Display of old memories at the Big E - West Springfield, Mass.

The annual Eastern States Exposition, or Big E, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, is upon us again, and the sense of nostalgia it brings for those who have gone to the fair since childhood seems to be one of the biggest draws.

One display I particularly liked reflects nostalgia not only for the years I remember from childhood, but going back much, much farther.  It's a wonder the Exposition hasn't done this long ago, and I hope it will continue to enlarge in future years.

We see past events, special celebrities, and a material from the old Storrowton tent theater, which operated for only a couple of decades from the late 1950s to the 1970s.

There's still time to catch it at this year's fair, which concludes this weekend.  

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Farewell to Barbara Bernard - Journalist, Theatre fan, and Friend to All - Holyoke, Massachusetts

Barbara Bernard, photo by Kathleen M. Lynch

The recent passing of Barbara Bernard (1927-2024), marks a milestone in western Massachusetts history, for most of us who live in this part of New England may find it difficult to imagine a world without her.

Originally hailing from North Adams in the northwest corner of the state, she attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley in the 1940s, and moved to Holyoke in 1950 with her husband, businessman George J. Bernard (who passed in 1998).  She hosted radio programs, and a long-time television show for the former WHYN-TV.  Three of the last of her several decades of work in the media included writing a column for the Springfield Republican newspaper.  (I think my favorite column of hers is when she wrote about being a college student and traveling by train with some friends -- back in the day when a sleeper car had curtained berths rather than separate rooms -- and she climbed into the wrong one. Remembering it still makes me laugh.)

Among her many activities included serving on several community and business boards, and she was honored with numerous awards in the course of her career, most recently in June she was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Among her passions was a love of theatre, and she supported many local theaters, and had interviewed a number of actors and actresses on her television program -- which prompted me to interview her as a source for my book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain - 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Barbara (she refused my attempts to call her "Mrs. Bernard") was gracious, informative, and quite funny.  Her love for one particular group that performed on the mountain -- The Valley Players, and her friendship with several people associated with that troupe, moved her to loan them her clothes for costumes, her furniture for the sets -- and on one memorable occasion, herself.  She took a small part in the musical comedy, The Boy Friend in 1961.  There's a photo of her with the cast in my book, and another photo of her on the set of her TV show interviewing visiting actor Van Johnson.

This enthusiasm illustrates a lovely zest for life and a sense of adventure.  Perhaps these were secrets to her longevity.

Moreover, her generosity extended to me: she wrote the foreword to the book, most of which I will reprint below.

When it came time to launch the book at a program at the Holyoke Public Library, she not only attended but also spoke at the event.  Her kindness knew no bounds.

I was happy to chat with her at a few other social functions over the years, but I was a very minor cast member in the cast of thousands in her life, and I hope someday someone who knew her really well will write her story.  I wish she had written it herself, but I think perhaps she was far more interested in other people.  

Here then is a part of the foreword she wrote to Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain:

Jacqueline T. Lynch & Barbara Bernard, 

photo by Kathleen M. Lynch

When Jacqueline Lynch interviewed me in 2015 about my memories of Holyoke’s Valley Players, I told her “the Valley Players was such a vital part of my life I died a little when it finally closed.”  That may have sounded a little dramatic but I really did lose something so special.

My enjoyment of live performances began as a child in North Adams with parents, aunts and uncles, all theatre and concert enthusiasts.  Not only did I get to see Broadway shows at an age where I probably didn’t understand what was going on in the cabin in Tobacco Road, but live theatre was in full swing in nearby Pittsfield and Stockbridge with the Berkshire Theatre Group, the Colonial Theater and Fitzpatrick Main Stage.  As a college student at Mount Holyoke, I had heard in nearby Holyoke, an industrial city much like my hometown, there was a summer theater called The Valley Players.  I was at home working during summers so during those years I never saw a production there.

