UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 25, Page 6
March 23, 1995
Communication, '90s style, new musical's theme

     A new musical, 1-900-THE-SHOW, being presented by the Bacchus
Players at the University, will preview at Seaford High School on
Friday, March 31, and open with a dinner show at the Bacchus Theatre
on Saturday, April 8.
     The fourth collaboration of librettist Scott F. Mason and
lyricist/composer Joyce Hill Stoner, 1-900-THE-SHOW looks at telephone
dating and other ways of making electronic connections in the '90s.
     At the fictitious company DIAL, the lives of six employees become
entangled through voice-mail, e-mail, the Internet, 1-900 classifieds,
faxes and cellular phones as each pursues career and romance, while
encountering office intrigue and gender confusion.
     Cast members include Nathaniel W. Pusey and David T. Wills as the
handsome vice president and the shy computer nerd. Elaine Brown, Liz
Hutchison, Edward Emmi and Leslie Anne Green appear in middle
management roles.
     Musical direction and accompaniment are by James J. Weber of
Weber-Prianti Productions.
     1-900-THE-SHOW will preview at Seaford High School at 7:30 p.m.,
Friday, March 31. Tickets are $4 for students and $7 for the general
public. For tickets or more information, call the Office of Alumni and
University Relations in Georgetown at 855-1620 or in Dover at 738-
8200.
     The musical will open at the Bacchus Dinner Theatre in the
Perkins Student Center on Saturday, April 8, and continue Thursday
through Saturday, April 13-15. All performances are at 8:15 p.m.
     Tickets are $5 for students, $8 for University faculty, staff and
senior citizens and $10 for the general public.
     Tickets are available at the Perkins Student Center and Bob
Carpenter Center box offices in Newark. Audience members are reminded
that the show has adult themes.
     Mason, who is assistant director of the Perkins Student Center,
has had 11 of his plays produced to date, ranging from comedy to
mystery to drama. His one-act play An Act of Murder, which he also
directed, won second place in the 1989 Delaware One-Act Play Festival.
Two years later, his one-act play, Answers, was recognized for
Outstanding Playwriting in the 1991 competition.
     Stoner, who is director of the Winterthur/University of Delaware
Program in Art Conservation, has written 15 musicals, including the
Off-Broadway show I'll Die If I Can't Live Forever, available through
Samuel French. Her lyrics and music have been performed across the
U.S. and in Italy.
     As a cabaret performer in New York, she has shared dressing rooms
with Manhattan Transfer and Holly Woodlawn. She wrote the music and
lyrics for Mr. Peale Goes to Town, which was named "Best of the Year"
by the Wilmington News Journal.
     Mason and Stoner are at work on a fifth collaboration, First
Vote, about women for and against the women's suffrage movement in
Delaware. This production will premier at the Wilmington Historical
Society in November 1995, during the 75th anniversary of the 19th
Amendment.
     For additional information on this and other University events,
call UD1-HENS.