What a week! Things are really bustling on the corner of 1st and Franklin. This week marked the first week of rehearsals for our first musical of the New Year, Ain’t Misbehavin’. I have the privilege to make my Roxy Regional Theatre directing and choreographing debut with this production.
We have a fantastic cast leading the way as we create something new with this hit Broadway musical. When it premiered on Broadway in 1978, with Nell Carter, Ken Page, Armelia McQueen, Andre DeShields and Charlayne Woodard, it was a basic revue of the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller. This spring at the Roxy, we are lucky to have Faith Boles, Keith Patrick McCoy, Roslyn Seale, Rendell DeBose and Brittany Mack taking the same Fats Waller music, but following my direction, creating a brand new story. We are taking the acclaimed revue to new heights and giving life to what was actually going on during the Harlem Renaissance through the eyes of 5 cabaret singers.
Don’t worry – all of the music is exactly the same. We are just breathing new life into the revue, all because of a vision I have in my head and a talented and very willing cast.
This also marks our first full week of having our new website up and running. We are very thankful to Pam Saxon of Saxon Designs for bringing our website up to date and allowing us to better market The Roxy Regional Theatre.
One exciting new element to the website is our Backstage at the Roxy daily blog series. This gives us a chance to bring you, our audience, into the lives of the professional actors gracing the stage of The Roxy. We want you to feel like you have a connection with the actors you see performing on the stage in front of you and are hoping these daily blogs will help with that. We will also be launching our Video Blogs in the coming weeks. Once a week, an actor from the current cast will take you on an even deeper look into their lives and time here at the Roxy.
We are looking towards another week of rehearsals for Ain’t Misbehavin’ as we prepare to open on Friday, February 11 at 8pm with our always successful pay-what-you-can night. We want you to join us for our 6th annual Martini Night, “Martini’s with Fats” on Saturday, February 12. Tickets are $50 for unlimited gin and/or vodka martini’s, heavy hors devourers with a ‘soul-food’ twist by Lovin’ Spoonful and a seat at Ain’t Misbehavin’ that evening. We think it is a perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day this February.
Until next week!
Ryan
