All Together Now: A Global Event at Briggs Opera House
All Together Now: A Global Event at Briggs Opera House
“Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” from Les Mis, “You Could Drive A Person Crazy”from Company, Hairspray’s “You Can’t Stop The Beat.” If you’ve been itching to see a favorite musical, you won’t have to choose just one with All Together Now, a musical revue at the Briggs Opera House that includes a score of Broadway’s greatest hits. (November 12-14) Spoiler: Smooch could walk away with the show.
Put together by Musical Theater International to help local theaters with fundraising, this production is presented by the Upper Valley’s We the People Theatre. It is just one of 2500 theaters in all 50 states and in 40 countries around the world that is staging this revue during the same weekend. Producing Artistic Director Perry Allison says she heard about the project and “. . . thought it would be a wonderful way for us to get back on stage, while doing something we love, which is sing and dance.”
Each theater has some leeway in shaping its own production to suit its cast and audience, in concert mode or with full staging. Of We the People’s version, Allison says: “With 4 different directors and two choreographers we had different folks conceiving different numbers. The sets and costumes are very simple as our focus was really on getting back on stage and having a blast while doing it. Our wonderful lighting designer, Alex Taylor, has returned to the Upper Valley and is helping us with lights. We are also using video and projections to enhance the set.”
The cast includes 25 local actors, many of whom have appeared in previous We the People productions. The directing team includes Perry Allison, Samantha Davidson Green, Jenn Langhus and Richard Waterhouse. Choreographers are Michelle Carlson and Julie Frew and the Music Director is Matthew McGrath. Production help is being provided by Alex Taylor, Noor Taher, Brian Kenyon, Chris Kohn, Sharon Trautwein and the team at CATV.
CATV plans to live stream the show on Saturday night, November 13, and Sunday, November 14, and will be airing it on their YouTube channel. Allison hopes that “our local patrons will want to come to the theatre and see the show live. We also want friends and family who cannot come to the theatre to be able to see the show.”
And Smooch? Asked if she had a favorite part of the show, Allison—who herself will be singing a song from Sister Act—admitted a special fondness for “Tomorrow” from Annie. It’s the number in which her dog Smooch will make her stage debut.
All audience members must be masked and present proof of Covid-19 vaccination. For further information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.