February 03, 2010 Connect Special

    You can drive from Chicago to Los Angeles in about 31 hours - if you stick to the interstates. However, for the road warrior who isn’t in a hurry, a cruise along old Route 66 can be an unforgettable journey – one with surprises beyond every curve.
    Often called “America’s Main Street”, U.S. Route 66 is a retro-fantasyland of art deco motels, roadside attractions, Indian trading posts, novelty drive-ins and old-fashioned spit-and-polish service stations.  
    In its heyday, the highway boasted such landmarks as the Spooklight in Quapaw, Oklahoma, the giant Jackalope in Fort Worth, Texas, Meteor Crater in Leeup, Arizona, the Wigwam Village in Holbrook, Arizona, El Sombrero Restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Regal Reptile Ranch in Alanreed, Texas, the Chain of the Rocks Bridge near St. Louis, Missouri, the giant Rocketman in Wilmington, Illinois and the Iceberg Café in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
    In the 1940’s and ‘50’s, hundreds of fancifully-designed motels, motor lodges and motor courts sprung up along the great highway, many of which are still in operation today.
    One prominent feature of Route 66 was also the popular Burma Shave signs that dotted the landscape with their humorous poems from 1927 to 1963. Each phrase of a poem was on a different sign, sometimes miles apart. One example:  

        Don’t stick
        Your elbow
        Out too far
        It might
        Go home
        In another car
        Burma Shave    

    The Averitt Center for the Arts is bringing new musical comedy to town – Route 66, by Roger Bean – that celebrates the golden era of the quirky old highway. The rambunctious new musical comedy leads the audience along the great “Mother Road” in a nostalgic celebration of music and whimsical highway fun. The high-octane musical is on a 60-city national tour produced by the Georgia-based Springer Theatricals.
    In Route 66, a gang of rowdy Chicago service station attendants (played by Brian C. Gray, Dylan R. Hauck, Reid Robinson and Casey Ross) strip off their snappy uniforms and head off on a westward-bound road-trip filled with music, dance and highway mischief.
    The talented quartet of singing grease monkeys leave Chicago and follows the Mother Road down through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and conclude their travels at the beach in Santa Monica, California.
    Directed and choreographed by Kimberly Faith Hickman, the show features rock and pop music from the 1950’s and ‘60’s including such hit tunes as King of the Road, Dead Man’s Curve, Six Days on the Road, Hot Rod Queen, I Get Around, Little Old Lady from Pasadena, GTO, Fun-Fun-Fun and, of course, Route 66.
    Because of its comic antics and tight-harmony vocals, the show has been called a hybrid of  Grease, Forever Plaid and Pump Boys and Dinettes.
    The show’s author, Roger Bean, first created Route 66 for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and then developed it further at the famous Oregon Cabaret Theatre. Bean has now turned the production over to the 138 year-old Springer Theatre, the official State Theatre of Georgia.
    Springer producer Paul R. Pierce is excited about his company’s national tour of Route 66. “This production is right up our ally”, says Pierce, “And plays to our strengths, too - lots of comedy, music and stage surprises. The nostalgic qualities of Route 66 are irresistible. After all, the simple, innocent pleasures of cruising on desolate two-lane roads through towns like Oklahoma City, Joplin, Amarillo, Winona, Flagstaff and Barstow are nearly forgotten. The sheer romance of highway travel is something that has virtually disappeared from the American scene. Route 66 is a reminder of that romance – in all its gas-guzzling, tail-finned, gaudy neon, art deco glory.”
    Springer Theatricals is the touring unit of the Springer Opera House, the State Theatre of Georgia, based in Columbus. The Springer is one of America’s oldest and most celebrated theatre companies. Founded in 1871, the National Historic Landmark theatre features a year-round schedule of plays and musicals and operates a nationally-acclaimed Theatre Academy training program.
    Since Reconstruction days, the Springer has been a revered Southern cultural institution with the world’s most celebrated artists making pilgrimages to perform in the lavish Victorian elegance of its famous main stage theatre. From Edwin Booth, Lillie Langtry, George M. Cohan, Ethel Barrymore and Irving Berlin in the old days to more modern appearances by Mary Martin, Truman Capote, Hal Holbrook, Stacy Keach, Burt Reynolds and Marvin Hamlisch, the Springer Theatre has been a centerpiece for the performing arts in the South for 138 years.
    Route 66 will be at the Emma Kelly Theater for one show only, February 6 at 7:30 pm.  Tickets for the show are $25 for adults and $10 for children.

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