Knowing there was The Valley Players in Holyoke probably saved my life in 1950.  There I go being dramatic again, but my husband and I, married in 1948 after my college graduation, lived in a suburb of Pittsfield where we both worked and we were in an area where live performances prevailed.  I still recall seeing Mady Christians in a play and Koussevitzky conducting at Tanglewood.  Our life was absolutely perfect and when we bought a business which required us to move to Holyoke, the one bright spot was remembering there was a great summer theater, The Valley Players. 

We began to go to the plays our first summer and never once missed a performance.  In a short time my Pittsfield career in radio brought me into the same one in the Paper City and eventually into television.  At one time or another all the actors and actresses, as well as Jean and Carlton Guild, the founders of The Valley Players, were guests on my programs.  Interviews were delightful and because all of the actors lived in various rented rooms in private homes in Holyoke they appreciated visiting with us in our air conditioned house, with our little girls and our dog giving them a sense of home away from home.

Our wardrobes were available to the players to borrow if they needed specific outfits for specific parts, and when Ruby Holbrook, then the wife of Hal, was pregnant she borrowed my maternity clothes.  Many summer players brought fame to this area perhaps, with Hal Holbrook who created Mark Twain Tonight!  There was not a member of the audience that opening who did not acknowledge that we had seen something which would take the world of theatre by storm.  Hal reprised the role many times through the years, updating it a little, and once again bringing a full audience to its feet with applause when he returned to Holyoke to present it as a fundraiser for the efforts to bring live theatre back to Holyoke with the Victory Theater project.

Fortunately, our area abounds in excellent all-season live theatre, but for those who love it so, there is never enough.  Of course as a resident of Holyoke I feel a city is that much richer if it has its own live summer theatre and The Valley Players truly made Holyoke a more exciting city.  There are so many memories, such as Mountain Park always saving its fireworks display to coincide with intermission of the plays, and the refreshment stand serving crispy clear-cold “birch beer,” and never a play produced to which one would feel uncomfortable bringing one’s grandmother, teenage child, or minister.

The Valley Players was a unique part of Holyoke history and certainly in my life, which makes being elderly not as unpleasant as it would have been without seventy years of remarkable summer theatre.

Barbara was 97 years old.  Requiescat in pace.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Upcoming talk on Mt. Tom Playhouse - Holyoke, Massachusetts

I'll be giving on a talk on my book, Comedy and Tragedy on theMountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, at the South Hadley Senior Center, 45 Dayton Street, South Hadley, Mass., next Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 5:30 p.m.  A slide presentation of several photos from the book will accompany the talk.

The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from 1895 to 1965.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Mystery series set in post-War New England - the Double V Mysteries

 

Looking for Christmas gifts for the historical mystery lover -- who also happens to love New England?  

My "Double V Mysteries" series is set in New England, beginning in the spring of 1949.  The two main characters -- who will become partners -- are introduced in CADMIUM YELLOW, BLOOD RED.  She is an administrator at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, who has just discovered her husband's infidelity.

He is an ex-con, recently released from the state penitentiary in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  His wife has passed away and his daughter is kidnapped, but the gang who has her assures him she will be returned if he helps them with his particular specialty. He must break into the Wadsworth.  She meets him on his practice run as he literally drops into her office, the same night her husband is found murdered.

They are both suspects.  They have nobody to rely on but each other.  And each has a mystery to solve.

The book is available in paperback through Amazon, but the eBook version is FREE and available through a variety of online shops:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Apple

And a variety of other online shops here.

Give it a try and perhaps you'll like to continue the adventures with Juliet Van Allen and Elmer Vartanian -- the "Double V" duo -- in the rest of the (so far) five-book series:

SPEAK OUT BEFORE YOU DIE (in which a murder occurs in a snowbound mansion in Hartford on New Year's Eve, 1949)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

DISMOUNT AND MURDER (Nasty doings at the Litchfield, Connecticut, horse show, summer of 1950.  Maine recovers from the year before in the "Summer Maine Burned," Oh, and a murder.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

WHITEWASH IN THE BERKSHIRES (Juliet is blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts. Intrigue and kidnapping in an underground bunker in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts in the winter of 1951.  Oh, and a murder.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

MURDER AT THE SUMMER THEATER (Juliet must join the cast to help ferret out clues in backstage shenanigans in the summer of 1951 on the Connecticut shore when the lead actress goes missing. Possibly murdered.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

Follow the adventure, follow the clues, and watch this blog for the next novel in the series coming in late 2022!

