USU Eastern’s final theatre production

Farce is the name of the game in Eastern Utah Theatre’s final production for 2013 with Moon Over Buffalo by Ken Ludwig set for April 4-13, 2013 in the Geary Theatre on the USU Eastern Campus.
Moon Over Buffalo has been a comedy staple in the theatre since its premiere at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1995, with Phillip Bosco and Carol Burnett as the lead players.
A few new faces appear in this production including Alexandra Cale who plays Rosalind and Lisha Michel who plays Ethel, both from Clearfield High School; Monica Parkinson as Eileen, Springville High School; Joshua-David Zelasko as Howard the Weatherman hails from Colorado Springs, Co. from Liberty High School; Braden Hampel plays Paul, Weber High School; Tyrell Clement as Richard, Emery High School; and Braden Nelson and Anne Morey play George and Charlotte Hay, both from Olympus High School.
Moon Over Buffalo tells the story of Charlotte and George Hay, an acting couple on tour in 1953 in Buffalo New York. Their repertory consists of a “revised” Cyrano de Bergerac, “a one nostril version,” and Noel Coward’s play Private Lives. In this backstage farce fate has given these actors one more shot at starring roles in the Hollywood film, “Twilight of the Scarlett Pimpernell.”
The film is directed by the famous Frank Capra who is himself on route from California to Buffalo to catch their matinee performance. Will Charlotte appear or run off with their lawyer? Will George be sober enough to emote? Will we or Capra see Cyrano or Private Lives or a disturbing mixture of the two? Will George’s Cyrano pants ever get fixed? Why is General George S. Patton in Buffalo?
Moon Over Buffalo is“stuffed with comic invention . . . running gags . . . and a neat sense of absurdity, hilarious misunderstandings pile on madcap misadventures, in this valentine to Theatre Lovers and Hams everywhere.
Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright who has had six shows on Broadway and six on the West End. He has received two Lawrence Olivier Awards (England’s highest theatre honor), three Tony Award nominations and many other awards and accolades. He has become a comedy staple in the theatre having written such plays as Postmortem, presented here in 2005, Leading Ladies also Produced by Eastern Utah Theatre in 2007 and Twentieth Century in Logan 2012. He studied music at Harvard with Leonard Bernstein and theatre history at Cambridge and is on the board of governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
“I think Ludwig’s plays are absolute genius, said director Dr. Corey Ewan, “I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them I have read or directed. Sheer theatrical joy!”
The Boston Herald calls the play, “nothing less than a love letter to live theatre.”