27th Festival Season - 2005
Maytime
By: Sigmund Romberg
Libretto by: Rida Johnson Young and Cyrus Wood
Premiere: Shubert Theater, New York, August 16, 1917
The Shubert brothers routinely bought the rights to European musicals and revamped them for American consumption, usually keeping the Continental settings. When World War I made German imports unpatriotic, they had Romberg write totally new music for Walter Kollo's 1913 hit, Wie einst im Mai, moving the locale to old New York and retitling the show Maytime. It became Broadway's biggest attraction during the war years. The blockbuster M-G-M 1937 film version, featuring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, had little in common with the original stage show, either musically or dramatically. The one exception is the song "Will you Remember?" ("Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Sweetheart"), which will again thrill you as you listen to Romberg's complete original score.
The multi-generational story concerns the frustrated love affair of Richard and Ottilie, whose father compels her to marry instead the chronic gambler Claude. Left penniless at Claude's death years later, she is also left hopeless as Richard has, in the meantime, married someone else. Many years pass; Ottilie has died, but her granddaughter, also named Ottilie, now runs a dressmaking business in her grandmother's old house. Richard's grandson drops by the shop, falls in love with Ottilie, and the two together achieve the happiness that was denied their grandparents.
| Production Team | |
| Conductor | Steven Byess |
| Stage Director | Julie Wright |
| Choreographer | Carol Hageman |
| Set Designer | Tymberley A. Wittrig |
| Costume Designer | Charlene Gross |
| Lighting Designer | Danielle Baisden |
| Cast | |
| John Wayne | Sam Haddad |
| Richard Wayne, his son | Vernon Di Carlo Joshua Kohl |
| Colonel Van Zandt | Michael Hix |
| Ottilie, his daughter | Amy Pfrimmer Robin De Leon |
| Claude Van Zandt | Justin Legris |
| Matthew Van Zandt | Tyler Nelson |
| Mathilda Van Zandt, Matthew's first wife | Alta Boover |
| Angelica, Matthew's second wife | Lisa Gerstenkorn |
| Lizzie, Matthew's third wife | Jessica Hornsten |
| Maitre d' | Brian Tanner |
| Alice Tremaine | Kari Sorenson |
| Maria | Sarah Walker |
| Rudolfo | Brian Tanner |
| Madame Delphine | Catherine Greer |
| Algernon | Zachary Wilder |
| John Rutherford | James Barbato |
| Mr. Hicks, auctioneer | Jonathan Michie |
| Ermintrude D'Albert | Shannon Langman |
| Gladys | Valerie Hart Nelson |
| Hortense | Elizabeth Mitchell |
| Phyllis, a model | Sarah Walker |
| Winnifred St. Albans | Erin Jackson |
| Young Ottilie & Madame Brown, Ottilie's granddaughter | Danielle McCormick |
| Young Richard Wayne & 'Dicky' Wayne, Richard Wayne's grandson | Grant Knox |
| Women of the Ensemble: | |
| Sarah Asmar, Alta Boover, Julianna Byess, Robin De Leon, Lisa Gerstenkorn, Catherine Greer, Jessica Hornsten, Erin Jackson, Shannon Langman, Danielle McCormick, Elizabeth Mitchell, Valerie Hart Nelson, Amy Pfrimmer, Sandra Ross, Rachel Rowe, Kari Sorenson, Sarah Walker | |
| Men of the Ensemble: | |
| James Barbato, Jeremiah Butterfield, Vernon Di Carlo, Samuel Haddad, Oliver Henderson, Michael Hix, Grant Knox, Joshua Kohl, Justin Legris, Jonathan Michie, Tyler Nelson, Brian Tanner, Zachary Wilder | |