Hal Holbrook on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts

Beloved memories and tributes pour forth as we note the recent passing of actor Hal Holbrook, perhaps most famous for the one-man show he created: “Mark Twain Tonight!”  He first achieved his actor’s union Equity card working for a noted summer theater on top of Mt. Tom, in Holyoke, Massachusetts in the early 1950s.  The ramshackle wooden playhouse was called, grandly, “The Casino.”  The resident troupe was The Valley Players.

Though their name paid tribute to the region of the Pioneer Valley, that broad swath of history and dinosaur tracks that comprise that section of the Connecticut River valley, the playhouse was actually on the grounds of an amusement park…on the top of a mountain…at the edge of a factory town.  No scenic shoreline summer barn, but a working, vibrant company in a glorified shack in as unlikely a place for traditional New England summer theatre as one might find. 
 
Holbrook and his first wife, Ruby were members of the company for a few years in the early 1950s.  In 1957 he returned as a guest to open the season with his show on Mark Twain, performing it in its full-length version for the first time.
 
The following passages are from my book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
 
We begin with Holbrook’s own recollections from his memoir:
 
While The Firebrand was playing eight performances, Monday through Saturday, we were also rehearsing Goodbye My Fancy to open the following Monday.  While Fancy played its eight performance schedule we’d rehearse the next play, and so on down the twelve-week summer season.  We rehearsed five hours a day, but only two hours on matinee days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we learned the lines at night after the evening’s performance.  Jean and Carlton’s rambling old home became our clubhouse, where there was close companionship and plenty of beer on ice.  We cued each other over and over until we had nailed those pages of lines into our brains.  Sleep was the only thing that was rationed.
 
In an on-camera interview for the locally produced television documentary, Mountain Park Memories, Mr. Holbrook recalled,
 
You had to learn all new lines.  A new play…I can’t even believe  today what  we  did.   You’d stay up till 2 o’clock working real hard on your lines.  You’d go back, you’re trying to get six, seven hours sleep.  Get up, rehearse all day, do the show again at night, then learn the lines in the middle of the night for the next.  And you do that every night, every day, week after week.  And it took spirit…
 
Mr. Holbrook’s chapter in his memoir, Harold, on The Valley Players is filled with delightful reminiscences of specific plays.  He would receive his first featured role for The Valley Players in Candlelight in late August.
 
 The Valley Players managers noted of Holbrook in a program at the end of the 1953 season:
 
Admirable actor as he was from the outset in 1951, his work has broadened and deepened and humanized as season after season unfolded.  One of the greatest rewards of summer-theater management is to see a fine actor mature in ever-greater and greater achievements.  All that we can provide is the opportunity: the credit for making the most of it belongs to the actor.  Mr. Holbrook, we believe, will go far in the world of theater…
 
The local press had equally warm thoughts that summer towards the acting company:
 
The Valley Players have made this community a richer place in which to live during the summer season.  They’ve made for us a happy feeling that they belong to us…  The Valley Players themselves, as persons, make a happy factor in our community life.  A group with high standards as individuals, people you wish you might know better and still be able to invest them with the glamour that they lay upon us.  We could wish we might show ourselves as hosts eager to do them honor, we thank Carlton and Jean Guild for choosing to settle into our Holyoke life and for wanting to stay with us…
 
 In 1954 Hal Holbrook went to New York and had a regular job on the radio soap opera, The Brighter Day.  He did regional theatre, and appeared in clubs in New York with skits on some new material he had worked up himself – on the nineteenth century humorist Mark Twain.  It would be his making as an actor.  He performed his Mark Twain persona on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show with Steve Allen on television, and by the end of the decade, would debut a full-length one-man show on Twain—at The Valley Players as a special guest performer in 1957.
 
