'Cher' showcase will launch Ogunquit Playhouse's milestone 90th season
OGUNQUIT, Maine — Cher, a nutty professor, Mr. Holland and Colonel Mustard are on tap this summer and fall to help The Ogunquit Playhouse celebrate its ninetieth season.
And not only is the Playhouse marking that milestone, it’s also celebrating its return to form. When the curtains rise on the first show of the season in a couple of weeks, it will be the first time audiences will pack the inside of the historic theater since October of 2019.
“The only things we ever stopped for were the blackouts of World War II and COVID,” said Bradford Kenney, the playhouse’s executive artistic director.
When the cast and crew and audience exited the Playhouse after the final night of “Kinky Boots” two and a half years ago, no one had any idea that it would be May of 2022 before anyone would head back inside again for an evening of top-notch entertainment.
Not that the COVID-19 pandemic completely stopped the folks at the Playhouse in their tracks for two-plus years. These are, after all, people in a profession that is famous for the expression, “The show must go on!”
Sure enough, outdoor cabaret offerings at the site routinely sold out during the summer of 2020. And last year, according to Kenney, 60,000 people sat underneath the large, pandemic-friendly tent where the Playhouse put on productions of “Spamalot,” “Mystic Pizza,” “Margaritaville,” and “Young Frankenstein.”
Now, with COVID restrictions lifted, it’s time for the actors to return where they belong – the very stage where such stars as Betty White, Sally Struthers, Peter Scolari, Basil Rathbone, Walter Matthau, and so many others once performed.
“We are going back inside this year,” Kenney declared in an interview on April 27.
Cher! Zaniness! Teachers! Murder!
No need to turn back time: the Playhouse’s season is officially set to launch on Thursday, May 12, with the regional theater premiere of “The Cher Show,” which chronicles the life of Cher, the pop music icon whose hits have spanned decades. According to Kenney, the story goes all the way back to the beginning and starts with Cher on stage on a bicycle as a child.
“Superstars come and go, but Cher is eternal,” the Playhouse pitched in a recent press release. “For six decades, she has dominated pop culture, pushing boundaries and breaking down barriers – letting nothing and no one stand in her way.”
Directed by Gerry McIntyre, who helmed “Jersey Boys” and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” at the Playhouse, “The Cher Show” has three actresses playing Cher throughout her life and is filled with smash-hit songs and “epic Bob Mackie gowns,” according to the Playhouse.
“The Cher Show” will run through June 25.
From there, the Playhouse will be welcoming not one, but two, world premieres, according to Kenney. “The Nutty Professor,” a zany comedy about dueling identities, will debut on the stage, with shows from July 1 through Aug. 6. And then “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” a new musical based on the teacher-appreciation film that starred Richard Dreyfuss in the nineties, will be in session from Aug. 12 through Sept. 17.
The Playhouse’s ninetieth season will end with a whodunit – a fast and funny production of “Clue,” the murder mystery based on the beloved board game known for such characters as the aforementioned Colonel Mustard and others.
“It’s fast – over in an hour and a half, and without an intermission,” Kenney said.
The Playhouse Arts Academy also will be getting in on the action this summer, with three new-to-Ogunquit productions: “Disney’s Moana, Jr.,” on July 16 and 17, “Disney’s Descendants: The Musical,” on July 30 and 31, and “Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach,” on Aug. 27 and 28.
Looking to the season ahead, Kenney spoke with much enthusiasm and excitement as he touted the stories, casts and crews, songs, laughs, set designs, and costumes that await theater-goers.
“It’s an exciting time,” he said. “The building is being prepared as we speak.”
For more details about the approaching season, visit online at www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/2022-season .
For tickets, visit online at tickets.ogunquitplayhouse.org or call (207) 646-5511. Starting on Monday, May 9, tickets also may be purchased in person at the box office at 10 Main Street in Ogunquit.
Bitten by the 'Ogunquit bug'
The Ogunquit Playhouse has a rich history that reaches back to a warm summer evening in 1933, when Broadway showman Walter Hartwig and his wife, Maude, formed the theater company and welcomed audiences for the first time – not where it is now and has been for decades, but instead inside a renovated garage in the town square.
The group eventually outgrew its summer-stock origins and moved to its current theater in 1937. Since then, the site has proven a destination for some of the biggest stars in entertainment history – Bette Davis earned her Equity card there, according to Kenney.
“They get bitten by the Ogunquit bug pretty quickly,” Kenney said of the performers who have appeared at the Playhouse and have often sought opportunities for encores.
The Playhouse is listed with the National Register of Historic Places.