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'GILLIGAN'S ISLAND THE MUSICAL' Sets Sail on Pre-Off-Broadway Tour, Lycian Centre First Stop 2/21

By: Feb. 20, 2009
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Press notes announced "Look out America, Gilligan's Island The Musical is docking at a desert island near you and the hilarity found in America's most cherished sitcom is in full effect in this larger than life stage musical. Bringing back all those well known and beloved characters from one of the most popular television shows of all time, this lovable musical comedy is sure to please the generations of audiences that the television show first inspired".

The first stop for the tour is the Lycian Centre for the Performing Arts in  Sugar Loaf, NY on February 21st and 22nd.

For complete show and tour information visit the official musical website at www.gilligansislandthemusical.com.

"Gilligan's Island" has been a series, three TV movies, two cartoon series, a reality series, and the subject of more comedians' jokes than the mother-in-law. "Gilligan's Island" is an icon whose theme song and characters have become pop culture icons. It has been syndicated on more cable stations than any other series in history and continues to run on both Nickelodeon and TV land. "Three hour tour," "Ginger or Mary Ann," are just a few nuggets from the Gilligans Island television show that remain part of every-day vernacular.

Gilligan's Island The Musical debuted in Flat Rock, North Carolina with Director Steve Rothman after a workshop presentation first seen in the early 1990's. After continued development overseen by Lloyd and Sherwood Schwartz, and a production in Chicago and Los Angeles, the Schwartz family is excited to bring their show to New York after travelling the country in its first national tour.

The creators of the musical- Lloyd and Sherwood Schwartz and Hope and Laurence Juber- have continued to hone and develop the play over the years. Loyd is the son and long-time collaborator of Sherwood Schwartz, who created the "Gilligan's Island" television series, as well as "The Brady Bunch" television series. Hope Juber is Sherwood's daughter.

Gilligan's Island: The Musical is a straightforward story of relationships and survival. Beginning with the #1 TV theme song of all time, Gilligan, The Skipper, Mary Ann, Ginger, The Professor, and The Millionaire and his wife are shipwrecked and trying to get off the island. Natural disasters befall them, hurricanes, quicksand, etc., as they learn to get along and survive. Their biggest challenge comes from the U.F.O. and its Alien, who monitors their behavior. By the end of the play, the castaways manage to defeat the extraterrestrial and save the entire planet, while staying marooned themselves. Updated somewhat to reflect the times, Gilligan's Island: The Musical still has comedy, heart, love, drama, nostalgia, and sing-able songs that stick true to the characters that audiences have fallen in love with for the last 40 years.

The talented ensemble includes Ryan Bates, Chris Boerner, Devin Elting, Joshua Nicholson, Shaun Rice, DAnnie Simon, Kevin Grant Spencer, Alexia Tate, Heather Woodward, and Katie Venezia. Lighting Design by Graham Kindred, Scenic Design by Douglas Grinn, Sound Design by Demetrius Grandel, and Costume Design by Elizabeth Flores. The show is directed by Pamela Hall with choreography by Gene Castle, and it is presented by Edmund Gaynes in association with The West End Artists Company.