Mr. Holbrook notes from his autobiography, Harold: 
 
On June 6, just before heading to Holyoke, I got another appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jack Lescoulie as host.  Would that help me fill the big open-sided Mountain Park Casino in Holyoke?  I wondered.
 
Mark Twain Tonight!, presented at Holyoke in its first full-length version, was a career-making event for Hal Holbrook.  It opened The Valley Players’ sixteenth season.  The reviews were fabulous.
 
From Louise Mace of the Springfield Union:
 
“…a unique and rewarding program…in all life, so it seemed, there was Samuel Langhorne Clemens himself, complete with immaculate, comfortably wrinkled white suit, brisk red tie, drooping white mustache, ample white headpiece, and the inevitable cigar…a re-creation of a man and a mind in a deeply kneaded personification.”
 
From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:
 
His portrayal is both a science and an art. He has paid scrupulous attention to detail, from the shuffling walk to the twinkle in his eye.  Hal Holbrook never draws a breath on stage—it is Mark Twain even when he tells a story requiring the dialect and mannerisms of three or four additional characters.  A remarkable piece of showmanship, Mark Twain, Tonight at the Casino through Saturday merits your attendance.
 
The Holyoke Transcript-Telegram called it “a fascinating artistic masterpiece…the young Mr. Holbrook, remembered as the company’s handsome leading man a few year ago, is dropped from mind the instant Mark Twain enters the stage…”
 
 Barbara Bernard, who attended the opening night performance, remembers:
 
I thought: this is going to fall flat on its ear, or it’s going to be something so different.  Well, it was—and it was magnificent.  He came out in that rumpled white suit.  Oh, he was terrific.
 
William Guild recalls:
 
It took him two hours to put on that makeup.  You know, back then you had to use putty and all kinds of stuff that they can do so easily now.  But I mean he was late twenties or maybe thirty.  But I used to drive him up to the theater three hours before the performance for the week that he was doing it, and we would sit in the dressing room while he did makeup, and talk.  I have very fond memories of that.  He was kind of like an uncle in a way.
 
In less than two years, Holbrook’s one-man show would be a smash on Broadway.

(Note, the above photo is of Holbrook as Twain as he preformed it in 1957 on Mt. Tom.  Courtesy Holyoke Public Library History Room and Archives.)
 
******

For your copy of Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, please see this universal link for the eBook available at Barnes & Noble, Apple, and a variety of other online shops.

For the print book and also eBook, please see this link to Amazon.

I hope you enjoy it.  For more of my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Kobo, and a variety of other online shops, please see my website here:  www.JacquelineTLynch.com.

Murder at the Summer Theater - coming in December

Coming in December -- the latest in my Double V Mysteries series - MURDER AT THE SUMMER THEATER.

Casey Koester did the marvelous cover, as she has for the rest of the series, and I'm grateful to her for always coming up with stylish, clever, and evocative images.

More to come on launch date details.  Hope on here to my website to join my email list for updates.  For now, here's a little preview:

Rehearsals grow tense at a summer theater on the Connecticut shore.  The lead actress goes missing – or was she murdered?

Juliet Van Allen and Elmer Vartanian, the “Double V” duo, are called in on the case, but even with Juliet pretending to be an actress and newcomer to the cast, the players are guarding their secrets closely.  There are spurned lovers, jealous wives, scene-stealers and heartbreakers, with enough spirit of vengeance to fill up the loge.  Will the show go on?  Even when a body is found?

Murder at the Summer Theater is the fifth book in the Double V Mysteries series set in New England in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

If you like the charm of a classic film, this “cozy noir” will return you to an era of soft ocean breezes and a glamorous game of suspicion played between acts.  The painted backdrop is the heyday of summer theatre, when greats from the New York stage and Hollywood performed in barns and tents on New England’s famed “straw hat circuit.” Passionate accusations light up the balcony, grim consequences lurk in the dressing room.  Join the nervous producers on the veranda for a champagne cocktail.

