2002

he 63rd season opened in March for a season that lasted 40 weeks. The season featured several shows that had been seen at the Playhouse in many years. Opening the season during Easter was Godspell.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was featured during the month of April on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The cast was headed by Rachel Anton as the Narrator and Adam Jacobs as Joseph. Although this was Adam's first season at the Playhouse, audiences had seen Rachel in several productions over the years. In fact, Rachel was our Narrator the first time we performed Joseph... back in 1996.

The month of May began with Bye Bye Birdie. Featured in the cast were Kurt Martinuzzi as Albert Peterson, Ann Marie Ferdenzi as Rose and Scott Ihde (right) as Conrad Birdie.

Crazy for You made a return to the Playhouse stage from June 5 through June 23, 2002. The cast was headed by a veteran Playhouse performer and another face familiar to Playhouse audiences. Louis Palena who, in the past, had played the Emcee in Cabaret, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors and Billy Lawlor in 42nd Street, among many others, played Bobby Child. The part of Polly was played be Deven Miller. Audiences had seen Deven grow up before their eyes. Deven had appeared on the Playhouse stage since the age of 9 and as a child played such roles as Lucy McFadden in The Goodbye Girl and Liesl in The Sound of Music.

The Music Man opened on June 26 for a three week run. The huge cast was headed by Playhouse favorite Jim Lynch. Audiences remembered Jim from performances during our 2001 season where he was seen as Snoopy in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret and Vernon Gersh in They're Playing Our Song. Prior to that, Jim had received rave reviews for the role of Bill Snibson in our 2000 production of Me and My Girl. Robin Leigh Massie portrayed Marian Paroo and Connor Stern played Winthrop Paroo.

Chicago became a highlight of the 2002 season and featured Carlene Rohmann and Dana Winkle as Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly.

The King and I featured a large cast of local children and Scott Kitajima as the King and Christy Boardman as Anna.

Camelot was up next on the Playhouse stage a starred Peak Kwinarian as King Arthur and Christy Boardman as Guenevere.

Jekyll & Hyde was the first show of our 2002 fall season. Philip Peterson returned to our stage in the dual role of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. Philip last appeared at Bucks in 1995 as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, as Erik in Yeston and Kopit's Phantom and as Sweeney Todd in the musical of the same name.

October held the Playhouse premiere of the musical Forever Plaid. It starred from left to right, Ron Hughson, David Macaluso, Kenneth Gartman and Benjamin Sills as the singing group who comes back to perform the show they never got the chance to.

The music, lyrics and life of George M. Cohan were highlighted in the musical George M! The cast starred Jim Lynch, Deven Miller, Dominic Sheahan-Stahl and Tara Bruno.

Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun continued the fall season. Kristina Passier returned to the stage to portray Annie Oakley. Kristina had appeared here in 2000 in many of the season's shows and starred as Nellie Forbush in that season's production, South Pacific. Jim Lynch continued his fall run of leading roles as the charismatic Frank Butler.

The fall season saw another Playhouse premiere. Big: The Musical was performed in November with Jim Lynch as the adult Josh Baskin and Eva DeVirgilis as Susan Lawrence. Big is based on the Tom Hanks musical about a boy who wishes he were an adult and magically grows up overnight and must deal with the consequences of being an adult.

The season ended with the traditional musical, Annie which again played to sold out audiences of all ages.