OHS Drama Department Presents Spring Musical LUCKY STIFF
Left to Right: Cast members Jade Whitley, Greg Ewart, Hendrik DeBie, Jack Dawson, and Grace VerSteegh in music rehearsal last month. (Photo courtesy of Graceful Photos)
“Borrowing the anything-goes spirit of lunatic innocence from the musicals of the 1920s…. A wild and crazy sick joke set to music, it’s a funny show!” – Leo Seligsohn, New York Newsday
by Lily Vernooy, Lucky Stiff Marketing Team member
Lucky Stiff mixes “the zany antics of a Marx Brothers movie with a preposterous plot of a serial cliffhanger.” Alongside an English shoe salesman tasked with bringing his uncle’s corpse on the vacation of a lifetime, there’s “$6 million in stolen loot, a henpecked optometrist, a plethora of offstage dogs, and a course, a happy ending.”
The cast features Gregory Ewart as Harry Witherspoon, Madeline Keough as Annabel Glick, Joanna Thury as Rita La Porta, Nicholas Ingamells as Vincent Di Ruzzio, Hendrik DeBie as Luigi Gaudi, and Sage Cochran, Jack Dawson, Madeline Hamilton, Joshua Hartl, Grace Richardson, and others as a host of zany supporting characters.
The book and lyrics are by Lynn Ahrens and the music is by Stephen Flaherty. Lucky Stiff was the team’s first collaboration, and they have gone on to write well-received shows like Ragtime, Once on This Island, Seussical, and Anastasia. Allison Lingren McGuire will direct the musical, which will be performed on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2. Lucky Stiff is based on the crime novel The Man Who Broke the Bank At Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth.
Lingren McGuire explains that “Lucky Stiff premiered in 1988, so at 20 years old it’s still relatively new, but if you love Fiddler on the Roof, Anything Goes, or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, you will see nods and send-ups to these musical comedy greats in this farce!”
Lucky Stiff features a cast of 18 energetic students and 20 hard-working production team members behind the scenes working stage magic like set and costume design, props, lighting, sound, publicity, and fundraising.
This year the Oskaloosa Drama Department will be participating in the Iowa High School Musical Theatre Awards presented by EMC Insurance Companies as an initiative of Des Moines Performing Arts. The entire department is looking forward to participating, including the director. “I have been involved with the Iowa High School Musical Theatre Awards since its second year in existence,” says Lingren McGuire. “I believe very strongly in its purpose. The program is celebratory in nature, so one of the aspects the adjudicators comment upon is the atmosphere, attendance, and enthusiasm shown for the high school drama department at the performance they attend. I would love for these visitors to see how strongly the Oskaloosa community supports the endeavors of its students!”
Tickets for the show will be $7 for adults, $5 for students, and free for those with activity passes. The curtain will rise on the March 1 and 2 performances at 7:30 p.m at the George Daily Auditorium.
