‘The Music Man’ Is The Latest Triumph For The New Tampa Players!

I will readily admit that among the dozens of Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that I saw during my years of living in New York, “The Music Man” was never one of my favorites. But, I only ever saw the hit 1962 movie starring Robert Preston as the conniving Prof. Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as the lovely librarian/music teacher Marian Paroo — although I was in the show’s (barbershop) “Quartet” in my high school’s performance of the classic Tony Award-winning hit. 

I thought the story of Hill, the traveling salesman/con man, and his duping of a town full of weird and often stupid characters, created by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, was just too dated and not as much fun as some others. 

But honestly, to me, the New Tampa Players’ (NTP) production of “The Music Man” at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center was better than the movie. And apparently, I wasn’t alone. All of the people sitting around Jannah and me raved about the talented cast and their beautiful singing voices, the sets, the costumes and the 15-piece orchestra — the largest ever for an NTP production — under the musical direction of the great G. Frank Meekins. I hope director Angel Borths, choreographer Tatiana Eriksen, costume designers Shelley Giles, Heather Cleveland, Travy Stemm and Dave Giles and production manager (and NTP producing artistic director) Nora Paine and the entire cast and crew are proud. This also was the first NTP show I’ve seen with sign language interpreters (photo below)! 

The amazing Melanie Bierweiler was correctly sassy as Marian (and did a fantastic job singing “Goodnight My Someone” and “Till There Was You”) and David Groomes didn’t disappoint in the demanding role of Prof. Hill on “Ya Got Trouble,” “76 Trombones” and with Melanie on “Till There Was You.” The “Quartet” of Chase Reeder, Michael Bonassar, Jacey Squires and James Cass hit every note of every song, including on “Lida Rose.” 

Neil Bleiweiss provided great comic relief as Mayor Shinn and Becky Groomes correctly “overacted” as his zany wife Eulalie. Talented youngsters Nora Duffy as Amaryllis (who sang like a songbird in duet with Melanie on “Goodnight My Someone”) and Luke Adams as Marian’s lisping brother Winthrop (who sang to the back of the theater on “Gary, Indiana”) showed that NTP has a bright future ahead. And, Debbie Scourtes brought a lot of verve to the role of Marian’s widowed mother Mrs. Paroo, who is trying to keep her daughter from becoming an old spinster. 

You could just hear the audience hissing at the show’s one villain, Charlie Cowell (played to perfection by Stephon Mikell), and Jaden Figueroa and Chloe Tort were great as the young “troublemaker” Tommy Djilas and Zaneeta Shinn (“Ye Gawd!”), respectively. 

The largest cast I’ve ever seen in an NTP production also included the super-fun and funny Pick-A-Little Ladies (Lena Wigfall, Suzann Humara, Christy Adams and Chelsea Keith), plus nearly 20 “ensemble” players young and old (including the super adorable extra-young’ns Mars Wolfe Bonassar and Elliott LeFloch). 

But, I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I didn’t say that Gabriel Martin White as Hill’s buddy and fellow con man Marcellus Washburn was this show’s scene stealer. He got laughs — calling Hill by his real first name (“Greg”) throughout — and he brought to mind the young Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins” with his expressive face and high-flying, elastic-legged dancing. My pics did him no justice! 

Great job, one & all! 

Up next for NTP are another classic musical — “Oklahoma” — in October, and “The Sponge Bob Musical” (yes, really) in January. Auditions for both shows have already been held (although volunteers to help with both productions are still needed), so look for announcements about when tickets go on sale in these pages and at NewTampaPlayers.org. — GN 

New Tampa Players To Present The Tony Award-Winning Classic ‘The Music Man!” 

Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is coming… to the stage at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center! The New Tampa Players, New Tampa’s community theater troupe, is preparing to open its summer production of “The Music Man.” 

This classic musical features toe-tapping tunes, colorful costumes and a cast filled with neighbors, teachers and students. “The Music Man” is bringing people together both onstage and off. 

“The New Tampa Players (NTP) chose ‘Music Man’ for this summer because it is just fun that will have our audiences humming the tunes for days! It has big dance numbers, silly comedy and characters that make you smile!,” says NTP producing artistic director Nora Paine. 

The cast of 40 includes a wide range of community members — from first-time performers to stage veterans. David Groomes and Becky Groomes, veterans of the Tampa stage, join NTP’s cast as the con man Harold Hill and the River City mayor’s wife Eulalie Shinn. Melanie Marie Bierwieler, who earned raves as Lina in last summer’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” plays the female lead, Marian Paroo, River City’s prim and skeptical librarian. 

Set in 1912, “The Music Man,” which won five Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical, was written by Meredith Wilson. It tells the story of Harold Hill (originally played by Tony winner Robert Preston and by Hugh Jackman in the 2022 Broadway revival), a charming con man who poses as a traveling bandleader. He arrives in River City, Iowa, planning to sell instruments and uniforms to the townspeople, and then skip town without teaching the children how to play. 

