STAGE TUBE: Tom Rooney and Robin Hutton on the Poetry of WANDERLUST at Stratford Shakespeare Festival

In the video interview below, actors Tom Rooney and Robin Hutton describe the new Canadian musical Wanderlust, based on the poems of Robert Service. The show is playing through September 28 as part of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's 60th season. Watch the video!

The poems of Service, the famous “Bard of the Yukon,” are set to music and used as inspiration in the world premiere of the new musical Wanderlust. A Stratford Shakespeare Festival commission, the show is written and directed by Morris Panych with music and orchestration by Marek Norman.

Set in Victoria, British Columbia, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Wanderlust is the imagined story of one of Canada’s most beloved and most successful poets, Robert Service. Inspired by the real circumstances of his life, this new musical presents a man eager to leave his position at a bank for the adventure of the unknown in the Yukon gold rush. Keeping him at his desk in part is his affection for his beautiful co-worker, Louise, who is engaged to another man.

The role of Robert Service is played by Rooney, and Hutton plays his love interest Louise Montgomery, with Dan Chameroy as Dan McGrew, Randy Hughson as Mr. McGee and Lucy Peacock as Mrs. Munsch.

Artistic credits for this production include Morris Panych, Director; Marek Norman, Musical Director; Diana Coatsworth, Dance Choreographer; Ken MacDonald, Set Designer; Dana Osborne, Costume Designer; Alan Brodie, Lighting Designer; Sean Nieuwenhuis, Video Designer; Jim Neil, Sound Designer; and Todd Campbell and Simon Fon as Fight Directors.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2012 season runs until October 28, featuring Much Ado About Nothing; 42nd Street, The Matchmaker; Henry V; You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown; The Pirates of Penzance; A Word or Two; Cymbeline; Wanderlust; Elektra; MacHomer; The Best Brothers; Hirsch and The War of 1812.

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