From '42nd Street' to 'Margaritaville,' Lyceum Theatre set for summer shows in Arrow Rock

Yes, the play's the thing every summer at the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock. But in summer 2024, the very first moment of the very first play will be the perfect thing to set off an entire season of entertainment.

When the curtain opens on "42nd Street" June 7, it will open ever so slightly yet reveal everything about what's to come, producing artistic director Quin Gresham said.

"The very first thing you see is a curtain that just barely rises, and you see a stage full of tap-dancing feet. And it gives you the sense of all this contained magic being released into the audience," Gresham said. "I can’t think of a stronger opening to a season, because that is going to be an entire year of that sort of magic creeping past the footlights."

The magic, as he calls it, will manifest itself through jukebox musicals, Christmas classics, strange childhood fables and Gresham's own favorite play.

Where the Lyceum's season starts

The grand experiment of the Lyceum hasn't actually felt like an experiment for many years. It's more like a reality proving itself over and over again: There's just something about Arrow Rock.

And there's just something about actors who audition locally and in New York folding into a village of about 60 people, invigorating the community with their craft and, in turn, being invigorated by the community's welcome. Creativity and generosity are renewable resources here.

While other theaters labor to regain pre-pandemic enthusiasm, the Lyceum sees something different from its vantage point, about a 45-minute drive from Columbia.

"The Lyceum seems to be an outlier in that. We have a growing audience, actually, not a shrinking one," Gresham said.

His answer to inevitable next questions is more spiritual and emotional than scientific. The Lyceum produces high-quality shows in a lovely and unique location and, in doing so, "has become a multi-generational practice for families." Each layer of relationship matters.

"People look forward to seeing the show, but also look forward to seeing the people that often sit to their right and often sit to their left," Gresham said.

Looking to their neighbors this summer, Lyceum patrons no doubt will see more than a few smiles. The season makes promises of delight which, Gresham said, feel true to the summer theater experience. Lyceum shows are meant to bring about escape and uplift, he said, while also abiding moments of reflection on what lies inside us and what really matters.

"But also feeling good matters," he added.

Among those feel-good shows: two very distinct, beloved odes to the theater itself. "42nd Street," of course, opens the season and later meets its match in "Noises Off," Gresham's all-time favorite, which runs Aug. 17-25.

Neither show requires theatrical bonafides from its audience, but they do honor a special degree of knowing held by those on and behind the stage.

"They’re stories about us, for everyone," Gresham said.

Every show springs forth from the beauty of connection and creative labor; "42nd Street" and "Noises Off" just happen to bring that particular beauty into the spotlight.

"The thing audience members don’t always necessarily understand is what the foxhole camaraderie is that they’re actually witnessing," Gresham said.

As the Lyceum continues to gather cast and crew members from nearly every background and experience, audiences will see many kinds of people — and themselves — on the stage, sensing that camaraderie in multiple dimensions, he added.

Shows for Parrotheads and Wonka fans

Also on approach this summer, "Jimmy Buffett's Escape to Margaritaville," which runs June 28-July 7 and revolves around songs from the king of the Parrotheads.

The show was scheduled and announced before Buffett's passing last September at age 76, but "now provides a different sort of vigil that I don’t know that it did before," Gresham said.

Within the show, romance blossoms at a resort past-its-prime, harnessing both the good-time and more deeply-felt qualities of Buffett's songs.

"The deep magic of his music is in its simplicity," Gresham said.

"Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which takes the stage July 19-28 mingles worlds built through Dahl's book and the 1971 big-screen adaptation, Gresham said.

Like many, he grew up with Gene Wilder's surprisingly complex, ambiguous Willy Wonka and questions about the nature of the chocolatier's genius — was he evil, benevolent, something beyond or between?

The show joins well-known tunes from the film with original music by Marc Shaiman, a film, theater and TV composer committed to "hummable," almost "vaudevillian" song forms from a former era, Gresham said.

Gresham credits pop-culture artifacts like the Wilder film with cultivating a delightful weirdness in him, a trait that's served him well in the theater. And he appreciates how the show approaches the nature of childhood. Our early years are wondrous yet unsettling, full of odd new experiences and "pure imagination," as the song goes.

To present children and their adults with a chance to revisit the show's themes and messages clearly satisfies him.

The following shows round out this season's lineup:

• Sept. 6-15: "Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure"

• Sept. 27-Oct. 6: "Million Dollar Quartet"

• Dec. 13-22: "A Christmas Carol"

For more on this year's season, including ticket prices, visit https://lyceumtheatre.org/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Lyceum Theatre set to make summer magic with these shows in Arrow Rock