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| ARTISAN CENTER THEATER PRESENTS SINGIN' IN THE RAIN |
The Travelling Toe and 5 other musical theater enthusiasts attended the Saturday afternoon matinee performance of "Singin' In The Rain" presented by the Artisan Center Theater located in the Mid-Cities town of Hurst.
The play is based on the popular 1952 movie of the same name staring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor.
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| Singin' in the Rain Movie Poster |
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| Gene Kelly |
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| Debbie Reynolds |
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| Donald O'Connor |
The story line takes place in 1927 Hollywood where the movies being made were all silents and the rumor was spreading that the "talkies" were just about to be the big news. The major stars of the silents were Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont. They are portrayed on the screen and in real life as sweethearts - which they are not. While out on a stroll, Don bumps into a fledgling actress, Kathy Seldon, and sparks fly. While the latest silent movie "The Dueling Cavalier" is being made, the studio President decides to turn the movie into a singing and dancing musical called "The Dancing Cavalier". As the microphones are being set up and used, they learn very quickly that Lina's screeching voice and off key singing will make the movie a laughing stock. Don and his sidekick Cosmo Brown and Kathy talk the whole night long and come up with the scheme to record Kathy's voice and singing over Lina's for this first movie. The scheme works great until Lina finds out and makes the demand that Kathy continue to cover her voice. Don decides to turn the tables on Lina and reveals that Kathy is the real "voice" of the movie. Sigh.....another happy ending!
The screenplay for the movie was written by the amazing husband and wife team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the many wonderful songs throughout the production were written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. These are probably the most familiar songs"
"Singin' In the Rain"
"You are My Lucky Star"
"All I Do Is Dream of You"
"You Were Meant for Me"
"Good Morning"
If you have never been to the Artisan Center Theater, you should go. The Artisan is a family friendly community theater staffed with volunteers who serve as the crew and cast members, concession stand operators and all manner of support staff....none are paid. They all do it for the love of Theater!
Artisan Center Theater
The stage is designed as a square and any scenery used is set-up the sides so ingenious stage setting is a must.
In the movie, Gene Kelly sings and dances in the rain - well we got that too and it was nicely done. Just ask those folks sitting in the front rows! They even recreated the sofa routine. There is some excellent tap dancing numbers in this production as well.
The cast members rotate performances....one group performs on Monday, Friday and for the Saturday matinee and the other group performs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening. The cast we saw were all very good and we did enjoy their performances. The director did a nice job of staging the play. One fun bit was that they projected black and white silent movies on large screens made with the cast members and it was so enchanting. That was a nice touch and just added more fun to the production.
The Travelling Toe and friends had a wonderful time and were singing "Singin' In the Rain" as we left the theater.
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