Sherwood Schwartz (Creator): Born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1916, and after studying premed at N.Y.U, SHERWOOD SCHWARTZ changed careers and started writing professionally on "The Bob Hope Radio Show" in 1939 with his brother, Al. After four years with Bob Hope, Sherwood joined the Armed Forces Radio Service (A.F.R.S.) for four years, writing shows like "G.I. Journal," "Command Performance," and "Mail Call," etc and worked with just about every major star in the entertainment world. After the war, he went back to radio and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." In radio he has also written for Danny Thomas, Alan Young and "The Beulah Show." Then came television. In his long career in TV (58 years), Sherwood Schwartz has written, re-written, and/or produced more than 700 TV shows, starting with "I Married Joan," "The Red Skelton Show," and "My Favorite Martian," before creating, writing, and producing series of his own. Sherwood received the highest honor in television, the Emmy Award, in 1961 for "The Red Skelton Show," and the following year, another Emmy nomination. His scripts have the unique distinction of receiving five consecutive nominations for awards from the Writers Guild of America in comedy, variety, and play adaptation, receiving the award the WGA award in the comedy category. In 1963, Sherwood created, wrote and produced "Gilligan's Island," a TV series which has become a cult classic. "Gilligan's Island" led to three two-hour TV movies. One of them, "Rescue from Gilligan's Island," was the first of the so-called "reunion shows" and was the highest rated movie-of-the-week in 1978. In 1969, Sherwood created, wrote and produced "The Brady Bunch," television's first blended family show. It, too, has become a cult classic, leading to several reunion shows. In 1988, Sherwood and his son Lloyd, wrote and produced a two-hour TV film, "A Very Brady Christmas," which was the highest rated TV film of that year. Since that time, Sherwood and Lloyd became the first...if not the only father/son producing team in television history. In 1994, Sherwood and Lloyd, produced the feature film, "The Brady Bunch Movie," for Paramount followed by "A Very Brady Sequel." On March 12, 2004, "Gilligan's Island" received the annual "Pop Culture" award from TV Land. That same week, Sherwood was awarded the prestigious William S. Paley Award with "A Salute to Sherwood Schwartz." In 2007, "The Brady Bunch" was also awarded TV Land's "Pop Culture" award. That same year, along with Lloyd, and Sherwood's daughter, Hope Juber, Sherwood produced "Still Brady After All These Years: A Thirty-Five Year Anniversary Special" which won a daytime Emmy Nomination. In March, 2008, Sherwood received a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame as well as being notified that he will enter the Television Academy Hall of Fame. In addition to TV and films, Sherwood has written several produced plays. Among them, Mr. and Mrs., a comedy; The Trial of Othello, a courtroom drama; Gilligan's Island: The Musical, (written with Lloyd and with music and lyrics by Hope, and her husband, Laurence Juber.) Sherwood's play, Rockers, a comedy-drama had a production at Theatre West in honor of his 90th birthday. This June, a new musical A Very Brady Musical written by Lloyd and Hope with music and lyrics by Hope and Laurence Juber and executive-produced by Sherwood had its world premiere at Theatre West to outstanding reviews and packed houses. Sherwood Schwartz co-wrote the theme song for "Gilligan's Island" with George Wyle and co-wrote the themes song for "The Brady Bunch" with Frank Devol. Sherwood is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild and A.S.C.A.P, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. He has been married to Mildred for sixty-seven years which he considers his greatest accomplishment. They have four children, Donald an ophthalmologist, Lloyd, Ross, an attorney who has recently written the independent movie, "Bottle Shock," and Hope. Mildred and Sherwood have eight grandchildren, Juli, Jill, Jackie, Andy, Becky, Nico, Ilsey, and Elliot as well as three great-grandchildren, Rachel, Sarah and Evan. Sherwood's grandson, Andy, is a writer on "Scrubs," making the Schwartzes tri-generational members of the Writers Guild. Which is Sherwood's favorite project? The next one.

Lloyd Schwartz (Book) Besides his extensive career in all media, Lloyd J. Schwartz and his father, Sherwood Schwartz, are one of the only father-son producing teams in television. Having been raised in a show-business family, the younger Schwartz began his own career as a writer for Love American Style and Alice and as part of a white/black comedy team while still in college at UCLA. By that time he had already been a dialogue coach on the series "Gilligan's Island." When that position opened on "The Brady Bunch," he signed on. During the five-year run of that iconic series, Schwartz moved to associate producer, director and producer. At age 25, he was the youngest producer in network television. After "The Brady Bunch," Lloyd co-created and produced "Big John, Little John," a Saturday morning show for NBC. He became a network executive at ABC and supervised four of the top five shows in the country: "Happy Days", "Laverne and Shirley", "What's Happening!! and "Three's Company." Schwartz then became the producer of "What's Happening!! "and co-created "Harper Valley P.T.A." for television, followed by a tenure as head of comedy development at Paramount TV. During these years, there were always Gilligan and Brady projects. Lloyd served as co-writer and executive producer of all the variations of "The Brady Bunch", including" The Brady Girls Get Married", "The Brady Brides", "A Very Brady Christmas" and "The Bradys". He also produced three "Gilligan's Island" TV movies: "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island" and "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island". Both "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "A Very Brady Christmas" were the highest rated TV movies of their respective years. Lloyd and Sherwood wrote Gilligan's Island: The Musical for the stage which has had forty productions nationally and internationally and will begin a national tour in 2009. Words and music are by Hope and Laurence Juber. Hope is Lloyd's sister, and he frequently writes with her. Yet another version of Gilligan was the high-rated "The Real Gilligan's Island" for TBS for which Lloyd was co-creator and executive producer. Completing a Brady tour of the major networks, Lloyd was executive producer and writer of the "The Brady Bunch in the White House" on Fox which he co-wrote with Hope. Last year, he received an Emmy nomination for "Still Brady After All These Years, the 35th Anniversary special". Interspersed with all of his Brady and Gilligan activities, he wrote the pilot for "The Munsters Today" and served as executive producer and wrote episodes of "The A Team", "Alice", "Baywatch", and other series. In the feature world, Lloyd has produced "The Brady Bunch Movie" and "A Very Brady Sequel". He has also written and produced his first independent feature, "Good-Night Jackie", and written and directed "One Dozen", a feature based on his stage play of the same name. Lloyd has had 32 produced plays. With Wendell Burton, he co-wrote The Nearlyweds, considered the first play specifically written for dinner theatre. He won Valley Theatre League Awards for best comedy for Much a Dieux and for best lyrics and book for his musical You & Me. Two of his historical plays, The Great Adventure, about Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and An Evening with John Wilkes Booth, have enjoyed great acclaim. Lloyd has developed his John Wilkes Booth play into a miniseries, which was sold to CBS as The Brothers Booth. With Lloyd as executive producer, "The Great Adventure" has been taped for KLCS and will soon be part of the curriculum for the Los Angeles City School System. His play for high schools, Final Exam, was a finalist in the prestigious Beverly Hills Theatre League Awards and recently had its world premiere at South El Monte High School. In October 2005, his play The Phantom: Country Style had its world premiere at the Centerstage Theatre Company in Birmingham, Alabama. In June of this year, A Very Brady Musical, debuted at Theatre West. It is co-written with Hope Juber, has words and music by Hope and Laurence Juber, and was directed by Lloyd. Among other Valley Theatre League Awards, A Very Brady Musical won awards for best play, best production, best writing and best directing. With his wife, Barbara, Lloyd co-founded The Storybook Theatre of Los Angeles twenty-three years ago, and has written, composed, and/or directed all 17 of their original productions. He has personally won 15 Valley Theatre League Awards for those shows, and he and his wife have been honored by the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and the City of Los Angeles for their contributions to the youth of Los Angeles as well as winning one of the inaugural Red Carpet Awards from Women in Theatre.

LAURENCE JUBER (Songwriter/Composer) Two-time Grammy winner, Laurence Juber got an extraordinary, life-changing break when Paul McCartney picked him to become Wings' lead guitarist. Juber spent three years recording and touring with the band. After Wings disbanded, this native of London, England embarked on a career as a solo artist, composer and arranger, and developing a reputation as a world-class guitar virtuoso, being voted #1 by Fingerstyle Guitar magazine. The venerable C.F. Martin Company offers his Signature model guitar. He has released 14 acclaimed solo albums and is much in-demand as a concert performer, clinician and a studio musician. He has also produced and arranged albums for the British folk rock icon Al Stewart. As a composer he has scored for TV ("A Very Brady Xmas", "The Brady Bunch In The White House"); for motion picture ("World Gone Wild") and the stage (Gilligan's Island, The Musical, A Very Brady Musical, It's The Housewives ). Juber is co-composing the score for the much-anticipated video game "Diablo 3".

