By Alec Clayton
Published in the Weekly Volcano, April 13, 2018
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| Reheasal photo, left to right: Sharon Armstrong, Timothy Duval, Caiti Burke, Sam Barker, Lia Lee, Rico Lastrapes, Ashley Roy, Colin Madison, Cassie Fastabend, and Tyler Dobies. Photo by Monique Preston. |
The Pajama Game has a
long and storied history, beginning with its beginning on Broadway in 1954
featuring the choreography of the great Bob Fosse, with Shirley McClain as an
unnamed dancer, and through two Broadway revivals and a film. to America. The Pajama Game won the Tony Award for
Best Musical, and the 2006 revival copped a grand total of nine Tony Awards.
And now it is coming to Centerstage! In Federal Way.
With
book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell and music and lyrics by Jerry Ross
and Richard Adler, the musical is based on Bissell’s novel about workers at the
Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory revolting against harsh conditions when they’re
pushed to work faster and faster. They threaten to go on strike and ask for
raises of seven-and-a-half cents an hour. Naturally, a love story is thrown
into the mix when Sid, the factory superintendent, falls in love with Babe,
head of the factory grievance committee, and Prez, the union leader and a
married man, has the hots for Gladys, who is dating Vernon Hines, a factory
worker who is wracked with jealousy. Sid is played by Eric Dobson; Babe by
Taylor Davis, recent director of Return
to the Forbidden Planet at
Centerstage! Prez is played by Sam Barker, Gladys by Ashley Koon, and Vernon
Hines by Colin Madison, Puget Sound area resident and Casting Director at
StageRight Theatre in Seattle.
There
are fireworks galore, all played out with music and dance with musical theater
standards from the 1950s such as “Steam Heat” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”
“I am really excited by the fabulously diverse cast — some
good age range, great racial diversity, and a strong talent pool,” says
director Trista Duval. “We have some return actors from this season, but
also a few new ones. One of my fave new ones is Gary Taylor, who did film and
TV back when that was huge in Seattle. He was in “Northern Exposure” for a 10-or-12-episode
arc, and in the film Homeward Bound,
which was a formative childhood film for about half the cast, so everyone a bit
lost it at that.”
Duval
joined Centerstage as the artistic director this past summer after the
retirement of Alan Bryce. She has several Centerstage! shows under her belt and
says she is honored to be able to continue to build its legacy. She has
performed up and down the East Coast, in Texas, and now in the beautiful
Pacific Northwest, where she first began to grow her experience as an arts team
builder and director. She is “married to a stellar guy and has two gorgeous
boys who think they own this theatre.” Duval is familiar to South Sound
audiences from her performance as the Good Fairy in the panto Little Red Riding Hood and as the Lady
of the Lake in Tacoma Musical Playhouse’s Spamalot.
“I
became ill shortly after marrying nine years ago and had to take nearly four
years off from the theatre world, then complications with having my kids added
another three. So during that time I taught voice and worked with a nonprofit
developing their arts programs. Then I began taking directing jobs in the area.
When I got back into acting, Centerstage! was my first stop,” Duval says.
The large cast in The
Pajama Game includes a group of high school interns from several Federal
Way schools. Choreography is by Ashley Roy. Duval says Roy “will
be heavily influenced by Fosse but will be bringing her own stuff.” Music direction by John Lehrack, owner of Dorothy's Piano
Bar in Seattle. And the design team, Duval says, “is a great group of
awesomeness, which gives it a really fun colorful look and style.”
Pajama Game, 8 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, May 18 through June 3, plus 2 p.m. Saturday
matinees beginning May 26, $12-$29, Centerstage at Knutzen Family Theatre, 3200
SW Dash Point Road, Federal Way, 253-565-6867, http://www.tmp.org
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