It’s a seaside caper where murder is in the spotlight in the summer of 1951, and Juliet and Elmer are on the verge of a new professional – and personal – partnership. 

A Celebration of Mt. Tom - at the MAP Gallery, Easthampton, Massachusetts

Join me in Easthampton at the MAP (Mill Arts Project) Gallery this Saturday, July 14th for a celebration of Mt. Tom in art, natural history, theatre...and ice cream.

I'll be there to meet and greet with my book on theatre on the mountain - Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Join us for --

“The Mountain and Mother Nature”

A father and son exhibit of oil pastels by Ken Gagne and sculptures by Matt Gagne creating an entertaining and thought provoking experience traveling over Mt. Tom witnessing Mother Nature’s power to create, destroy and preserve the beauty of this local resource. 

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 14^th 2018

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

@

The MAP Gallery

in

 The Eastworks Building in Easthampton

Also featuring:

·              Arcadia Sanctuary

·              Jacqueline T. Lynch – local author of  “Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain”

·              Mt. Tom Ice Cream

MAP Gallery in the Eastworks building, 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Easthampton City Arts / Easthampton Cultural Council

Dickens, and Christmas, come to New England

English novelist Charles Dickens came on a book tour to the U.S. in 1842, the first of his trips to America. He was already famous, but it was still some five years before A Christmas Carol was written.  While New York and other parts of the young United States were celebrating Christmas, New England at that time still did not observe the holiday; here Thanksgiving was the big day. In some small measure, the popularity of his yuletide ghost story would help bring Christmas to New England, one of several factors that turned the Puritan tide.

When he was in the Boston area, they took this former workhouse victim to Lowell to show him the factories.  We mentioned his excursion there in this previous post on mill girls.

When Dickens left Lowell, his next stop was Springfield, on February 7, 1842, when accompanied by his wife, he toured the Springfield Armory.   This was before the impressive iron fence was constructed around the Armory.  That was made at the Ames Company in Chicopee, and the project was started in the early 1850s and not completed until 1865.  We may assume at the time of Dickens’ visit, the cows of local farmers continued to stray across the quadrangle and the lawns of the Army officers’ quarters.  


After his brief tour of the Armory, Dickens traveled down the Connecticut River to Hartford aboard a steamboat.  We discussed that journey in this previous post.

Though Dickens apparently felt favorably toward Massachusetts, the United States on the whole did not impress him on that trip, and, of course, he was particularly angered and disgusted by slavery.  He wrote of his impressions in American Notes.  He had made two trips here in 1842, but did not return until after the Civil War, when in 1867 on his next trip, both the war and slavery were over.  

Something else was different, too.  New England had adopted the custom of celebrating Christmas.  He could see this for himself as he arrived in late November and remained for the following month, giving readings from his novels in Boston and in New York.

The following year, 1868, he returned for another book tour, this time commencing in February and returning to England in late April.  He gave his readings in Boston, New York City and upstate, as well as Washington, Philadelphia, and in Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.  He read from many of his books, including A Christmas Carol.

His first public reading of A Christmas Carol was on December 3, 1867 at the Tremont Temple in Boston. According to this article at the New England Historical Society website, his agent noted the audience reaction at the end of the first chapter:

When at least the reading of The Carol was finished, and the final words had been delivered, and "So, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one," a dead silence seemed to prevail -- a sort of public sigh as it were -- only to be broken by cheers and calls, the most enthusiastic and uproarious.

He spoke at Tilly Haynes’ Music Hall in Springfield on March 20, 1868.  For a long time, the Tilly Haynes Music Hall on Main Street was the only theater in Springfield, built in 1856.  It burned down in 1864.  Haynes rebuilt it, and in 1881, he sold out to Dwight O. Gilmore, who established Gilmore’s Opera House there, until it burned down in 1897.  Twentieth century audiences would remember this as the site of the Capitol movie theater that showed Warner Brothers films. That has long since been demolished and is now the site of One Financial Plaza.

