Going all the way back to its founding visionary, Clair Richardson, the Skylight Music Theatre has a history of coloring outside the lines. Expect the unexpected from the plucky company.
We will see an example of that tonight when the Skylight opens "Daddy Long Legs" in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center. It is perhaps the longest- running world premiere production in the history of American regional theater. Let me explain.
"Daddy Long Legs," which has only two characters, is closely based on the 100-year-old novel of the same name, authored by suffragette Jean Webster. The book is a series of letters written by an orphaned teenage girl to the anonymous male benefactor who sends her to college.
Webster's popular novel inspired numerous films and a 1952 British stage musical titled "Love From Judy." The new musical Skylight audiences will first see tonight has a book penned by John Caird, and music and lyrics written by Paul Gordon.
Caird also directed "Daddy Long Legs," and he knows a thing or two about direction. He staged the original productions of "Les Miserables" and "Nicholas Nickleby." Composer-lyricist Gordon's "Jane Eyre" received five Tony nominations when it played on Broadway during the 2000-2001 season.
Six theater companies, including the Skylight, have invested in and are presenting the same world premiere production of "Daddy Long Legs" in their home performance spaces. The show started at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, Cal., in the fall of 2009, and it has since been presented with the same cast by Skylight partners TheatreWorks in California's Silicon Valley, the Gem Theatre in Detroit, Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Ill., and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
The Skylight and the others in the consortium will profit from future productions of the show. Because of its small size, "Daddy Long Legs" will probably not go to Broadway, but Skylight artistic director Bill Theisen thinks an Off-Broadway run is a strong possibility.
Broadway veteran Megan McGinnis plays the young letter writer, and Skylight veteran Robert Adelman Hancock portrays her wealthy patron. Hancock's Wisconsin credits also include the Rep and the American Folklore Theatre in Door County.
Because this production is essentially a tour, the Skylight provides only the stage manager, pit musicians and run crew. "It's expensive to produce new musicals, and being part of a consortium like this makes it very financially feasible for us," Theisen says, adding that these kinds of arrangements will probably become more numerous in the future.
The artistic director of course wants Milwaukeeans to see the show, but he also thinks people should read the "Daddy Long Legs" book. "Both are wonderfully literate," he says. "They are very touching."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
