{"id":32212263668,"date":"2012-06-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/teddy-and-alice-spark-fireworks\/"},"modified":"2012-06-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T04:00:00","slug":"teddy-and-alice-spark-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/teddy-and-alice-spark-fireworks\/","title":{"rendered":"TEDDY AND ALICE SPARK FIREWORKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI can do one of two things,\u201d declares Teddy Roosevelt in Teddy and Alice<\/em><\/strong>, the rousingly robust musical slice of Americana that comes to Monmouth University<\/strong> in the star-spangled month of July.<\/p>\n

“I can either be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both!”<\/p>\n

\u201cAlice\u201d was the famous \u201cFirst Daughter\u201d Alice Roosevelt \u2014 the 26th President\u2019s eldest child, and a socialite, political wheeler-dealer, and all around free spirit who, by the time of her death in 1980 at the age of 96, had become known as \u201cthe other Washington Monument.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man who took San Juan Hill, hunted elephant in Africa, and once delivered a campaign speech immediately after being shot in the chest was as \u201clarger than life\u201d as they come. But in \u201cPrincess Alice\u201d \u2014 a young woman with a taste for smoking, fast cars, and headline-making behavior in the corseted climate of Victorian-era America \u2014 Teddy had met his match.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Broadway audiences got their first look at Teddy and Alice<\/em><\/strong>, a \u201chysterical and historical\u201d musical comedy with book by Jerome Alden, plus songs by Hal Hackaday and Richard Kapp adapted from the rip-roaring music of the only composer who could possibly capture the essence of these American originals \u2014 the immortal March King himself, John Philip Sousa.<\/p>\n

Here in the heat of a Presidential election season \u2014 and timed to the centennial of Teddy Roosevelt\u2019s unsuccessful but spirited run on the third-party Bull Moose ticket \u2014 Teddy and Alice<\/em><\/strong> comes to the stage of the historic Lauren K. Woods Theatre<\/strong> as the Summer 2012 production of Shadow Lawn Stage<\/strong>, the professional theatre of Monmouth University.<\/p>\n

The first musical presented by Shadow Lawn in several years, the show opens on Thursday, July 12, and continues for a total of fifteen evening and matinee performances through Sunday, July 29.<\/p>\n

Populated by vivid, drawn-from-life personalities (including William Howard Taft and Henry Cabot Lodge) and boasting a cast of 25 professional actors, the Shadow Lawn production spotlights a pair of performers who will reprise their title roles from a critically acclaimed production of Teddy and Alice<\/em><\/strong> at Connecticut\u2019s Seven Angels Theatre. John T. Lynes<\/strong> stars as TR, the energetic leader of a can-do nation, with Sydney Turner<\/strong> as Alice, the proto-feminist who helped set the stage for a new generation of American women.<\/p>\n

Another veteran of the Connecticut cast, Jimmy Donohue<\/strong>, returns to the role of newspaperman Wheeler \u2014 and the supporting cast of local professionals and students will include Deborah Murad<\/strong> as Teddy\u2019s second wife Edith, Andrew Foote<\/strong> as U.S. Senator (and future husband of Alice) Nick Longworth, and Gina Scherzo<\/strong> as gossip columnist Ida Tarbell. Also returning to the show from the Seven Angels run are choreographer Janine Molinari<\/strong>, and stage manager Noelle Smith<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The Shadow Lawn musical production will also feature several children from around the region as the Roosevelt kids, including two sets of siblings: identical twins Kirstiana and Kaitlyn Mueller<\/strong> (who will platoon in the role of Kermit); as well as Bailey Newsome<\/strong> (Ethel) and Tyler Newsome<\/strong> (Quentin). Caroline Meade<\/strong> portrays Archie, with Chance Friedman<\/strong> as Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and Eliana Swartz<\/strong>, Gabriella Scerbo<\/strong>, and Brett Temple<\/strong> as friends of the White House brood.<\/p>\n

Returning to the director\u2019s chair for this production is John J. Burke<\/strong>, director of the Theatre Arts program at Monmouth University \u2014 who, as producer of the long-running Shadow Lawn Summer Stage series on the West Long Branch campus, has afforded MU students the opportunity to work with Equity professionals (including three-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston<\/strong> and Tony nominee Lou Liberatore<\/strong>) in addition to some of the most sought-after players on the area stage.<\/p>\n

All performances of Teddy and Alice<\/em><\/strong> will be presented inside the historic and recently renovated Woods Theatre \u2014 the former carriage house of the Guggenheim estate, during the days depicted in the story. Showtimes are 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 7 p.m. on Sundays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Fridays. Tickets ($25 – $35, with group rates available) can be purchased by contacting the Central Box Office at 732-263-6889, or online by visiting www.monmouth.edu\/shadowlawnstage<\/a>. Shadow Lawn Stage is a member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and an Actors\u2019 Equity Stage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Larger-Than-Life characters are Live On Stage, at MU\u2019s Woods Theatre<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"person":[],"audience":[],"school":[],"program":[],"class_list":["post-32212263668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-center-for-the-arts"],"squareimage":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32212263668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32212263668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32212263668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802226407,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32212263668\/revisions\/40802226407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32212263668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32212263668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32212263668"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=32212263668"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=32212263668"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=32212263668"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=32212263668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}