ENCHANTING “EAT LIKE A CHILD” IN LIMITED RUN AT THE RED BARN THEATRE

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

For Immediate Release


Thirty-two years ago, a cast of talented kids hit the stage of the Red Barn Theatre in Key West, singing and dancing their way through a delightful musical called “Eat Like a Child: And Other Lessons on How Not To Be A Grown-up.”

Among that group of young actors were Amber McDonald, Garth Holtcamp, and Camila Duke, who were nine or ten years old at the time. Amber had literally grown up in the theater her parents – Mimi and Gary McDonald – established eight years earlier.

Fast forward 32 years. Amber, Garth, and Camila all have kids of their own and history is about to repeat itself.

The Red Barn will present an updated version of “Eat Like A Child” in a very limited four-performance run Friday, April 29 through Sunday, May 1. The Friday and Saturday shows are at 7 pm, and there will be a 2 pm matinee on Saturday and Sunday.

And front and center on the stage? The next generation: Lilly and Logan Good (Amber’s kids), Phineas Haskell (Camila’s son), and Greta Holtcamp (Garth’s daughter), among a dozen others.

“We’re calling it a ‘legacy’ production,” said Mimi McDonald, who with actress Carolyn Taylor will be directing the new show. “We’ve been waiting for all our kid’s kids to get to the 8 to 10-year-old stage so we could do it. It’s a very sweet show, written about and for kids, performed by kids. We’re having a ball.”

The very cute book for the show was written by Delia Ephron (Nora’s sister), with music and lyrics by John Forster, the award-winning singer-songwriter and composer of multiple children’s musicals. Nancy 3 Hoffman will be providing the musical accompaniment for the score, and Penny Leto will be handling the choreography.

The show centers around everything that impacts a kid’s world in wonderful little vignettes that feature various combinations of the young actors – from trying to sell the parents on getting a dog, to not wanting to go to bed, pretending to be sick to get out of going to school, how they don’t like their little sister, and the injustice of having to walk somewhere when there’s a perfectly good car to take them there. And that’s just a sampling.

“It’s really fun to hear them sing the same songs that have been stuck in my head all these years,” said Amber. “And it’s nice to acknowledge what really hasn’t changed – technology may have changed a lot, but all the stuff that’s true to being a kid is still the same, generation to generation.”

Her mom, Mimi, adds, “It’s about universal truths that don’t change. Any adult who sees this will most definitely see a lot of things they did themselves, for sure.”

Tickets are limited because of the short run and can be had at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. The show is sponsored in part by Keys Open Doors and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

Susannah Wells
HILARIOUS “HURRICANE DIANE” BLOWING INTO THE RED BARN THEATRE

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

For Immediate Release


The hilarious HURRICANE DIANE stars Lauren Thompson, Susannah Wells, Erin McKenna, Jessica Miano Kruel, and Caroline Taylor.

What if the Greek God Dionysus, deity of wine and ecstasy, suddenly walked into your kitchen and announced that it was time mankind shaped up and started taking care of “his” planet and that you and your girlfriends were going to be the first acolytes in his quest to bring the Earth back to its natural, unsullied state? What could go wrong, right?

This is the reality-bending set-up for the hilarious new play, “Hurricane Diane”, set to open at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West on March 22 for a four-week run. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George, the play will feature a who’s who of Key West women, including Erin McKenna, Caroline Taylor, Susannah Wells, Jessica Miano Kruel, and Lauren Thompson. It will be directed by Red Barn artistic director, Joy Hawkins.

George launches her play right from “Lights Up”. We meet Dionysus immediately, though not as we might expect. He has morphed into a rabble-rousing lesbian gardener from Vermont named Diane, and she’s chosen four suburban New Jersey housewives – think a sophisticated, socially-conscious version of a “Real Housewives” show and you won’t be far off – to join his efforts at reclaiming the natural beauty of the planet.

The four women all live on a cul-de-sac in flood-prone Red Bank, New Jersey in identical cookie-cutter houses. They regularly gather over wine and coffee to gossip about anything but the latest portents for the climate. There’s control freak Carol, who just wants a well-manicured lawn; and Renee, a top editor at HGTV Magazine; and Pam, an Italian dragon in animal prints; and weepy Beth, who’s just been left by her husband.

Into this coffee klatch comes lesbian landscape gardener Diane, livid at humanity for “despoiling the green earth that gave you life.” She has great plans – not the least of which involve indulging her Dionysian proclivities – and she’s going to begin right here, right now.

Will Diane be able to enlist them all? Will this diverse band of suburban women be inspired by the appetites of their divine visitor to unleash their wildness to help the battered planet? Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll have to see.

To say the play is outrageously funny is a given. But it also carries a subtextual message that has profound relevance in this day and age. Called “incisively smart and boisterously funny” by the Boston Globe, “clever and timely” by New York Theater, and “An astonishing new play” by the NY Times, “Hurricane Diane” lives up to its fantastical premise.

Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. The play is sponsored in part by The Dogwood Foundation, Design Group Key West, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

The Red Barn continues to monitor and adhere to the CDC guidelines concerning Covid protocols for small spaces. Patrons may direct any questions as to the current suggested practices to the box office at 305-296-9911.

Susannah Wells
“QUARANTINE FOR TWO” TO PREMIERE AT RED BARN


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

For Immediate Release


mimi McDonald and David black star in quarantine for two

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.

Susannah Wells
BASSIST FOR THE STARS: VAIL JOHNSON TELLS ALL IN RED BARN LIMITED ENGAGEMENT


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

For Immediate Release


vail johnson playing guitar live at concert

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.

Susannah Wells

RED BARN PRESENTS SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT “WALKING HAPPY” FEBRUARY 3-5

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

For Immediate Release


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.

Susannah Wells