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| 'Gilligan’ sets sail as a musical | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Albert Ching, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 24, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
So it shouldn’t be surprising that Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre is reprising “Gilligan’s Island: The Musical,” which was a hit for them in 2005. Yes, it’s exactly what the name suggests: A musical adaptation of the ’60s sitcom about seven wacky castaways who packed suspiciously heavy for a three-hour tour. “Part of the success for 'Gilligan’s Island’ is that it reached a broad range of audience,” Mark Clemente, director of the upcoming performance, says of the musical. “It’s part of pop culture. As a kid, I grew up watching it after school.” While it’s true that the appeal of the show extends far beyond its initial run on CBS between 1964 and 1967 — the official “Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” Web page claims that it’s “the most re-run television show in history” — the show’s ubiquity has waned in recent years, other than two seasons of the poorly-received TBS reality series, “The Real Gilligan’s Island.” It’s nowhere to be seen on local programming schedules these days, absent even from Nick at Nite sister station TV Land. “I think that it has missed some generations,” says Clemente. “I’ve seen it even in the audition process — you get some of these kids who are auditioning for 'Gilligan’s’ and really have no idea who the characters are unless their parents own a DVD and watched it or they’ve seen the past production.” Thus, casting the musical was a bit of a challenge, given the dichotomy between auditioning actors unfamiliar with the television show and the iconic nature of the characters to much of the potential audience. “Millions of people know what Gilligan looks like, millions of people know what Skipper looks like,” says Clemente. “However, you don’t always get that when you have an open audition.” So instead of looking for Bob Denver doppelgangers, Clemente looked for who was best able to represent the essence of the characters. “When I was casting, people were like, 'Oh, you can’t cast someone like that for this character, because they just don’t look it,’ ” says Clemente. “I said, 'You know what? If they can act it, and make it believable, the audience will believe it.’ I think we’ve really captured the seven castaways as best as possible.” The musical was first produced in the early 1990s, and was co-written by “Gilligan’s Island” creator Sherwood Schwartz’s son, Lloyd. Clemente is new to the musical, and so is the cast, other than a couple of actors who performed in the 2005 production. The fact the show is lesser-known actually appealed to the director. “It’s not a very known musical,” he says. “From a director’s standpoint, even if you do a scene that’s completely wrong, no one’s going to know how it was written.” “Gilligan” wraps in late March, but it may not be the last ’60s sitcom Clemente is associated with. He says “I Dream of Jeanie,” which starred Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden, would also make a great musical. “Anything can be a musical, if you really wanted it to,” says Clemente. “With good writing, of course.” >> "Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” runs 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 25 through March 29 at Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre, 4720 N. Scottsdale Rd. Cost: $15-$25. (480) 483-1664 or desertstages.com. Contact Albert Ching by email, or phone (480) 898-5688 |
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