He arrived here on the train during a snowstorm, and stayed at the Massasoit House (part of this building remains in the building that was later constructed in 1929 for the Paramount Theater).  The Music Hall was packed for his appearance, as he was probably the most famous author of his day.

The Springfield Republican reported,

“Mr. Dickens is not a reader... He is simply and emphatically a very natural and delightful actor, gifted with the power of throwing a whole personality into his face.” He spoke in the voices Scrooge, the Cratchits, Mr. Pickwick and other characters from his novels. “There walks on the stage a gentleman who gives you no time to think about him, and dazzles you with 20 personalities.” 

He was “slightly bent, in the street not a remarkably noticeable man.” His face “bears signs of incessant toil.”

The tour was successful, but has been described as grueling, and Dickens died only two years later in 1870 at the age of 58.  That year, President Ulysses S. Grant declared Christmas a national holiday.

We discuss two classic film versions of A Christmas Carol in my post “Mankind Was My Business” here at Another Old Movie Blog.

Goodspeed Opera House - RAGS - East Haddam, Connecticut

A press release from The Goodspeed:

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR GOODSPEED’S NEW VERSION OF RAGS

A bold refocusing of the musical by Broadway legends Strouse, Schwartz, and Stein

 with a revised book by David Thompson is set for The Goodspeed this fall

EAST HADDAM, CONN August 31, 2017: Join Rebecca and David Hershkowitz as they journey to a “brand new world” in Goodspeed’s reinvented Rags. Original creators Charles Strouse and Stephen Schwartz have teamed up with David Thompson, who has adapted Joseph Stein’s book, to rework this timely and inspiring piece. Goodspeed explores the grit and determination of American immigrants through this joyous reimagining of a musical by  some of Broadways biggest legends. Rags will run October 6 – December 10 at The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn [Official Press Opening will be October 25, 2017].

Welcome to the new world! Fresh from Ellis Island, a young mother and her son search for a new life and a sense of home as the 20th century beckons. The streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side may not be paved with gold, but they echo with the music of opportunity, optimism and hope. A ravishing score by the songwriters of Annie and Wicked colors a sweeping saga of America’s immigrant past. Celebrate our rich roots in Goodspeed’s new adaptation of a neglected masterpiece of the musical theatre.  Rags is made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Eversource Energy, and Amica Insurance.

Directed by Rob Ruggiero, Rags features music by Charles Strouse, original book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, revised book by David Thompson and vocal arrangements are by David Loud.

Samantha Massell will play Rebecca Hershkowitz. Ms. Massell recently performed the role of Hodel in the 2015 Tony nominated Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She performed in the Broadway production of La Bohème and the New York City Center ENCORES! productions of Little Me and It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane …It’s Superman. Regionally she performed as Florika (Esmerelda U/S) in the La Jolla and Paper Mill Play House productions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and in The MUNY productions of Aladdin, Into the Woods and Bye Bye Birdie. David Hershkowitz will be played by Connecticut native Christian Michael Camporin, who was in the original Broadway productions of Finding Neverland, covering both the roles of Michael Llewelyn Davies  and Jack Llewelyn Davies, and Matilda The Musical in the role of Eric.

Sal Russo will be played by Sean MacLaughlin who made his Broadway debut as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. Sara Kapner will be playing Bella Cohen. On stage, Ms. Kapner was most recently seen performing in the MUNY’s 2015 production of Into the Woods, but can also be seen in Twisted Sisters and The Murder Pact, which are both currently running on Lifetime TV. Returning to the Goodspeed stage after playing Tevye in 2014’s Fiddler on the Roof as well as performing in Goodspeed’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Pseudolus) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Harry) is Adam Heller who will be playing Avram Cohen. Mr. Heller’s most recent Broadway credits include Uncle Morty in the Original Broadway Production of It Shoulda Been You, Elf The Musical, and Baby It’s You!.