However, Harold’s plan starts to unravel when he falls for Marian (originally played by Tony winner Barbara Cook on Broadway), the town’s librarian and piano teacher. As he grows genuinely fond of Marian and the community, Harold inadvertently brings the town together — creating a boys’ band and actually lifting local spirits. 

In the end, despite being exposed as a fraud, Harold is forgiven by the townspeople, thanks in large part to Marian’s support and the unexpected positive impact he ends up having on the town. The show celebrates themes of transformation, redemption and community. 

Whether you know every lyric to “Seventy-Six Trombones” or are new to River City, “The Music Man” promises an unforgettable night of music, heart and good old-fashioned fun. 

Performances will run Fridays-Sundays, July 25-27 and August 1-3 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, with both evening and matinee options. Tickets can be purchased at NewTampaPlayers.thundertix.com. For more info, visit NewTampaPlayers.org or see the ad below. — Special to the Neighborhood News, including the photos on this page. 

Into The Woods” Concludes This Weekend At NTPAC

Photos by Charmaine George

If you love a great Broadway musical, there are only four performances left this weekend to see the New Tampa Players (NTP)’s production of the Tony Award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical “Into the Woods.” Starring the outstanding Richard Brown (last seen as Seymour in NTP’s “Little Shop of Horrors”) as The Baker and amazing NTP newcomer Hope Lelekacs as The Baker’s Wife, NTP’s “Into the Woods” also re-introduces you to a whole slew of beloved fairy tale characters, including Cinderella (Genesis Rodriguez) and her stepmother (Kayla Bennett), Jack (Blake Boles), known for his magic beanstalk beans, scene-stealer Lena Wigfall as Little Red Ridinghood, plus NTP veterans Makayla Raines as “Witch,” Dylan Fidler as Rapunzel’s Prince, Kristin Nelson and Alexandra Greenberg as Cinderella’s stepsisters Florinda and Lucinda, respectively, and too many more great performances to include here (sorry).

Photographer Charmaine George, who took these pictures during last weekend’s opening night, says “Into the Woods” is one of NTP’s best shows, with singing, dancing, costumes and sets that are all “spot on!” Don’t miss it!

Tickets are still available to to all four performances of “Into the Woods” this weekend — Friday, April 4, at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 5, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit NewTampaPlayers.org. 

‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ Was A Horrifying Triumph For The New Tampa Players! 

The first time I saw “Little Shop of Horrors,” the campy, award-winning sci-fi/horror musical (based on an original 1960 film by “The King of Cult” Roger Corman) about a man-(and woman-) eating plant named Audrey II and the bumbling “Skid Row” flower shop employee who earns fame because of the voracious plant, I was sitting about eight rows back in the show’s original Off- Broadway Orpheum Theatre in the Little Ukraine section of Manhattan’s East Village in late 1982 or early 1983, only a few months after the show first opened to rave reviews. 

Sitting directly in front of me were Liza Minelli, Sean Penn and Madonna. Yes, that famous trio (no one called them a “thruple”). We were all among the packed house of nearly 350 people who took in the spectacle of this flytrap-looking plant that grows from a pot on a counter to take up most of Mushnik’s Flower Shop — and plans to take over the entire world. 

Four years later, “Little Shop” was made into a hit 1986 movie starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene (who also created the role of Audrey, the love interest of geeky Seymour Krelborn, who also loves “strange and interesting plants”), Steve Martin as Audrey’s sadistic boyfriend Orin Scrivello, DDS, and Vincent Gardenia as the failing flower shop owner, Mr. Mushnik. 

Fast-forward nearly 40 more years and Jannah and I are sitting in a theatre almost as large as the Orpheum — the New Tampa Performing Arts Center — on what turned out to be opening night of the New Tampa Players (NTP)’ production of the show (Oct. 18), because the first weekend of performances got canceled following Hurricane Milton. 

I have to admit that NTP’s “Little Shop” very much rang true to the original version I saw more than 40 years previous. 

Yes, a show where four people are “eaten” by a giant plant is a little disturbing, but an outstanding cast performing great songs (with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, the same creative team behind Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin”), great direction by NTP’s Thomas Pahl, musical direction by Rick Barclay and choreography by Makayla Raines, made NTP’s “Little Shop” an amazing tribute to that Off-Broadway original. (By the way, the Broadway revival production lasted only 372 performances between Oct. 2003 and Aug. 2004.) 

And Away We Go! 

NTP’s “Little Shop” opened with the title theme, sung by “the urchins” — (photo #1, l.- r.) Paige Alter as Crystal, Sara Gutierrez as Chiffon and Patty Smithey (who portrayed Lorrell Robinson in NTP’s “Dreamgirls”) as Ronette. 

We then meet (photo #2, l.-r.) Mushnik (Luis Graham), who is threatening to close his flower shop on Skid Row because he can’t do any business, the oafish, love-sick Seymour (Richard Brown) and Audrey (Madison Pulica, who has the original cartoon-ish speaking voice and mannerisms of the role’s originator down to a “T”). 

