Doo-Wop Charges Up ‘Rapunzel’ Lake City Playhouse Opens Classic Fairy Tale

The Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene opens a “Rapunzel” tonight unlike any you have ever seen.

For one thing, it features doo-wop-style music written by Larry Spivack. For another, it debuted in New York last April, so you probably can’t have seen it.

This show is a comic twist on the old let-your-hair-down fairy tale and is suitable for children and adults alike.

The music is based on ‘50s tunes and includes a little bit of blues and a little bit of jazz along with its doo-wop harmonies.

The New York version and the Lake City Playhouse version share one important connection: Laura Seable. She originated the role of Rapunzel in New York, and she will play the same role here as well as direct the play.

Seable is an actress and former office manager of the Lake City Playhouse. She moved to New York last September to pursue her acting career, and she landed the role in the Twelve Miles West Theatre Company show. It played a short run at the Wings Theatre in Greenwich Village.

She immediately recognized that it would fit the Lake City Playhouse perfectly, so she gave them a call.

“I loved the show so much, and I saw how well it was received in New York,” said Seable. “They said, ‘Why don’t you come and do it?’ I talked to the composer and he was thrilled.”

Spivack has also written the score to the Broadway production of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” “Puss in Boots,” and the New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Coriolanus.”

Seable will head back to New York when the run is over.

Other actors in this production are Barb Peterson, Michael Grabenstein and Dan Russell.

The show opens Friday and continues Saturday, Sunday and Aug. 21-24. All shows are at 8 p.m. except Sunday matinees which begin at 2 p.m. There will be both a 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. show on Aug. 24.

Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors, $6 for children younger than 12. A $25 family ticket for two adults and two children is available for matinees only.

A half-price preview show will be held tonight at 8 p.m.

For tickets, call (208) 667-1323. The Lake City Playhouse is located at 14th and Garden in Coeur d’Alene.

“Oliver!”

The classic Lionel Bart musical “Oliver!”, based on Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” will be presented at Eastern Washington University in Cheney beginning tonight.

It’s about a young orphan who falls in with a group of London pickpockets led by the notorious Fagin and the irrepressible Artful Dodger.

This will be the culminating event of the EWU Summer Theatre for Youth, which consists of 30 students from Fairchild Air Force Base.

Many of the younger roles will be taken by students. Aaron Nicholls, 9, plays Oliver and Randy Carter, 10, plays the Artful Dodger.

Some of the adult roles will be filled by EWU faculty, including Lynn Brinckmeyer as Nancy and Don McLaughlin as Fagin. McLaughlin, the University Theatre technical director, is also directing the show.

The show opens tonight and continues Monday through Thursday next week at the University Theatre on the Cheney campus. Curtain time is 6 p.m.

Tickets are $5. Call 359-2459 for information.<

, DataTimes