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07/18/2024 12:00 AMOn July 10, 1984, a brand-new musical, Harrigan ‘n’ Hart, opened at a brand-new theater in Chester. Named The Norma Terris Theatre, it was Goodspeed’s expansion into encouraging the development of new musicals. The show, about the legendary vaudeville comics, went on to a brief Broadway run.
Michael Price, then the executive producer of the theater, now called The Terris Theatre, explained that his goal was for Goodspeed to produce more new musicals. The Opera House in East Haddam was producing two old and one new musical a year; it was running at capacity.
His vision was to allow the creative team of a new musical to stage a scaled-down version of the show, gather audience feedback, and make changes as the show ran. This is still how The Terris Theater operates: new works that evolve in response to audience reactions.
Before Dear Evan Hansen and the Oscar-winning La La Land, Justin Paul and Benj Pasek wrote James and the Giant Peach, based on the Ronald Dahl story. It was produced at The Terris in 2015 and directed by Graciela Daniele, a Tony-winning director/choreographer.
Andrew Lippa’s first show, John & Jen, premiered in 1995, long before he wrote the score for The Addams Family.
Last fall’s production of Private Jones, based on a true story, garnered interest from commercial producers; it has also had a production at the Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Jeff Calhoun, the director/choreographer of the most recent show at The Terris, A Complicated Woman, said that the next incarnation of the show will be entirely based on the audience feedback. “We realized that we hadn’t made clear certain things because we knew the story so well.” Calhoun gave the example that the audience did not realize that Kenley wasn’t transgendered but intersexed; his anatomy was mixed, and he had been “assigned” the male gender at birth by his parents and doctors.
“It gave us clarity about what was there and what was missing,” Calhoun said. “When you see something on stage and see the audience’s reaction and the questions they ask, particularly if they are the same questions, you know what needs to be done. We are more confident now.”
The Terris was never viewed as an incubator for Broadway, though it was hoped that many shows would have a future. While a handful of shows have gone to Broadway, others have had off-Broadway and London productions. More have been “licensed,” which means they are available for theater groups, including schools, colleges, and community theaters, to produce.
Price had hoped to locate this new theater in East Haddam. In fact, some readings were held in the rehearsal hall and later in the paint shop, but town officials did not view these as appropriate facilities. Price learned of an empty factory in Chester when Susan Bates, Inc. relocated. The company produced knitting needles and crochet hooks. Luckily, he was able to purchase it for just one dollar.
Retired Broadway leading lady and longtime Goodspeed Trustee Norma Terris stepped in to help. Terris had played Magnolia in the original production of Show Boat, a breakthrough musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. In interviews, Terris said she helped identify what the project needed and provided funding. It was named in her honor.
That first season included A Broadway Baby and Mrs. McThing. The latter, based on a Mary Chase play (she wrote Harvey), had a troubled experience at the Terris, as recounted by book writer/lyricist Michael Colby. Problems with the director and casting complicated the show's rehearsal period. Some recent readings and workshops have been held. Who knows? It might yet be off the ground.
Hits and Misses
Price admits that the Terris has had some hits as well as some disasters. “It’s a ballgame,” he said, “hits, runs and errors. There was drama in getting the shows up and drama in closing a show.”
“It was fun,” Price said, “because we did not feel pressure to sell out the house every night.”
He also pointed out that The Terris did not attract the shows ready for Broadway with many investors. “Those go to Seattle, the Old Globe, or La Jolla (San Diego).”
Annie 2 (Annie Warbucks) was staged at The Terris in 1990. By the time it opened at the Kennedy Center later in the year, it was called Annie 2–Miss Hannigan’s Revenge, with Dorothy Loudon returning as a much more villainous Miss Hannigan. Despite a huge advance sale, it closed, never making it to Broadway. Yet, Annie 2 (Annie Warbucks) was recently staged. This version eliminates Miss Hannigan and replaces her with a new villain, just as in the original Terris version.
While the vast majority were new shows, a few productions were revisited by the creative teams, often after major changes. Jerry Herman’s musical Dear World, which had flopped on Broadway in 1969 even with Angela Lansbury, was staged in 2000 with three new songs and starring Sally Ann Howes and Georgia Engel.
Stephen Schwartz’s The Baker’s Wife was done in 2002, a year before his megahit, Wicked, hit Broadway. That show had never made it to Broadway after a 1976 tour, though a revision had been done in London in 1989. Currently, a new production is expected this fall at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, which resurrected Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.
In 1996 Andrew Lloyd Webber and playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s totally revised version of By Jeeves was produced. After its failure in London, the show retained only three songs. It later opened on Broadway in 2001.