Seymour shows Mushnik the “strange and interesting plant” that he found following a recent total solar eclipse and says that maybe displaying the plant will bring in customers — which it immediately does. 

But soon, when Seymour cuts himself on a rose thorn, the plant — which Seymour names the “Audrey II” after his unrequited beloved — first shows its thirst for blood, so Stanley squeezes a few more drops into its open maw (photo #3), after which, Audrey II first begins to grow. Meanwhile, Audrey continues to display the painful results of the “affections” of her dentist boyfriend Orin (portrayed with very much Steve Martin-esque vigor by Tom Bronson), and sings (photo #4) to the urchins about her dream to move to “Somewhere That’s Green.” 

We (and Seymour) then meet Orin for the first time, after Orin sings “(“You’ll Be A) Dentist” to the urchins (photo #5). Seymour also sees Orin “rough up” Audrey for the first time and, realizing that he can’t continue to drain himself of his own blood for Audrey II, also wonders for the first time if maybe Orin should end up “providing” the blood for the now-much-larger plant. 

Mushnik is now so impressed with Seymour (who is revealed early on to be an orphan), that he tells Seymour in the song “Mushnik & Son” (Photo #6) that he will re-name the now-much-more successful flower shop and adopt his now-star employee. 

But next, we find out for the first time that Audrey II can talk — in the booming baritone of Christan McLaurine (at right in photo #9, who also was a scene-stealer as James “Thunder” Early in NTP’s “Dreamgirls”) in the song “Feed Me.” 

Act I ends as Seymour brings a gun to his visit to Orin’s dental office, which is replete with rusty, medieval-style torture appliances. Orin can’t wait to ply his trade inside Seymour’s mouth, so much so that he gets his “special gas mask” (photo #7) — not to sedate Seymour, but so Orin can “enjoy” his work. Seymour now realizes he doesn’t have to shoot Orin, who can’t get the mask off and, without assistance from Seymour, asphyxiates and dies in the most authentic scene of the entire show. 

Act II – “Suddenly, Seymour!” 

With Orin now out of the way (and chopped into pieces by Seymour, so he can feed the dentist to Audrey II), it doesn’t take long for Audrey to realize that Seymour has always loved her and (she thinks) that he’s a good man who shares her dream of moving to the country, despite his newfound (and unwanted) fame, which comes with Life magazine and TV interviews. The duet between Audrey and Seymour — “Suddenly Seymour” is probably the most famous song in “Little Shop.” 

But, of course, everything falls apart quickly from there. Seymour next sacrifices Mushnik, who discovered Orin’s bloody lab coat in the store’s garbage can, to Audrey II, even though Mushnik says he won’t tell the authorities, as Seymour still needs to feed the now-monster-sized plant (photo #8). 

Next, Audrey, who reveals she was an exotic dancer before coming to Mushnik’s, sacrifices herself by having Seymour throw her into Audrey II’s mouth. Then, Seymour, who now realizes that Audrey II’s plan is to take over the world, also jumps into the plant’s maw. With all of the main characters now dead and plans to spread Audrey II seeds all over the country (as the plant planned all along), the show ends on a seriously ominous note. 

Congrats to the Audrey II puppeteers (Joseph Conrad, at left in photo #9), Lily Sanford and Yoanivette Davila Aguiar, as well as to James Cass of Picture This Photography for the scenic art, scenic dressing and props, and Shelly Giles for the great costumes — and everyone else associated with the Players and this show. “Little Shop” was super-creepy but it was also super-fun! 

For more info (including about ticket sales and audition info) about the 2025 New Tampa Players shows “Into the Woods” and “The Music Man,” visit NewTampaPlayers.org. 

Get Your Tickets Now To The Last Weekend of “The Putnam County Spelling Bee!”

If you like your musical comedies to be fun, with great songs and maybe a little bit of vulgar language, you should get your tickets now to “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” the laugh riot being presented tomorrow — Thursday, February 9 — through Saturday, February 10, by Mad Theatre of Tampa at the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa.

The show — the first of MAD Theatre’s 25th anniversary season — which promises some audience participation in the craziest Spelling Bee (with six mid-pubescent spellers, all played by young adults) ever, features a super-talented ensemble cast that includes two lead characters from recent New Tampa Players (NTP) productions — Chris Cordero (who played Shrek in “Shrek The Musical”) and Dylan Fidler (who played Danny Zuko in “Grease”), as well as choreography by Evan Lomba (who played Donkey in NTP’s “Shrek”). The MAD Theatre show’s director is Casey Vaughn, with music direction by Megan Zeitler and artistic direction by Tony Gilkinson.

And, after checking out one of the show’s rehearsals — which included at least two spelling words I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t spell — I can assure you that “Spelling Bee” is not only fun and funny (the dialogue won both the Tony and Drama Desk awards in 2005 for Best Book of a Musical by Rachel Sheinkin), but also chock full of great, catchy songs, with the fresh and vibrant score by William Finn. 

But, tickets (starting at just $20) are going fast, so to get yours, visit StrazCenter.org or MadTheatre.com.