HOPE JUBER (Songwriter) was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her first professional entertainment experience was playing Rachel, a recurring role as Greg Brady's girlfriend, on "The Brady Bunch". After graduating college with a BA in Theater she joined her father, Sherwood Schwartz (famed creator of "Gilligan's Island", and "The Brady Bunch") as a writer. She quickly became a story editor at Paramount working on situation comedies. During a brief hiatus she went to New York where she met and

subsequently married Laurence Juber. She continued writing, penning episodes for "The New Munsters", an animated series called "Little Shop" and material for "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark". Hope soon wanted to combine her comedy writing with Laurence's rock and roll music, and one day while caring for the first of their two babies, she became inspired. She created a comedy rock and roll band called "The Housewives" which played at rock and comedy clubs around LA, as well as national TV appearances. Hope then focused on writing musicals, penning four for Storybook Theater of Los Angeles. Two of which: Mother Goose -The Musical and The Princess and The Frog won the ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Award for Best Original Children's Musical. With Laurence she then wrote the score to Gilligan's Island -The Musical and has produced many of Laurence's solo albums, including the popular "LJ Plays The Beatles". She co-wrote the third Brady Bunch movie "The Brady Bunch in The White House" and went on to an Emmy nomination for the TV Land special "Still Brady After All These Years". Hope recently enjoyed a successful run of A Very Brady Musical, which she co-wrote both book and score and garnered an ADA award for best book. Her musical It's The Housewives is currently enjoying a hit run in Los Angeles.

Pamela Hall (Director) Off-Broadway, Ms. Hall directed The Rise of Dorothy Hale, Trolls, the long-running hit, Picon Pie and Emily Mann's Annulla, among others. She was nominated for L.A.'s highest theatre honor, the Ovation Award, for her direction of the Los Angeles premiere of The Taffetas. She directed the West Coast premieres of Jeff Daniels' black comedy, Shoe Man, Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen, about legendary wit Fred Allen, Maltby and Shire's Starting Here, Starting Now and the long-running original musical Crazy words, Crazy Tunes. Ms. Hall directed Hand in Hand: TheUn-Musical, the first musical created and performed by the acclaimed Tony-nominated Deaf West Theatre. As an actor, Ms. Hall has played leading roles on Broadway as Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Phil Silvers, Nina in Dear World with Angela Lansbury and Martha Jefferson in 1776 and was featured in the all-star Sondheim: A Musical Tribute at the Shubert Theatre.

Gene Castle (Choreographer) recently directed and choreographed the Off-Broadway musical, Babalu-Cy!. He began his theatrical career as a "newsboy" in the original Broadway production of Gypsy & was also featured in the original Broadway productions of Flower Drum Song, High Spirits, Henry, Sweet Henry & George M!, as well as Best Foot Forward Off - Broadway. On the West Coast, he directed & choreographed On The Town for the San Jose Civic Light Opera winning him the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards For Best Direction, Best Choreography & Best Musical. Other credits include Movin' On, an original Sondheim musical for the Laguna Playhouse, Strike Up The Band at A Tree Grows In Brooklyn at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Emmy Awards, starring Jason Alexander, Oh Coward! at the Coronet Theater, Cinderella at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera, the feature film "Kiss Me Goodbye", the television specials "Bonnie And The Franklins" & the "Doc Severinsen Show."
Edmund Gaynes (Producer) Mr. Gaynes has produced over twenty Off-Broadway shows in New York City, including The Rise of Dorothy Hale, The Big Voice: God or Merman?, Picon Pie, Emily Mann's Annulla, and Bein' With Behan which received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. He has also appeared as an actor in 13 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including Promenade, Edward Albee's Bartleby and Best Foot Forward, in which he co-starred with Christopher Walken and Liza Minnelli and sang "Buckle Down, Winsocki" on the Original Cast Album. His TV credits range from "Mary Martin's Peter Pan" to "Cheers, Kojak", "The Ed Sullivan Show" and two years as Paul Stewart on "As the World Turns". Directors he has worked with include Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Herb Ross, George Abbott, George Roy Hill, Bobby Lewis, Peter Hunt, George Schaeffer, Robert Moore, Alan Schneider, Joe Layton, Gene Saks, Martin Charnin and Jerome Robbins. Mr. Gaynes currently operates four Off-Broadway theatres in New York and three theatres in Los Angeles.

 




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