Mitch Greenberg returns to Goodspeed as Jack Blumberg having previously performed in Cutman the musical and You Never Know. On Broadway, Mr. Greenberg was in the 2015 Revival of Fiddler on the Roof and the Broadway hit It Shoulda Been You. The role of Anna Blumberg will be played by Emily Zacharias who made her Broadway debut in Chu Chem as Lotte. Ms. Zacharias was also in the original Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde as Guinevere. Also returning to Goodspeed in the role of Rachel Brodsky will be Lori Wilner who previously performed the as Golde in Goodspeed’s 2014 production of Fiddler on the Roof. Additionally, Ms. Wilner played Grandma Tzeitel in the 2015 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

Returning to The Goodspeed stage having wowed audiences as Billy Crocker in the 2016 hit Anything Goes,  David Harris will perform the role of Max Bronfman. Earlier this year, Mr. Harris was seen in the role of Father in Barrington Stage’s production of Ragtime and as Dan Goodman in TheaterWorks’ acclaimed production of Next to Normal. Nathan Salstone will be playing Ben Levitowitz. A recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Salstone’s one-man play All Anonymous featuring original music and lyrics premiered at The Carnegie Mellon School of Drama’s ‘Playground’ in December 2016.

The members of the Quintet include JD Daw who recently performed the roles of Doctor Madden in TheaterWorks’ production of Next to Normal, Jacey in The Muny’s production of The Music Man and Sir Dennis Galahad in North Shore Music Theatre’s Spamalot. Joining him will be Ellie Fishman whose credits include A Christmas Story at Paper Mill Playhouse and both Beauty and the Beast and My Fair Lady at The MUNY. Danny Lindgren returns to Goodspeed as a member of the Quintet having previously appeared on The Goodspeed stage as Clark Gable in Chasing Rainbows, as Smokey in Damn Yankees and as Jake in The Most Happy Fella. Some of Mr. Lindgren’s favorite credits include Benny in Guy and Dolls and Will Parker in Oklahoma! both at Finger Lakes Music Theatre Festival and Nephew Fred in A Christmas Carol at The McCarter Theatre. Sarah Solie whose many Broadway credits include the original Broadway productions of Mary Poppins, High Society, Beauty and the Beast and Cats and Jeff Williams who made his Broadway debut in the 2000 revival of The Music Man and was most recently performed in the Off-Broadway production of Death for Five Voices round out the Quintet.  The swings will be Catalina Gaglioti, (Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals We Foxes ,Off-Broadway’s Temple of the Souls ) and Giovanni DiGabriele (Second National Tour of Cinderella).  Gordon Beck will understudy the role of David Hershkowitz.

Rags will be directed Rob Ruggiero who has directed numerous Goodspeed productions  including Carousel, Camelot, Show Boat, 1776 and Fiddler on the Roof. He has received numerous awards and nominations for his regional work including multiple Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. Mr. Ruggiero conceived and directed the original musical revue Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn which garnered him nominations for both Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Mr. Ruggiero currently serves  as the Producing Artistic Director at TheaterWorks in Hartford, where he conceived and directed the highly successful Ella, a production that received Kevin Kline and Joseph Jefferson Awards and has since been produced at major regional theaters around the country.

Choreography will be by Parker Esse who returns to Goodspeed where his previous credits include Fiddler on the Roof, A Wonderful Life, The Most Happy Fella and Carousel.  Mr. Esse choreographed Sondheim and Marsalis’ A Bed and A Chair: A New York Love Affair at New York City Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is a three-time Helen Hayes nominee and 2010 winner for Best Choreography for Arena Stage’s Oklahoma!. Mr. Esse has served as Associate Choreographer for Broadway’s Finian’s Rainbow, A Tale of Two Cities and multiple New York City Center Encores! productions.

Scenic design will be by Michael Schweikardt who has designed several shows at Goodspeed including Fiddler on the Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Carousel, Show Boat, and Big River. He received a Broadway World Award for Best Scenic Design for Showboat as well as a Connecticut Critic’s Circle Award for Best Scenic Design for Big River. Mr. Schweikardt has designed the world premieres of Nobody Loves You and Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House at The Old Globe as well as the Off-Broadway production of Bloodsong of Love at Ars Nova and  several productions at TheaterWorks in Hartford. Other Off-Broadway credits include ReWrite (Urban Stages), The Black Suits (The Public Theater), Things to Ruin (Second Stage, The Zipper Factory), The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks (TheatreWorks USA) and Tryst (Irish Rep). Additionally, he has designed for theatres such as The MUNY, Papermill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse and California Musical Theatre.

