More Details About Schoolhouse Rock Live! Too
More Information
Website: http://schoolhouserockla.com/
<p>West Coast professional premiere of a musical based on the classic 1970s TV show.</p>
<p>Back in 2007, Greenway Arts Alliance scored a huge success with its production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!, a musical revue based on the classic 1970s TV series. The production achieved critical acclaim and ran for months.</p>
<p>The show has a sequel of sorts, more plot driven and a lot more immediately relevant than the original, but with plenty of music and dancing and a live three-piece band on stage.</p>
<p>Tom, the new school teacher is back. Times are tough, and the economy is depressed. There’s a diner where Tom likes to eat, but business is worse than awful, and if things don’t improve soon, the bank will foreclose on the diner. It will shut down, Tom’s new friends will be out of work, and there will be no more friendly neighborhood place to hang out and chow down.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Everything I Need To Know In Life I Learned From Watching Schoolhouse Rock. Equipped with the motivation and knowledge contained in Schoolhouse Rock songs, Tom rallies his pals Cookie, Rebecca, Nina, Julie and Lucky with a scheme to save the diner in time before disaster strikes.</p>
<p>Twenty or so bouncy musical numbers are guaranteed to make hands clap and toes tap, among them “Naughty Number Nine,” “Them Not-So-Dry Bones,” “I Got Six,” “Tax Man Max,” along with the old favorites “Interjections,” “I’m Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,”and so much more.</p>
<p>Rick Sparks directs. He has a long-established reputation as one of L.A’s favorite directors of musicals and comedies. He is also a writer, producer, actor and sound designer. His many credits include “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “A Charlie Brown Commercial Christmas” (all for Greenway), “Don’t Talk To The Actors” (recently at Laguna Playhouse), “Divorce ! The Musical” (a unanimous Critic’s Pick upgraded to an Equity Contract run at the Hudson and still running indefinitely), and much more. He has twice won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Direction.</p>
<p>His cast for “Schoolhouse Rock Live Too!” includes Harley Jay (of the Broadway and National Touring companies of “Rent”), Jayme Lake, (“Songs For The New World” at the Rubicon), Lisa Tharps, (star of “Medea” at the Boston Court), Tricia Kelly (“Beehive” at the El Portal), Michael Lopez (“The 99 Cent Show” at the Bootleg) , Brian Wesley Turner (“West Side Story” at Bucks County Playhouse) and Kelly Meyersfield (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at Repertory East).</p>
<p>Lighting design: Jeremy Pivnick. Scenic design: Adam Flemming. Sound design: Fionnegan Justus Murphy. For Greenway Arts Alliance: Production manager- Darin Dahms. Producing director-Dan Friedman. Co-Artistic Directors- Whitney Weston, Pierson Blaetz.</p>
<p>Don’t dismiss this show as simple kiddie theatre. It’s not, and wouldn’t be with a director like Rick Sparks. While the show will naturally appeal to and is eminently suitable for kids and tweens, Schoolhouse Rock Live Too! will charm adult audiences including musical theatre buffs, boomers with a nostalgic attachment to the original TV series, young hipsters attracted to the show’s retro appeal, and theatre patrons who just want a singing, dancing good time. </p>
Greenway Arts Alliance
The dual mission of GREENWAY Arts Alliance is to entertain and inform - to expand cultural awareness, and enrich people of all ages and backgrounds, by creating a bridge between the artistic and educational communities.
