'Nice Work ... If You Can Get It' comes to the stage at Centralia College
May 6-Starting this Friday, May 8, actors and dancers from both the Centralia College Theatre and Centralia Ballet Academy will be performing "Nice Work ... If You Can Get It" - a musical based on Joe DiPietro's book featuring music by Roaring Twenties-era jazz musicians and brothers Ira and George Gershwin.
The musical will be showing at the Corbet Theatre, located at 600 Centralia College Blvd. in the Hub City. Shows begin at 7 p.m. on May 8, May 9, May 15 and May 16, with 2 p.m. Sunday matinees scheduled for May 10 and May 17. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online at https://tinyurl.com/23tfrmp4.
According to Emmy Kreilkamp, the show's director, "Nice Work ... If You Can Get It" is a newer musical that premiered on Broadway in 2012, but pays homage to the Jazz Age during the Roaring Twenties with all of its songs sourced from the Gershwin brothers.
The Gershwins were prolific songwriters for Broadway at the beginning of the 20th century, writing songs for dozens of shows between 1913 up until George's death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira would continue composing musical numbers throughout his life for both theater and film up until the 1960s, and died at the age of 86 in 1983.
Aside from the song which the musical is named after, other famous hits from the Gershwins in the performance include "I Got Rhythm," "The Man I Love," and "Embraceable You."
The duo also wrote 13 of their own full musicals together, with the most celebrated being "Crazy Girl," released in 1930. Another of their musicals, "Of Thee I Sing," was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1932.
"Many of these may be tunes that you didn't realize you knew until you hear them and they ring a bell. Many of them have become Jazz standards, populating albums and finding their way into compilations from our favorite musicians," Kreilkamp said in the program director's note.
The musical, which is the final show of Centralia College Theatre's Centennial Season, is set in Long Island, New York, during the summer of 1927 amid the peak of prohibition with bootleggers running illegal liquor to hidden speakeasies.
"While the 1920s era is known for its tycoons who amassed extreme wealth, many ordinary Americans struggled to make ends meet, living in tenement houses, in poverty and squalor," Kreilkamp added. "... And while (the) stock market was at its peak in 1927, when the play is set, all of that was about to change, when the market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression. 'Nice Work' satirizes some of that disregard for working people in a playful way, poking fun at the characters' lack of awareness of ordinary Americans. It is also a classic love story, pairing two unlikely people together, who unexpectedly fall madly - if impractically - in love with each other."
The cast of "Nice Work ... If You Can Get It," includes:
-Isaac DeLarme as Jimmy Winter
-Alex Greene as Billie Bendix
-Tristen Olson as Cookie McGee
-Rebecca Fogde as Eileen Evergreen
-Robert Kam as Duke Mahoney
-Ed Thorpe as Senator Max Evergreen
-Nicole Galyean as Duchess Estonia Dulworth
-Erika Skorstad as Jeannie Muldoon
-Derek Wilson as Chief Berry
-Anne Schuchmann as Millicent Winter
Members of the musical's Vice Squad include Cael Best, Christian Crossland, Owen Hedgers, Matt Leggett, Douglas Morgan, Zachary Mullin and Landen Andrew Nowa.
Chorus members include Melissa Baine, Coral Earrame, Alexis "Lexy" Fineman, Samantha Gunter, Emma Hashagen, Nora Hedgers, Briana Smith, Lydia Smith, Asha Tummeti, Rowan Villanueva and Adeline Wilhelmi.
Aside from Kreilkamp, the musical's production staff also includes Steven Moncado, Nancy Gunter, Theresa McMurray, Thomas Perkins, Hailey Hubbard, Alex Eades, John Olive, Rebecca Fogde, Samantha Gunter, Briana Smith, Melissa Maañao, Madeline Gwinn, David Locklin, Maren Jeg, Kirsten Kifer, Marvic Sandoval, Bella Tenney, Richard Fitzwater, Rick Perkins, Karl Penn, Mike Sage and Brendan Morrison.
Performing the musical numbers in the show's orchestra are Steven Moncado, Melissa Maañao, Brian Smith, Rebecca Bisson, Parker Morrison, David Grady, August Homewood, Louie Blaser, Lauri Lindberg, Jayden Dean, Kirsten Kifer, Max Minjares, Jason Kochis, Micah Curtis and Travis Larson.
"I am sincerely grateful for the Herculean efforts of the cast, the diligent and patient crew, the fabulous choreographers who brought the dances to life, our wonderful designers who put their heart and soul into the piece, and our talented musicians who make up our live orchestra," Kreilkamp said. "We are so lucky to have such remarkable talent and tremendous passion here at Centralia College. I feel very fortunate to have spent the last 10 years of my life on these stages. Enjoy this fantastic piece and feel free to sing along to these catchy tunes!"
For more information on the Centralia College Theatre program including how to donate and get involved, visit its website at https://www.centralia.edu/pathways/arts-humanities/drama.aspx.
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