Costume design will be by Tony Award winner Linda Cho who returns to Goodspeed where she previously created the costumes for  A Little Night Music. Her designs can currently be seen in the Broadway production of Anastasia for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award and Drama Desk Award. Ms. Cho won the Antoinette Perry and Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Ms. Cho received the 2017 Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Other credits include designing for places such the Theater for a New Audience, Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, NY Public Theater, Asia Society, Classic Stage Company, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Royal Shakespeare Company and Hong Kong Performing Arts Center.

Lighting design will be by John Lasiter who has designed Goodspeed’s productions of Fiddler on the Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Show Boat, Carousel among others. Other Connecticut credits include, designs for Long Wharf Theater, Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks. On Broadway, Mr. Lasiter designed High, and Off-Broadway, he designed Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn.

Sound design will be by Jay Hilton who has designed countless productions at both The Terris Theatre and The Goodspeed. His work has also been heard on Broadway, National Tours and regional theatres from coast to coast. He also serves as Goodspeed’s audio supervisor.

Wig and Hair design will be by Mark Adam Rampmeyer whose work can been seen in Goodspeeds current production of Oklahoma!. Other Goodspeed credits include Thoroughly Modern Millie;  Anything Goes; Bye Bye Birdie and Chasing Rainbows, as well as  La Cage aux Folles, Good News!, 42^nd Street and Big River to name a few. On Broadway, he designed West Side Story, Lysistrata Jones and The Farnsworth Invention.

The Music Director will be Michael O’Flaherty who is in his 26^thseason as Goodspeed’s Resident Music Director. His Broadway credits include By Jeeves and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. O’Flaherty has written music and lyrics for A Connecticut Christmas Carol which will be produced at The Terris Theatre this fall. Orchestrations will be provided by Dan DeLange who has created the orchestrations for over 40 Goodspeed productions. His orchestrations for Show Boat have been nominated for the Best Revival Musical Oliver Award in London. Vocal Arrangements will be by David Loud who returns to Goodspeed having previously provided arrangements for Red, Hot and Blue and served as Music Director for Band Geeks!  at The Terris Theatre.  Mr. Loud’s Broadway credits include vocal and dance arrangements for  Sondheim on Sondheim, vocal arrangements for Curtains,  The Boys from Syracuse, and Steel Pier. In addition, he has been credited as Conductor, Music Director and Music Supervisor for numerous Broadway productions. David Loud has created musical arrangements for Audra McDonald, Barbara Cook, Betty Buckley, Andrea McArdle, Norm Lewis, Bernadette Peters, Paolo Szot among others.

Casting for Rags is by Paul Hardt of Stewart/Whitley Casting.

Rags will run October 6 – December 10, 2017 [Official Press Opening October 25] Curtain times are Wednesday at 2:00p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (with select performances at 2:00 p.m.), Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. (with select performances at 6:30 p.m.).

Tickets are available through the Box Office (860.873.8668), open seven days a week, or online at goodspeed.org. For show highlights, exclusive photos, special events and more, visit us at goodspeed.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter @goodspeedmusicl, Instagram and YouTube.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Michael Gennaro, Goodspeed Musicals is dedicated to the preservation, development and advancement of musical theatre. Goodspeed produces three musicals each season at The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn., and additional productions at The Terris Theatre in Chester, Conn., which was opened in 1984 for the development of new musicals. The first regional theatre to receive two Tony Awards (for outstanding achievement), Goodspeed also maintains The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre. Goodspeed gratefully acknowledges the support of United Airlines, the official airline of Goodspeed Musicals; official audio sponsor Sennheiser; and official auto sponsor Hoffman Audi. Goodspeed is also grateful for the support of the Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts.