Musical revue to provide sentimental start to Virginia Theater Festival

For 50 Years and Counting: A Musical Revue, former producing artistic director Bob Chapel is back in the director's chair, teaming up with actors from festival productions dating back to 1994. Expect to hear 28 songs from 26 shows, including Annie Get Your Gun. , Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Spamalot, Company and other favorites, which have been presented since the festival added musicals to its mix three dozen years ago.

Every song comes from something we did in the past, Chapel told the Daily Progress. We kind of jump around; we don't do ballad, ballad, ballad, ballad, ballad. It’s a veritable potpourri of all genres of musical theater.

A whos who of singers and actors will return to Charlottesville after storied careers in film, television and Broadway productions to perform numbers from many of Virginia Theater Festival Chapel's musicals directed for local audiences.

Everyone I called said yes, which was really gratifying, Chapel said. I was hoping no one else would get a TV series.

He fondly refers to festival alumnus Daniel J. Watts, who gave Chapel a conditional yes as long as he wasn't called up for a particular TV show. The Chi has in fact invited Watts to play Pastor Ezekiel, so he won't be able to return to the University of Virginia's Culbreth Theater this time. If you're wondering what else Watts has been up to since his days at the Virginia Theater Festival, check out his work on Werewolf by Night, Blindspot, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Other festival alumni who are able to attend fit this labor of love into already busy schedules. Rob Marnell only has two weeks off each year from Mamma Mia!, and Chapel said he would spend one of those weeks in Culbreth.

He only has two days of rehearsal, Chapel said of Marnell, who festival fans will remember from Spitfire Grill in 2005, Sunday in the Park with George in 2006, City of Angels in 2008 and the production of 2009 from Little Shop of Horrors.

Geno Carr and Nancy Snow Carr will take a short break from a San Diego production of The Putnam County Spelling Bee to participate.

Geno Carr directed the Virginia Theater Festivals' 2009 production of Little Shop of Horrors and began his years performing in the festival casts of Anything Goes and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change in 2002. He was part of the original cast Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Come From Away.

Fans of the Virginia Theater Festival will remember Nancy Snow Carr for her work in West Side Story in 1999, Carousel in 2000, and I Love You, Youre Perfect, Now Change in 2002, to name a few.

Chapel is confident in its stars' ability to put together a satisfying show in a short amount of time.

“It’s the fastest thing I’ve ever done, but they’re pros, every single one of them,” Chapel said proudly. It's a concert; it's not like we have to stage anything. We don't really need decorations.

That's good news, because these cast members are already eating a lot of it.

UVa alumna Emily Swallow currently stars as the Armorer in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and has also won fans as Amara in the CW’s Supernatural. Swallows Virginia Theatre Festival credits include Sweeney Todd in 1998, Carousel in 2000 and Gypsy and Grease in 2001.

Emelie Faith Thompson has worked on Broadway in Night Games and The Ugly Duckling, as well as at the Barter Theater, Virginia Repertory Theater and other regional theaters. She appeared in the Virginia theater festivals My Fair Lady, Boeing, Boeing, and The 39 Steps in 2011, as well as Annie Get Your Gun in 2013, Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2014, and Violet in 2015.

Lauren Hooper, who played Sarah at the Virginia Theater Festivals Ragtime in 2004, has had recurring roles on Netflix's Manifest and Showtime's Homeland. She has also remained busy in off-Broadway and major regional theaters, where her credits include The Wild Party, Intimate Apparel, Dreamgirls, and Beauty and the Beast.

Arbender Robinson entertained festival audiences in Aint Misbehavin' in 2000, Smokey Joes Caf in 2002, and Ragtime and Five Guys Named Moe in 2004. He has also appeared in Ragtime on Broadway, as well as Les Misrables, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Hairspray Hair, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and other shows.

Similarly, Tony Gilbert played Sweeney Todd in the festival's 1998 production and later appeared on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. He has also appeared in Broadway tours of The Buddy Holly Story, Man of La Mancha and Sayonara.

UVa alumnus Jack Donahue made his Virginia Theater Festival debut in 1994 with Sondheim's Side by Side and Jacques Brel is alive and living in Paris. The award-winning singer, songwriter and actor also starred in Man of La Mancha and Lend Me a Tenor in 1995 and Guys and Dolls, Blithe Spirt and The Nerd in 1996.

Lydia Underwood Horan, known for her many acting and directing roles in Central Virginia, has performed in Virginia Theatre Festivals such as How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2003, Sunday in the Park with George and South Pacific in 2006, City of Angels and The Light on the Piazza in 2008, and Oliver! and Little Shop of Horrors in 2009.

Joining Chapel on the creative team are musical director Nate Patten, scenic coordinator Tom Bloom, costume designer Sarah Bryan, lighting designer Steve Spera, sound designer Michael Rasbury and production stage manager Charles K. Bayang.

During the Virginia Theater Festival's first 13 years, there were many well-received plays, but no musicals. Chapel led the first ever music festival, I Do, I Do, in 1988.

Chapel may have officially retired in 2016, but 50 Years and Counting is his ninth production since then. He has directed shows for Live Arts and the Charlottesville Opera, and he is working on the Four County Players production of Sondheim’s Putting It Together.

Chapel said it's important to emphasize that marking Virginia Theater Festivals' 50th anniversary with a tribute to musicals does not diminish the recognition of the summer staple's dedication to high-quality theater. A quick salute to the pieces would have required creating scenes with settings to place the excerpts in context.

We're not trying to deny the parts or the work people put into it, Chapel said. It's just that in presenting this, it was difficult to do a monologue out of context. The music is alone.

Music also lends itself well to celebrations. Jenny Wales, who begins her seventh year as artistic director of the festival in July, said that as it is the 50th anniversary we celebrated it from the start.

It's really a special thing to see all these actors who started their careers with Bob, Wales told the Daily Progress, speaking of Chapel. The first decision was Bob's; how can we get Bob involved?

During the Virginia Theater Festival season, new productions of Little Shop of Horrors, running at the Culbreth July 11-21, and The 39 Steps, running July 25-August 4 at the UVas Ruth Caplin Theater .

Little Shop of Horrors already felt like a party while we were auditioning and assembling the cast, Wales said. Even though it's dark and has its moments, it's campy and has heart.

Wales said the fast-paced, frenetic atmosphere of The 39 Steps, in which four actors take on more than 150 roles, will captivate audiences with an energetic blend of film noir and farce.

She said Virginia theater festivals in the next 50 years will dive even deeper into strengthening connections between performers and performers. Wales said the festival is still recovering from dark years when it was unable to produce in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that audience members and theater teams benefit from refamiliarizing themselves with the power of live theater to entertain, edify and move.

Live theater, after all, is work best done together, she said.

I'm excited to create high-quality work to share with the community, Wales said. The theater is a space where we can experience the party. You can see stories similar to yours and different from yours.

There's something about being present and witnessing a story live. It's an honor to be able to do what we do in the arts. It almost seems more meaningful on the other side of [the pandemic]. I am filled with celebration and gratitude.