[Capdist-announce] This Week at the Fort

[Jay Kerr]

PHANTOM AT THE FORT

 

FOR RELEASE WEEK OF JUNE 16 ONLY

 

SALEM – Although skeptics argue that there are no ghosts at Fort Salem Theater, the church-turned-performance-center built on the site of a revolutionary war battle and reputed home to soldier-ghosts, this weekend the venue really does host a performance of Phantom, a musical presented by the Rose Center Theater Repertory Company from Westminster, California. This musical version of the 1910 French classic, Phantom of the Opera, is written by Tony Award winners Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit, and features a cast of talented actor/singers under the direction of Tim Nelson, who splits his time between teaching at the School of Performing Arts in Huntington Beach, California, and work in the Capital Region, both at Park Playhouse and Fort Salem Theater.

 

“Years ago, when Kathy Beaver invited me to work at Fort Salem, I fell in love with the area and bought a house in Salem,” Nelson revealed recently. “My wife Mary and I work very hard to find reasons to come here. We’re very excited about this production that is this year’s excuse to come.”

The Rose Center Theater, of which Nelson is artistic director, presented Phantom this past winter, and most members of the cast have purchased their own plane tickets and are coming to reprise the production on the Salem stage. “We love this theater,” says Mary Murphy-Nelson, whose vast vocal range is perfect for the comic role of Carlotta, wife of the owner of the Paris opera house haunted by the phantom. “Because it is small, and so acoustically perfect, we get the chance to sing without microphones. It’s one of the rare venues where we can do what we trained to do: use our voices onstage.” Murphy-Nelson is joined by veterans of Rose’s other Fort Salem productions, which have included Man of La Mancha, Carousel, and Brigadoon. “We’re so pleased to be somewhere where it’s lush and green … and even rains!”

The actors rehearse on the Fort’s stage, and then take a day of R&R in New York City, where they catch a matinee and evening performances of Broadway musicals, and then return for dress rehearsal. They all bunk in the Nelson’s house at the end of a dirt road, up a big hill, just on the border of Vermont. Many of the younger performers have been Nelson’s students, and, as they’ve grown professionally, have crept into his company of actors at the Rose Center. Melissa Cook, a stunning redhead who has starred in all of the Rose/Fort productions, has taken just a few weeks from her job touring the world by singing on cruise ships, to sing in the Phantom chorus, just to be a part of this annual ritual.

Phantom runs one weekend only, June 20-22, with Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8 PM, and a Sunday matinee at 2 PM. The weekend following Phantom, Fort Salem presents three Broadway singer/dancers in the theatrical debut of a concert tribute to Broadway and Hollywood lyricist/composer Johnny Mercer, the Oscar winning writer of “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” Conceived by Broadway dance guru Karin Baker, Echoing Back: The Songs of Johnny Mercer features a singing and dancing salute to some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century, including all of Mercer’s Oscar-winning songs (four in all) and romantic and easy-going classics, including “One for My Baby,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” Blues in the Night,” and “In The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” and “G.I. Jive.” Echoing Back will run June 27-29, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM.

Information on all Fort Salem shows is available on the theater website (fortsalemtheater.com) or at the box office, (518) 854-9200.

Mary Murphy-Nelson plays the wife of the Director of the paris Opera House.

 
 Alison Shepherd with the cast of Fort Salem's Phantom

Jay Kerr
Artistic Director
Fort Salem Theater
jay at fortsalemtheater.com
(518) 854-9200




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