A Message From the Director...
I chose this show because Mr. Ron suggested to me that Alex G. would make a great Harpo Marx. That sent me down a rabbit hole of research and the discovery of this adaptation of the Marx Brothers first film. Did you know the Marx Brothers first appeared as the Marx Brothers down the Bayou and their second show as the Marx Brothers was at the Orpheum downtown? The Cocoanuts was their first film taken from an earlier vaudeville stage show of theirs. A young Irving Berlin wrote all the music, yet it's the only show he ever wrote that didn't produce a hit song! This adaptation was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and puts the show into the form we now know as a book musical in which the songs help propel the story forward. When I noted the addition of Always, which was actually written about twenty years later, I knew this was the right show for us.
Always has always had special meaning to me and my family. My mother's earliest memories of her mother, who passed away when my Mom was eight, include the stack of sheet music she kept in a trunk near the piano. It was stacked in alphabetical order so Always was always on the top of the stack. Mom sang it to us as children and again to her grandson as a lullaby; it's one of many tunes and hymns that I didn't realize weren't lullabies until I was older. I like to imagine she was singing it when Pop joined her in heaven last year.
What a delight it has been to introduce the Marx Brothers and Irving Berlin to the Phils! These gents were giants of 20th Century comedy and music; I mean, Groucho is an emoji! And Irving Berlin wrote more than 1000 songs over a career spanning more than 50 years. With the help of our amazing Creative Team, I hope we have done them justice with this production and that we will inspire our audiences to learn more about them. Personally, I'm just so pleased a whole new generation of Phils has learned about them. I hope the clever humor and delightful songbook of music stays with all of our Phils, especially now that they all know how to sing Always. "I'll be loving you, Always." I can imagine more lullabies in the future sung to their own Phils babies and grand-babies someday.
Please join us on Dec. 21 at 6:30PM for our annual Holiday Happening featuring our Barbershop Blue Jays a capella group, our JHSP Radio Theatre Ensemble, and our improv comedy team, The J-Troupe. This event will be followed by cocoa and caroling on the Chapel steps. In January, we will again support Second Harvest Food Bank with our Senior-Directed One Act Play and Improv Comedy Festival. Then in April we'll present the classic American musical Guys & Dolls and end the season with our Spring Showcase. Follow us on Instagram @jhsphils or on the Phils page of the Jesuit website at www.jesutinola.org/phils so you don't miss out!
Thank you for supporting the Entertainment Industry Arts at Jesuit High School!
Stay well!
MsA
Kate Arthurs-Goldberg, M.A.
Director, Jesuit Philelectic Society
A SPECIAL WELCOME TO OUR PHRIENDS FROM THE MIRACLE LEAGUE! A+M+D+G
