through the panel discussion’s moderator, a respected member of the theatrical community…in this case, Murphy Davis, one of Key West’s best known theater directors. The use of Davis as the facilitator of the on-stage discussion blurs the lines of fiction and reality. Are these really Cats actors, or actors playing those actors?

The panelists are ostensibly all former members of the Cats production, which ran for 18 years and 7845 performances. But during the play, we learn that the musical’s success was not always these actors’ success. There’s Monique, who survived the full 18 years, but had her dancing career stalled because of it. There’s Bonnie, whose hunger for approval was squashed when the show closed right after she joined the cast. There’s Steven, an actor’s actor, and Hector, the quintessential egocentric, boastful actor who still manages to be charismatic.

Cats Talk Back never lets the audience know for sure what they’re watching. As the evening progresses, there are moments of human connection and expressed friendship, but also moments that indicate cast in-fighting and tensions. And then suddenly one or more of the “cats” will break into acapella renditions of Cats songs, trying once again to find their inner jellicle cat.

Cats Talk Back stars Michael Mulligan, Marjorie Paul Shook, Nicole Nurenburg, Rhett Kalman, and Davis. It is directed by Hawkins. The show is sponsored by the Smith Law Firm, the Florida Department of State Division of Arts and Culture, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or at the theater’s box office, 305-296-9911.

NOTE: The Red Barn has been certified as a Covid Compliant Theater, and all COVID protocols will be observed for everyone’s safety. Proof of a negative test within the past 48 hours will be required for entry, or if you prefer, a proof of vaccination will suffice. There will be a COVID-compliant adequate distance between the stage and seating.

If you're anything like us, we know you've been champing at the bit to get back into our theatre for some top-notch professional performances of some really intriguing new shows. Well, we have a great new season all set for you!

We'll kick it off December 28, 2021 through January 29, 2022 with the engrossing mock-docu-comedy Cats Talk Back, by award-winning New York playwright Bess Wohl, in which several actors who supposedly spent a good part of their lives performing in one of Broadway's longest-running musicals reminisce about their experiences as felines on stage. There are a few surprises, however, so be ready!

Next, February 15 through March 12, we'll bring you the South Florida premiere of Hy Conrad's wickedly funny new play, Quarantine for Two. Hy, the well-known Key West resident who wrote a good many of the Monk episodes, as well as White Collar, and the recent hit, The Good Cop, has taken the trials and tribulations of our pandemic quarantine and turned them hilariously on their heads. The play mixes comedy, intrigue, (and of course) murder, and a neck-bending twist that you won't see coming.

March 22 through April 16, we present Hurricane Diane, the unconventional new comedy from Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George, where the Greek god Dionysus returns to the modern world disguised as the butch gardener Diane, whose secret mission is to seduce mortal followers and restore the earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four real housewives from New Jersey? It's a very funny show, but don't let that fool you -- there are some very significant ideas buried within the laughs.

And we end our new season April 29-May 1 with the adorable How To Eat Like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being Grown Up, starring a host of Key West's finest young and playful actors. The show is based on a book by Nora Ephron, who also wrote the play, along with music and lyrics by John Forster. It's a hilarious romp through the joys and sorrows of being a child, and will touch the child inside everyone in the theater. Our wonderful child actors give 23 lessons in subjects like how to beg for a dog, how to torture your sister, how to act after being sent to your room and how to laugh hysterically. But it's a limited run, so make sure you get your tickets early.

And if you're still uneasy about attending the theater, let us assure you -- we are taking every precaution. The Red Barn has been certified as a Covid Compliant Theater. Our staff has attended the classes at Arts and Science LLC, and we will follow all safety protocols outlined there. The theater will be cleaned and disinfected before each performance, and we'll be asking all our patrons to follow the basic Covid safety protocols...it's the only way we can keep everyone safe so we can once again enjoy our theater.

Tickets for our new season will be available soon. Watch this website and our FaceBook page for more information.