Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village

Francis J. Gaudette Theatre March 16 to April 22, 2000
Everett Performing Arts Center April 28 to May 14, 2000

Issaquah, WA -The glitz and glamour of Hollywood collide with small town ingenuity in this new musical tribute to those south seas island epics of the 1940s, Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village, March 1 - April 22. See what happens when a glamorous girl, a dashing director, and a desperate diva descend upon the peaceful town of Patience, Nebraska to film their next tropical adventure complete with a Hollywood-style volcano and a town full of zany characters.

Kiss Me Quick ... makes its mainstage premiere at The Village Theatre after a successful workshop production in 1998 as part of the Village Originals Series of new musicals. The show's creators Peter Ekstrom (music and lyrics) and Steve Hayes (book and lyrics) are excited to team up once again with Village Theatre's artistic director Steve Tomkins for this new production. Both writers are from New York and say they are ecstatic to present their show again in the artistically welcoming Seattle area.

Developed out of the authors appreciation for the melodramatic "B" movies, Kiss Me Quick ... "has to do with an innocence of a period ... it is a loving tribute to the romantic and comedy films of the 40s," says Hayes. Specifically the South Seas island epics. The B-movie genre developed during the 30s and 40s when the country was still struggling through the Great Depression, gearing up for the war years, and there was a heightened sense of patriotism. People turned to the movies as a means of escape. Movies such as "Since You Went Away," "His Girl Friday," "Bird of Paradise," "The Jungle Princess," and "The Hurricane" were the big hits of the time. Both entertaining and affordable, people enjoyed the films because as Ekstrom put it, "They offered a ticket to another world." Tomkins remarked, "It was a great film genre and it makes you smile even to talk about it because everybody knows what you're talking about."

Kiss Me Quick ... was presented for the first time by Musical Theatre Works at St. Peter's Church in New York City in 1988. Tomkins first discovered the show in connection with the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival, and directed a staged reading of the script in Seattle in 1988 as well. North Shore Music Theatre produced the show in 1990 in Beverly Massachusetts. Then, in 1998 as Steve Tomkins was searching for the final production of the Village Originals Series, he remembered Kiss Me Quick ..., contacted the writers and Northwest audiences saw the newest version of the production on stage for the first time. And as Village Theatre's '98-'99 audience survey proved, Kiss Me Quick ... was the favorite selection for a new work.

Ekstrom and Hayes' relationship with Tomkins and Village Theatre began in 1998 when Tomkins contacted them about including their musical in the Village Originals Series at First Stage. They distinctly remember attending their first rehearsal together. When they entered the theatre Tomkins decided the cast would show the authors what he had staged so far. As Hayes recalls, "We were unsure how it would work out, but I remember as the actress playing Velda stepped onto the stage Tomkins reminded her, 'You have to make an entrance like Susan Hayward,' and I said, 'That's it, he's got it!'" The authors then knew they had found a director they could trust. The project took off and Ekstrom and Hayes welcomed the additional input Tomkins and the Village Originals series provided.

Darcy Danielson joins Steve Tomkins as music director for the production. The set design, based on a series of oversized vacation postcards used as back drops for each scene, is by Shelly Schermer. Deane Middleton, costume designer as well as Village Theatre's costume shop manager, is creating the costumes by using authentic 40s period clothing and building original pieces ranging from glamorous gowns to hysterical midwesterner-goes-native islander gear.

The cast for Kiss Me Quick ... includes Stephanie Parker (Kiss Me Quick ... '98, Babes in Toyland, Dames at Sea, Jungle Queen Debutante) as Patience, Nebraska beauty Dottie Rogers, Scott Capehart (UW's Hamlet, Santa Fe's Romeo and Juliet) as the debonair director Nick Tyler, Stacy Bean (The Empty Space Theatre's What the Butler Saw, Civic Light Opera's Damn Yankees) plays the elegant Grace Townsend, and Judy Ann Moulton (VT's previous Kiss Me Quick..., Jungle Queen Debutante, Funny Girl, Gypsy, and Oliver!) plays Velda Velasquez, the over-wrought, desperate diva. Also in the cast are Andrew Heffernan (Seattle Shakespeare Festival's Much Ado About Nothing, Seattle Rep's Pygmalion, Intiman's Gross Indecency) as the local boy-turned-leading man, Ted Randall, and Dale Green (Carnival, Little Shop of Horrors, Oliver!) as Rev. Bertrum Rogers. Ensemble members Laura Abel, Mark Abel, Ellen Dessler, Ann Evans, Joanna Hardie, Jenna Hawkins, Chad Jennings, Darren Nicholas, Leonard Polidori, Barry Snarr, and Michael Tomkins complete the cast by playing a variety of amusing townspeople and movie extras.