theatre
by ken knox For the West Coast premiere of the Tony-winning musicalThe Boy
from Oz, the Celebration Theatre is trying something very different. The director of Celebration Theatre’s production, Michael Shepperd, discusses the show’s SoCal debut, the lasting legacy of its hero, Peter Allen andscaling it for a smaller space. The show, which originally featured a 39-member cast in its productions
in Australia and on Broadway, tells the life story of late songwriter and performer Peter Allen (his credits include “The Best That You Can Do (Arthur),” “Don’t Cry Out Loud” and “I Honestly Love You”). For the Celebration Theatre’s production, the show’s director says that’s
not the case this time around. “It’s a completely new vision of the piece,” says Shepperd, who is also the co-artistic director of the Celebration Theatre. “I was fortunate enough to see Hugh Jackman do the show in New York. There was so much spectacle, glitz and glamour, along with multiple costume changes and 20 people on stage doing a Rockettes number with him. We just don’t have that capability. We have a 57-foot theatre and I’m taking a 39-member cast and whittling it down to 12 to tell the story. So, it takes a lot of ingenuity and a lot of trust to be able to create some of the imagery that I have in my head. I’m cautiously optimistic that it will fit into the space and work out perfectly.”
photography by kevin mcIntyre 52 RAGE monthly | APRIL 2016
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