Arts, Dining & Entertainment

“ Anything Goes ” sets sail at Chandler June 30-July 3

Courtesy of Chandler Center for the Arts

As school ends, area students converge on Chandler Center for the Arts for the annual 4th of July musical.

June 30 – July 3 —RANDOLPH — With area high schools students having recently graduated, work has been well underway for this year’s Chandler Center for the Arts’ 4th of July musical, featuring a classic shipboard romance on a trans-Atlantic cruise and a boatload of misunderstandings and hijinks. The show is Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” written in 1934 and revived three different times for Broadway.

As is traditional for Chandler shows, the cast features a creative blend of familiar and new talent, beginning with the lead romantic couple.

Hannah Johnson, a senior at Randolph Union High School, and no stranger to either RUHS or Chandler theater fans, makes her farewell performance as Hope, an American debutante who wins the love interest of Billy Crocker, a young Wall Street broker. Billy will be played by Jamr Marceau, a student from Hanover High School making his debut on the Chandler stage.

Other familiar faces include RUHS senior Garrett Gagnon, who plays Moonface Martin, a second-rate gangster who calls himself “Public Enemy #13,” and Carter Farnsworth of Hartford High School as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, Hope’s wealthy and stuffy English fiance. Hope’s mother is performed by veteran Izzi Byrne from the Sharon Academy, and playing Moonface’s “doll” is Tillie Quattrone from U-32. Newcomer David Gordon, from Northfield High School, appears as gruff Wall Street broker Eli Whitney.

Janea Hudson from RUHS captured a lead as Reno, an evangelist turned nightclub singer and an old friend of Billy’s. Supporting roles went to Josh Huffman and Noah Ring of RUHS and Asa Dupras of Schuylerville Middle School in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the grandson of Bill and Carol Dupras of Randolph Center.

This year’s cast also boasts a significant number of seniors performing for the last time in a Chandler summer show. The 2016 cast includes: Izzi Byrne, from the Sharon Academy; Abi Caswell, Kate Conard, Eve Dana, Zahra Dana, Garrett Gagnon, Janea Hudson, Hannah Johnson, Morgan Smith, and Abby Zani, all from RUHS; Lucille Fernemont, from the College Saint-Andre Auvelais in Belgium; Cassandra North from Hartford High School; and Tillie Quattrone, from U-32.

The show itself focuses most of its energies on crazy misunderstandings, slapstick humor, and endless romance, all spiced up by the incredible music of Cole Porter.

Rehearsals began as soon as graduation ended, and a mere two and a half weeks later, Chandler audiences will be treated to a stage full of talent and energy.

This year, theatre-goers will be treated to a more traditional Chandler look, as director Kim Nowlan Hathaway is having the cover removed from the orchestra pit for the entire show.

Shows will be performed Thursday, June 30, Friday, July 1 and Saturday, July 2 at 7 p.m. each night; and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 3.

Tickets are $19.25 for adults and $12.75 for students, and can be reserved by calling 802-728-6464 weekdays between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. Chandler Center for the Arts is located at 71-73 Main St., Randolph.

For more information on these shows or upcoming shows and events, visit Chandler Center at chandler-arts.org.

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