Play eavesdrops on ‘First Date’

“First Date” is set in a bar. So when the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre went looking for a place to stage the Broadway musical, they found a bar: the upstairs ballroom of the Coeur d’Alene Eagles Lodge, in the heart of downtown.

“It’s a great space. It’s roomy enough that we can get a good audience in there, but it’s intimate enough that it really feels like we’re in the restaurant with the actors,” said Jadd Davis, CST’s artistic director.

“First Date,” a musical by Austin Winsberg with music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, centers on Aaron (Cody Bray) and Casey (Aubrey Shimek Davis), who meet on a blind date. Over the course of dinner, Aaron and Casey feel each other out, talking about exes, arguing about religion and sharing their life stories.

The musical was born in Seattle three years ago. After its debut at Seattle’s ACT Theater, co-produced by 5th Avenue Theatre, the musical moved to Broadway, where it had a five-month run featuring Zachary Levi (“Chuck”) and Krysta Rodriquez (“Smash”). CST is one of the first regional companies to get rights to the show, Davis said.

Davis, who is directing CST’s production, said he was attracted to the project because, quite simply, it’s funny. Like crying-tears-of-laughter funny.

“Whenever we can do a theater production that legitimately makes people gut laugh, that’s something that’s really fun and really special to want to pursue,” he said. “There’s a ton of heart in it. Especially as you get toward the end of the show, you’ve totally fallen in love with these characters and then you get to see a little more about them, about their humanity, and it gets you in a way that wouldn’t if you weren’t already so charmed by them.”

Bray, who has credits at the Modern Theater, Opera Coeur d’Alene, Spokane Civic Theatre and Eastern Washington University, and Shimek Davis, memorable this season in the Modern’s “The Glass Menagerie,” “The Last Five Years” and “Collected Stories,” were able to bring vocal chops and acting skill to the roles, Davis said.

“I brought most of my cast in from out of town, but the two people who happened to be perfect for these roles happened to be right in my own backyard,” Davis said. “When I handed the script to Cody, he was, ‘Oh, so they just wrote a play about me.’ He completely related to the character.”

As of Wednesday, the first three nights of “First Date” were sold out, prompting the company to add a show on June 22. Davis predicts the show will make a perfect casual date night.

“The cast is so darn good,” Davis said. “And the material is so strong.”