By: David de Young
A Minneapolis Musical Theatre Production at Hennepin Stages
Summer of ‘42 is a 2001 musical based on the 1971 film of the same name with a screenplay by Herman Raucher. The stage adaptation was written by Hunter Foster with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum. The area debut, with direction and musical direction by Minneapolis Musical Theatre Executive Director Kevin Hanson, premiered Friday, March 7th in Minneapolis at Hennepin Stages. Choreography is by Windy Bowlsby.
When all is said and done, leaving a show feeling good and really glad you went may be the most you can ask. And that’s what the MMT production of Summer of ‘42 does for you. Call it the “feel good musical production of March 2008” if you will, but in all its clichéd glory it’s a top-notch proverbial coming of age story; as Lloyd Cole has sung, “The reason it’s a cliché is because it’s true.” Sometimes didactic; it’s musical theater and that’s one of the things it surely ought to be. But mostly it’s hilarious, and you’ll be laughing early and often at the adolescent and sexual humor. As the director’s notes say, “In everyone’s life there’s Summer of ’42.” It’s universally applicable; whatever year your 1942 may happen to be.
The show starts strong and cuts straight to the action on June 1, 1942, the full cast singing the main theme “The Summer You’ll Always Remember.” The pacing of the show is near perfect, and though there are a few moments here and there to catch your breath, there really aren’t any dead spots. The run time of just over two hours (including the 15-minute intermission) goes by almost too quickly.
The cast features mostly newcomers to MMT. Cade Bittner makes his debut with the company as a heartwarming and geeky Hermie. Jennifer Eckes returns as Dorothy after a production of Kiss of the Spider Woman last season, and you may also know her from The Sound of Music at The Ordway or various productions with The Minnesota Opera. Hermie’s pals, the loveably chauvinistic Oscy (who lives to cop a feel) and the nerdy Benjie, are played by a jovial, John Belushi-esque Nick Sahl and a convincingly timid C. Ryan Shipley respectively. The trio of “summer girls,” Aggie, Gloria and Miriam are played by a grounding Mariya Maragos, a hilarious Courtney Miner and the subtly powerful Colleen Somerville. All are working with MMT for the first time, though they've been seen around the Twin Cities many times in other productions. Paul Whittemore as Dorothy’s ill-fated husband makes his seventh appearance in an MMT production.
There are almost too many memorable successes here to mention—comedic, musical and otherwise—but just to call out just a few, there are choice lines like Oscy’s to Hermie after Dorothy has asked him to her house to help move boxes, “Coffee at 10? She’s practically begging you to feel her up!” Mr. Sanders the grocer (played by Larry J. Evens) singing about Hermie’s condom purchase, “Different people fill them up with different things.” (You may remember the reference about throwing water-filled condoms off of roofs from the film version.) “Man About the House,” sung by the trio of girls, is one of several musical highlights.
The able four-piece band is quite close stage right (separated only by a Plexiglas barrier) but it’s still easy to hear all the actors despite no amplification used in the production (the theater is small and everyone’s close, so all the seats are all good.) On opening night, the audience laughter or applause sometimes cut into the first bits of the dialog which followed, but I hazard to say that’s probably a good problem to have, and one that’s easy to fix on a go forward basis.
Summer of ’42 runs through March 30th. Tickets and more information can be found at http://www.aboutmmt.org/about/history/summer_of_42/
Location Info:
The Hennepin Stages
Artist Info: Minneapolis Musical Theatre
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