Chester's Terris Theatre continues over 40 year tradition of tweaking musical premieres

Why it took me, an avid live-theater fan, until my mid-70s to discover the Terris Theatre in Chester CT I’ll never know. This sorry omission in my play-going life serendipitously took a hair-pin turn when I received an invite to attend a press night performance of its current production, “About Time”. The irony of its title did not escape me.

But enough about me. This new musical revue about “ life, love and laughter in your third act,” is the latest of a long tradition of musicals brought to the Terris 200-seat theatre. Once a knitting needle factory and now named in honor of Broadway legend Norma Terris, the intimate venue has been dedicated to developing and presenting new musicals in concert with the 400-seat Goodspeed’s main stage located five miles south in East Haddam. This collaboration of the two Goodspeed Musicals stages has been going on since Terris’ first production of Harrigan ’N Hart in 1984, over ninety years after the Goodspeed Opera House first staged repertory comedy and farce in 1877. Back in those days featured performers were brought to East Haddam by steamboat, many directly from theaters in New York.

And while the means of transportation has changed, four of the well-established six-person “About Time” ensemble took a virtual hop, skip and jump from Broadway and vicinity to hone the new production on the Terris stage, under the artistic direction of Donna Lynn Hilton. And by hone I mean test and tweak every number so that the show that began its run May 24 is not quite the same as the one that exited the venue yesterday. According to Carol Giroux, PR director of Goodspeed Musicals, my viewing late in its run had songs rearranged and changes to lyrics and accompaniment.

In most cases, after a show’s run at the Terris, its creative team and producer will seek further bookings for the newly launched show. I certainly hope this is the case for "About Time" -- cast, crew, technicians and musicians included. That way others - like me - might share the delight of seeing the Great White Way veteran Eddie Korbich, greet the audience with “Show Tune,” an opener that readies them for the “revue” of songs, each focusing on a challenge of senior citizenship. The first will have a frenzied Darius de Haas’ search for his keys. Who could not relate? And that would be followed by ensemble members taking turns sharing the spotlight with a repertoire of songs that emit emotions elders experience every day- ranging from hilarity to frustration to pride to loneliness to irony and then some. And when these actors join forces – as in Shinnerrie Jackson, Issy van Randwyck, and Lynn Wintersteller’s tipsy tribute to their mature womanhood - any auditorium would be bound to shake with laughter.

That is not to say “About Time” didn't provide wistfully tender moments as well, particularly in Daniel Jenkins’ reminiscence about his bent for cool jazz and Korbich’s tribute to his grandfather inspired by the secrets he discovered while sifting through the old vaudevillian’s trunk.

This morning, as I reminisce about my first visit to the Terris Theatre, another musical premiere is headed to the refurbished factory come October. Prepare for "The Great Emu War Musical." The wacky comedic "emusical" (which had a staged reading at the Goodspeed two years ago) is based on the historical "Emu War"of 1932 in Australia, where the military attempted to cull a large population of the flightless birds. Its run at the Terris is bound to fluff up its funny feathers for sure.