UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 9, Page 11
October 26, 1995
Two Delaware musicals are bound for the Big Apple

     Three Delawareans, well known in the theatre community, will be
presenting revised versions of two musicals they conceived and
produced locally in New York City next year.
     1-900-THE-SHOW, by playwright Scott F. Mason, composer Joyce Hill
Stoner and arranger Jim Weber, will be presented as a 75-minute
matinee on Sunday, Jan. 28, and again in the evening on Monday, Jan.
29, at the Don't Tell Mama Cabaret at 343 West 46th St.
     The team also has been invited to present two 75-minute versions
of Living Dolls, a revised version of As She Dreams It, Barbie: The
Musical in February, and, depending on audience response, the team may
present a longer run of whichever show best fits the New York venue.
     The New York performances are the result of a Sept. 9 audition of
1-900-THE-SHOW, by the original Delaware cast, in the New York theatre
district and of a July 19 "backers' showcase" fundraiser.
      1-900-THE-SHOW explores office life and romance in the fast-
paced electronic '90s, where faxes, e-mail, voice-mail, computers and
cellular phones bring constant fast-paced changes. It first opened in
Seaford last spring with the sponsorship of the UD Performing Arts
Series, was presented as a benefit performance at the Wilmington Drama
League and then ran in the Bacchus Cabaret Theatre, under the
sponsorship of the Perkins Student Center.
     As She Dreams It, Barbie: The Musical opened at the Perkins
Student Center in 1993. Based on Shakespeare's As You Like It, the
show is a 12-year-old tomboy's dream, with Barbie as Rosalind and Ken
as Orlando. During the musical, the heroine, who has always wanted to
be as beautiful as Barbie, learns there is much more to life than
prettiness. As She Dreams It investigates the transformation of
Barbie, the "all-American dream girl," into a "liberated woman."
     The New York cast of 1-900-THE-SHOW will include Allen
Fitzpatrick, who is familiar to Delaware audiences from appearances at
the Delaware Theatre Company. Fitzpatrick also has appeared on
Broadway in such shows as Les Miserables and Damn Yankees. Some of the
original Delaware cast will be included in the New York performances,
as will other New Yorkers.
     Mason, assistant director of the Perkins Student Center, is
responsible for book and direction for 1-900-THE SHOW. He has written
11 other plays, ranging from comedy to mystery and drama. His one-act
play, An Act of Murder, won second place in the 1989 Delaware One-Act
Play Festival and his one-act, Answers, was recognized for outstanding
play writing in the 1991 competition.
     Stoner, chairperson of the Department of Art Conservation at UD,
wrote the music and lyrics for 1-900-THE SHOW. She has written 16
musicals, including one produced off-Broadway, I'll Die If I Can't
Live Forever.
     Weber is responsible for the musical arrangement, direction and
accompaniment for 1-900-THE-SHOW. He has worked in more than 100 shows
at the Three Little Bakers Dinner Theatre, the Theatre By The Sea and
the equity Delaware Theatre Company as an arranger, musical director
and director. His Weber-Prianti production company is well-known to
theatregoers in the Delaware Valley.
     Stoner, Mason and Weber are currently rehearsing First Vote, a
musical about woman's suffrage, which will be presented throughout
Delaware in November. First Vote, the fifth collaboration by Stoner
and Mason, is supported by a $13,800 grant from the Delaware
Humanities Forum.
                                                       -Suzanne Schott