Forecast -- 100% chance of rain!

We topped off our July theatre odysessy with a trip to Beverly MA, via Boston. Only 25 miles from Boston, North Shore Musical Theatre (NSMT) is located on beautiful grounds, complete with mini-forest and path for wandering. Recently refurbished after a fire, NSMT has a circular stage -- theatre in the round at last!

The TOM JONES I saw and loved at NYMF 2005 was originally produced at NSMT.

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is based on the MGM Film (original choreography by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen), with screenplay and adaptation by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and songs by Nachio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed.

This production was directed and choreogrpahed by Richard Stafford, with musical direction by Richard Hip-Flores.

What a fun show! It was very cool to see it "in the round". You didn't feel like you were seeing the back of the show at any time, you were just getting a different perspective. For example in the scene where Lina is out mouthing "Singing In The Rain" and Kathy Seldon is actually singing it behind the curtain (before the big reveal), I got to watch the scene unfold behind the curtain, while the people on the other side of the audience got to see Lina mouthing the words. And of course in the round worked seemlessly during big dance numbers.

The cast was great -- Matt Loehr as Don Lockwood, Mark Ledbetter as Cosmo, Kelly D. Felthous as Kathy Seldon and Beth Beyer as Lina Lamont. Beth really nailed Lina's soothing accent!

Lina even had a number in the second act called "What's Wrong With Me", which I had never heard before. I wonder if it was in the film but got cut during editing? During the "Make 'Em Laugh" number Mark Ledbetter misjudged a distance and threw a bucket into the audience instead into a bin, and brought the house down with laughter!

The really cool thing about this production was the use of the silent films, ("The Dancing Cavalier", "The Dueling Cavalier", etc.) filmed with this cast and projected on three screens in the theatre's house. Those screens became part of a 360-degree projection surface employing light, patterns, projections and the moving image. The show actually started with a black and white film of Jon Kimbell, the artistic director and executive producer, talking about the show. Very cool.

Did it rain? Twice! I couldn't believe it! In the iconic "Singin' In The Rain" number they actually "poured" (it never rains, it pours) hundreds of gallons of water on the stage so those were real puddles Matt (aka Don) was a-splashin' in! Very cool! And at the end of the show after the curtain call the cast all come back on stage in yellow slickers and they sang and danced a reprise of "Singin' In The Rain" -- and it poured again! I was sure somebody was going to fall and break his/her neck. Sure enough, someone did slip -- but just bruised his behind (I'm assuming) because he sprang back up again with a big smile on his face!

Now say it with me, "I Cawn't Stand It!"

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