ACC play prepped for weekend
This weekend’s play in the park, “45 Minutes from Broadway,” is a fast-moving production. The punchlines come quick, the dance numbers are memorable and the songs catchy.
Director Tony Piazza referred to the Allen Community College play as “classic.”
The play, which is brief compared to many other productions, is not short on entertainment. The setting is 1925, on the stage of a Broadway theater in New York City. Mary Collins, a young girl from New Rochelle, N.Y., (which is coincidentally 45 minutes away from New York) arrives at the stage of a Broadway company with stars in her eyes. She is played by Sydney Owens, a strong singer and dancer.
“I knew when you walked in this theater you had a certain something,” Dick Foster says to Mary when he meets her. Foster is the director of the play within the play, acted to a T by Zach St. Clair. But, as the audience comes to find, the company is on hard financial times and struggling to find money for its play. One of their only hopes is to enlist the help of the “temperamental” Mona Monroe, a famous Broadway actress played by Madison Luken.
“I owe money to everyone I meet,” Foster says to his assistant Eddie Cowles, played by Justice Boll.
“Sounds like you’re living the American dream,” Cowles responds.
If the drama wasn’t thick enough, add the tension between Legs Ruby, played by Whitney Olsen, and his “friends” — Mugsy and Bugsy, played by Matthew Wynn and Jacob Cooper, two mobsters who want to see him in a “concrete overcoat.” Legs is romantically involved with Trixie, a chorus girl in the Broadway company, and is using the theater to hide from the gangsters.
“Something funny is going on here,” Mugsy says to Trixie, suspicious of her intentions.
“Yeah, we are putting on a musical comedy,” Trixie quips back.
At this point, things are just getting warmed up.
A mysterious business student named Donald Harper, played by Nick Thomsen, arrives with a gift for the company — it changes everything, especially for Mary Collins, who catches the eye of the young student.
A PERFECT companion to a summer outing, “45 Minutes from Broadway” will keep your attention. The play opens at Riverside Park at 7:30 p.m. Friday and again on Saturday.
Rounding out the cast are Zach Cokely, Isaiah Wicoff, Quentin Mallette and Ankit Gandhi as a quartet of Broadway performers who tend to stick together. Their dialogue, also, provides levity throughout.
Definitely not to be left out is Hannah St. Clair, who plays Betty, one of the chorus girls. She holds her own as a dancer and singer on-stage, with a stirring solo. Her counterpart, Trixie, is played by Clara Wicoff.
Accompanists are Betty and Glen Cunningham.
The play is directed by Piazza, and choreographed by Sarah Price. Support for the production was provided through the Sleeper Family Trust.
