The Croswell Opera House sets its storied history to music in an original show, 150 Years at the Croswell, opening Saturday.
The production at the downtown Adrian theater incorporates music by a live orchestra and songs from various periods sung by the cast, to tell the Croswell’s story, which began in 1866.
The opening number is “One Brick at a Time” from the musical Barnum. The song tells how a group of people working together can build something great.
The music and the narrators, including several “ghosts,” combine to tell the story in a script written by Croswell staff. Many but not all of the songs are from shows that have been performed at the Croswell.
The show begins when a modern-day stagehand meets one of the ghosts, portrayed by Lea Fox, that are rumored to haunt the theater. The ghost, who represents one of the first actresses to perform in the Croswell, shares tales of some of the excitement she has witnessed in the last 150 years.
The character was inspired by Alida Van Loon Cole, one of the first local actresses to appear on the Croswell stage, said Erik Gable, the theater’s director of marketing and audience development who collaborated on the script.
“We have a newspaper article from July, 1866, that describes a pageant she starred in called The Home of Liberty. She was about 22 years old at the time. She was one of many, but she became the central figure in our story because her name appears so often in newspaper stories about the Croswell’s early days.”
The character will speak about all the historic figures she saw at the Croswell, she’ll talk about the movie theater days, and she’ll talk about the Croswell’s revival as a live theater in the late 1960s, Gable added in an email.
The stagehand is played by A.J. Howard, who is 15 years old and has appeared in 15 other Croswell shows. His character represents every young person who’s grown up on its stage over the years, Gable said.
The ghost is joined onstage by two other “ghosts,” a 19th-century theater manager, played by Peter Stewart, and Charles Croswell, an Adrian resident after whom the theater is named; Croswell became the 17th governor of Michigan. He is portrayed by Steve Antalek.
The two characters share history from the earliest days, including visits in 1870 and 1874 by Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, and an appearance by Frederick Douglass. John Philip Sousa, who stopped at the Croswell, is represented. And in the early days the Croswell entertainment also included traveling theater companies and animal trainers.
“I have my heart in it,” said Doug Miller, a past chairman of the theater program at Siena Heights University, who is directing the show and designed the set. “It’s about our region, our community, it’s our artistic gem,” he said of the production.
“One of the fun segments we have in the show is called ‘A Week in the Life,’ and the 19th-century manager uses it to show the diversity of what happened here in those early days,” Gable said. “There’s a tragic actor, a politician, a lady bicyclist, a dog trainer, and so on, because in those days pretty much everything you can imagine happened here.”
150 Years at the Croswell also recalls the 50 years the Croswell was a movie theater, with tips of the hat to such early film stars as Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers.
The second half of the show tells how the Croswell was saved from destruction in 1967, and showcases some of the musicals the theater produced in that time, as well as shows that are yet to come.
This part of the production is designed to give a sense of the different worlds that have been created on the Croswell stage, Gable said. “So we have a bit from Annie, a bit from Oklahoma!, and a bit from Memphis, to show just a few of the places our audiences have been transported to.
“Of course we don’t know what the future holds,” Gable added, “but there are some newer shows that I think it’s safe to say we would love to do as soon as we can. We’ll hear songs from Matilda, Motown and Mamma Mia, none of which have been released for community theater licensing yet, but any of which we’d love to do as soon as they’re available.”
“This is only the first part of the story,” Gable said. “There are so many great Croswell stories that haven’t been written yet, and we’re looking forward to writing them,”
150 Years at the Croswell will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional shows are at 8 p.m Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 25. Tickets ranging from $15 to $35 are from croswell.org or 517-264-7469.
The Croswell Opera House is at 129 E. Maumee St. Because the front of the building is under construction, parking behind the theater is recommended.
Contact Sue Brickey at: sbrickey@theblade.com.
First Published September 16, 2016, 4:00 a.m.