So 'Marvelous': PSST! returns to stage
Jun. 15—VALDOSTA — As Peach State Summer Theatre gets back into action, the new show promises to take audiences back in time.
PSST! opens this week with a combination live audience/live-streaming production of "The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On." Seventy-five seats are available in Sawyer Theatre for each of the 10 scheduled performances that will also be live-streamed to paying audiences at home.
Audiences are invited into Sawyer Theatre for the first time since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic 15 months ago. PSST! had to cancel its 2020 season and reduced its traditional three summer shows to one this year.
And that one show promises to be colorful, fun, funny and a great way to return to the theatre for cast and crew and audiences, said Hank Rion, show director, and Megan Wheeler, show choreographer.
"The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On" is a sequel to the popular "Marvelous Wonderettes" which PSST! performed for sell-out audiences several seasons ago. It features a small, four-member cast backed by a live band of musicians.
Written by playwright Roger Bean, the four girls of the Wonderettes return to their high school in the late 1960s and then again in the late 1970s for their 20th class reunion. The Wonderettes are a singing group and perform hits from both eras spanning from the pop/ psychedelia of the 1960s to the disco thrum of the 1970s, arranged by Michael Borth.
Songs include "Gimme Some Lovin'" "All I Know a Place/Downtown," "Once In My Life, "Hurting Each Other/More Today Than Yesterday," "Build Me Up, Buttercup," "You're No Good," "I've Got The Music In Me," "Listen To The Music," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "I Can See Clearly Now/I Am Woman," "I Will Survive," "The Hustle," "Band of Gold," "We Are Family," etc.
While the professional four-member cast of Jenna Najjar, Adrienne B. Griffiths, Brittany Luberda and Mica Dominguez-Robinson is new to PSST!, Rion and Wheeler are Peach State veterans.
He has directed and participated in numerous PSST! shows in Valdosta and its predecessor of summer musical theatre seasons on Jekyll Island. Wheeler has been a regular on stage in numerous PSST! shows through the years.
She said the "Wonderettes" is the perfect show for her choreography style — big, bold and colorful. Rion said she is the perfect behind-the-scenes collaborator for a show that's been fun to produce in a challenging era.
They added that "Wonderettes" is the perfect way for theatre-goers and theatre people to return to the stage after the pandemic hiatus.
One show, a small cast, light and fun, a small audience, live-streaming ... anything else may have been too much, too soon, they said.
More information: PSST!'s "The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On" opens 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 16, and runs through June 26, Sawyer Theatre and online. Call the VSU Theatre & Dance / PSST! box office, (229) 253-2914, 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Tickets are available online at ShowTix4U.com and are $35 for individual streaming access on a single device, $35 for the live audience experience, and $60 for household streaming access.