If you look at the list of more than 100 musicals produced at The Terris, you see shows that went to Broadway and/or London–Amazing Grace in 2015; Cyrano with Peter Dinklage in 2018 played off-Broadway; a film was produced. Charles Aznavour wrote the music for My Paris about Toulouse Lautrec in 2015. (It was produced at Long Wharf the following year). Swinging on a Star (1994), went on to Broadway and a Tony nomination.
Sign of the Times (2018), a story with Petula Clark's hits, has recently played off-Broadway, although it now includes music by other performers.
Donna Lynn Hilton, the artistic director of Goodspeed, is enthusiastic about the future of The Terris. “At our recent gala benefit, I heard from artists that found their work at The Terris transformative.”
She is also proud that the Goodspeed audience is willing to experience new works that they know nothing about, sometimes with difficult subject matter.
If a show goes on, Goodspeed might earn a little money from it. “But it’s a long shot,” Hilton said. She pointed out that All Shook Up, the musical using Elvis hits that was presented at The Terris in 2004 and ran for over 200 performances on Broadway, just recouped its initial costs. The show has had hundreds of productions throughout the country.
Next at The Terris
Ask for the Moon opens at the Terris on Friday, July 19. It is the most recent in a long line of new works presented by Goodspeed. Darko Tresjnak, Tony-winner director of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, as well as former artistic director of Hartford Stage, is not only directing but is also writing the book and lyrics. He explains that this is a small show—just three actors and a puppeteer. “I want it to be able to go to many venues,” he said. A Gentleman’s Guide took seven years to make it to Broadway and millions of dollars.
By writing as intimately as he can, he feels less pressure and also believes that the show can be flexible and “user-friendly.”
Oran Eldor wrote the music; he is a well-known arranger, conductor, orchestrator, and composer. His musical, Mythic had sold-out runs in London and Montreal.
The show is described as a “diabolical new musical comedy” set on an ocean liner and featuring a vengeful lawyer, a scheming widow, and a volatile nurse.
Tresjnak said he hopes people will like it; “my sense of humor fits my name (Darko); it is a little macabre.”
Ask for the Moon did a workshop that Goodspeed’s Artistic Director, Donna Lynn Hilton, saw; she expressed interest in the show.
“I have great trust in Goodspeed,” Tresjnak said. His relationship with the theater goes back 25 years, during which he directed several main stage productions.
The Terris Was Just the Beginning
Since The Terris Theatre was established, Goodspeed has expanded its efforts to support new musicals. The annual Festival of New Musicals began in 2006. Each year, usually in January, three musicals in development are given book-in-hand performances featuring college drama students. In 2013, Come From Away, which became a major Broadway and worldwide hit, had its very first performance before an audience.
The Johnny Mercer Foundation, established by the famed songwriter/lyricist worked with Goodspeed to establish the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove in 2013. Songwriting teams are selected for residencies where they can write and share their work with peers and dramaturgs and receive feedback. Over 300 writers have developed works there, including A Strange Loop, which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Since then, Goodspeed has established an NYU Writers Residency in collaboration with the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.
GoodWorks was established in 2022 to formally commission works which reveal, as the website states, “the best of humankind, celebrate that which is good in our world, and will resonate with and inspire audiences.” The Snow Goose, one of the first commissions, was staged at the 2024 Festival of New Musicals. Goodspeed just received a grant to support the development of Little Miss Perfect.
Some Highlights from the Archives
Ariana Grande was in the cast of 13, a show by Robert Jason Brown in 2008. The show featured an all-teen cast and band and went on to have a Broadway run (with Grande), a CD, and a film.
Idina Menzel played the lead in Summer of ’42, based on the film in 2000. The show has had productions off-Broadway and throughout the country. A CD of the score was produced in 2007, Menzel is not on the CD.
Sutton Foster played a newly created character, a nun, in Dorian Gray in 2000.
Linda Eder starred in Frank Wildhorn’s Camille Claudel in 2003.
Casey Nicholaw – Tony Award-winning director and choreographer (The Drowsy Chaperone, Some Like It Hot) - choreographed his first show at The Terris, The Road to Hollywood, in 2002.
Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the composer/lyricist of The Fantasticks and I Do, I Do, tried out Mirette, based on the children’s story in 1998. The following year, it was produced as part of Goodspeed’s main stage season.
Julie Andrews directed The Great American Mousical (2012), based on the children’s book she wrote with her daughter. She is currently directing the show at The Legacy Theatre in Branford (www.legacytheatrect.org). It plays Thursday, July 11 through Sunday, July 28.