MFT to open 19th season with famous faces: Van Patten, Gorshin

Published 12:00 am Saturday, February 23, 2002

When Minnesota Festival Theatre opens its 19th season in June, it will do so with the help of some famous names.

Saturday, February 23, 2002

When Minnesota Festival Theatre opens its 19th season in June, it will do so with the help of some famous names.

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Dick Van Patten, his son Jim Van Patten and Frank Gorshin will appear on the Albert Lea Civic Theatre stage in &uot;The Sunshine Boys&uot; by Neil Simon.

MFT Artistic Director Terry Lynn Carlson just finished up a national tour of the show with the actors, and asked if they’d come and do the show here.

&uot;They said they would,&uot; Carlson said. &uot;So we’ll open the season June 6 with them for a three-week run.&uot; The show will run through June 22.

Carlson said he has also been able to get the Troupe America national tour’s set and costumes.

The show is a timeless show-biz comedy. Al Lewis and Willie Clark played vaudeville as a team for 43 years, but a falling out and mutual loathing have kept them apart for the past 11 years. Now CBS wants to stage a reunion of this once top-billed duo with an appearance by Lewis and Clark for the &uot;History of Comedy Special.&uot; This unwelcome reunion sparks comedy as only Neil Simon can deliver.

Gorshin, who has had a long career as a stand-up comedian and impressionist, is probably best known as the arch nemesis&uot;The Riddler&uot; in the &uot;Batman&uot; television series.

Dick Van Patten is best known for the television series, &uot;Eight is Enough.&uot; But he’s been in several Disney movies and Mel Brooks movies. &uot;He did his first Broadway show in 1935 as a child actor,&uot; Carlson said. &uot;He worked with the Barrymores … Sinclair Lewis -&160;he’s like this history. It’s been so much fun working and traveling with these guys.&uot;

The smaller roles in the show will be cast locally, Carlson said.

Carlson said the MFT board hasn’t yet decided what the second show will be. It will either be a condensed version of &uot;I Love A Piano,&uot; which features the music of Irving Berlin, or &uot;A Brief History of White Music,&uot; which is the music of Elvis and the Beatles -&160;sung by a Black cast.

&uot;It closed after a one-year run in Milwaukee,&uot; Carlson said. &uot;It’s a great show.&uot;

The third and final show will be &uot;Guys and Dolls,&uot; which will run July 10-27. &uot;Guys and Dolls&uot; is set in the mythical New York city of Damon Runyon, and introduces a cast of off-beat characters: Sarah Brown, the upright &uot;mission doll&uot; marching with the Salvation Army Mission Band to Rescue and Reform the misguided gamblers of Times Square; Sky Masterson, the fast-talking, good-looking, high-rolling skunk who charms and court her on a bet and falls in love; Adelaide, the hypochondriac night club performer whose chronic &uot;condition&uot; is triggered by her 14-year engagement to the same no-good bum; and Nathan Detroit, her devoted fiance, always searching for the perfect spot for his infamous &uot;permanent floating crap game.&uot;

The musical includes such famous tunes as &uot;A Bushel and a Peck,&uot; &uot;Luck Be a Lady,&uot; &uot;Sue Me,&uot; &uot;Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,&uot; &uot;Guys and Dolls,&uot; and &uot;I’ll Know.&uot;

Auditions for local actors will be held March 9 and 10, and information on season ticket sales will be available soon. For more information, call 1-800-944-5260.