Saint Michael’s Playhouse feeling all the way back this year, Tobin ’80 says

In a typical summer season since launching in 1947, Saint Michael’s Playhouse might mix perennially popular light comedy offerings (including musicals in recent decades) with more serious or heavy fare.

Summer 2023, however, is not “typical” for producing Artistic Director Chuck Tobin ’80, who for the upcoming Playhouse season opening June 28 has chosen three plays calculated to delight and warm the hearts of pandemic-weary audiences.

“Having come off two dark seasons in the pandemic and then launching the summer 2022 season with challenging COVID restrictions based on actors’ union requirements or CDC, College and town policies was really difficult,” said Tobin, “so I feel like we’re truly back now. We’ve gotten through our sort of rebirth summer last year, and now we’re lighting the fire again and the fun is really back.”

Chuck Tobin ’80

The season’s first show, Almost Heaven, following the life and times of American musical legend John Denver, opens June 28, running Wednesday through Saturday the first week and Tuesday through Saturday the second week (as with all the shows including Saturday matinees) until July 8. Then, as Playhouse publicity puts it, the  “zany, magical and charming” small-town tale of Popcorn Falls opens July 12 going through July 22; and a “warm-hearted and delightful comedy” Over the River and Through the Woods, about the power of love across generations, runs from July 26 through August 5.

“It was fun for me to select the shows we’re doing, and it all fell into place beautifully,” said Tobin in mid-June. “The casting was super-fun too.” This was the first time since before the pandemic that he was back in New York City for the Actors Equity principal auditions with professional actors for three straight days in March.

Tobin described the high-energy scene that he has so missed:  “We spend the day auditioning actors, and it looks just like what people might imagination for auditions – we rent space in an audition studio for the day in the Midtown Theater District, and this year we used ones in the Actors Equity building — very nice facilities.”

The producer and his team auditioned 350 actors/musicians for 14 parts this season. While in past seasons, several actors might appear in more than one show, this year each cast is exclusive to that single show. After the musical cast of the opening show, the middle show only has two actors playing multiple parts, while the cast of six for the final show will only do that one as well.

The last Playhouse show’s director is the longtime Playhouse actor and director Richard Warner. Sarah Carleton will pair with Playhouse favorite Brenda Pitnom, who since their Arsenic and Old Lace collaboration in 2014 have become a regular “Bob Hope/Bing Crosby type duo,” said Chuck Tobin. “It’s fun for the audience to see them on the stage together,” he said, adding that other longtime Playhouse favorites returning will be Bill Carmichael of Vergennes, and Chip Phillips, who played the dad in Brighton Beach trilogy a couple years ago – “he’s really wonderful and the audience loves this guy.”

Tobin said Playhouse audiences are “super loyal and love this place – evidenced in how fast tickets have been selling. This community really loves the Playhouse and the brand of theater that we do.” The shows always seem to be particularly popular with senior citizens who have been coming year after year through the decades, though audiences include theater fans of all ages. “We have a 107-year old who likes to come to plays, but we also families bringing the kids,” he said.

Many factors go into his eventual choice of shows for the season. For Almost Heaven, hearing about it from enthusiastic friends who had seen or directed it, telling Tobin “it would blow Playhouse audiences away” drew him to it. “Everywhere it’s done it’s a big beautiful hit,” he said, describing it as “really comforting, and not all light and fluffy—there’s some depth to it too. It’s theatrical magic.”

The middle show — the “wacky super-comedy” Popcorn Falls — has a “gigantic heart of gold,” the producer said. It opened Off Broadway shortly before COVID and completed its run just before everything shut down, and “since it has just two actors in it (playing 22 characters) it became popular.” It revolves around townspeople putting on a show to attract tourists and save the town against a rival nearby “bully” town that has caused a popular waterfall to run dry. Tobin is actually pleased not to have seen the show yet, since, as he puts it, “It’s more satisfying to breathe life into a play without influence by other people’s work.”

The last show, about a young advertising executive’s bond with his Italian-American grandparents outside New York City, has moving and funny themes around “the love generations have for one another and the importance of honoring the elders and their wisdom,” Tobin said.

Brisk ticket sales this year further are signaling to Tobin that welcome feeling of “being back” all the way. “The moment subscriptions went on sale we were super-busy at the box office,” he said.

Though necessary for last year’s season to happen, the COVID audience restrictions that precluded normally packed houses really changed the vibe at shows for Tobin. “Last summer, was tough for me since I love the crowded theater —  not just for the sales, but just having a crowd of people all being moved,” he said, “whether laughs for a comedy or seeing eyes welling with tears – having a big crowd of people feeling things is why I do this – it feels so good.”

Looking forward to a banner year.