Kaitlin Parks
Lantern Staff
The Butler Theater Department is at it again and this time they are crossing barriers – gender barriers. This year’s musical is “Where’s Charley?” selected and directed by Bob Peterson. This is Peterson’s thirty fifth year working at Butler, and he is more than ready for “Where’s Charley?” to finally hit the stage.
“I chose this musical because it made me feel like I was visiting an old friend,” Peterson said. “I’m most excited about working with the students. We have an absolutely terrific cast and crew, and I cannot wait to see all of their hard work pay off.”
“Where’s Charley?” is a farcical musical that is based on the play “Charley’s Aunt”, written by Brandon Thomas. The play was then transformed into the musical “Where’s Charley?” with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book written by George Abbott.
The musical was one of the very first productions to feature a man dressed in drag. “Where’s Charley?” is your typical “I’m in a predicament and the only way out of it is to dress as the opposite gender” situation, which influenced the popular movies Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire.
Charles Wykeham (Seth Knowles) and his roommate Jack Chesney (Chandler Moore) are awaiting the arrival of Charley’s aunt Donna Lucia (Sarah Slack) to chaperone them during the visit of their love interests Amy Spettigue (Abby Staats) and Kitty Verdun ( Dalima Kapten). After Charley and Jack discover that Donna Lucia will not be arriving, Charley decides to impersonate his aunt, so he can be with Amy, and Jack can be with Kitty. What could go wrong?
“If I could describe the Act I in a phrase it would be “lies and deception”, and Act II would be “it’s about to go down,”” Hunter Fullhart, who plays Mr. Spettigue, said.
As director, Peterson used several different methods in running rehearsals
“During the first few rehearsals we primarily worked on scenes and giving the actors opportunity to manipulate their roles,” Peterson said. “In the last few weeks, we worked on polishing the musical and making everything perfect and ready for production.”
Each and every member of “Where’s Charley?” has put in a significant amount of time and effort into this production and are very excited to finally see it come to life. The musical is filled with many gasps and laughs.
“Where’s Charley?” opens Thursday, Nov. 17 and runs through Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the college theater, with a special matinee on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are now available at the Box Office one to five p.m. or by phone call at 316.322.3262.