LIFE COULD BE A DREAM Extends Through 10/25 At The Hudson Mainstage Theatre

David Elzer, Peter Schneider and Crooning Crabcakes, LLC are thrilled to announce that the critically-acclaimed (LA Times CRITICS' CHOICE, Backstage CRITIC'S PICK, LA WEEKLY GO!) smash-hit world premiere production of LIFE COULD BE A DREAM, written and directed by Roger Bean (The Marvelous Wonderettes) with choreography by Lee Martino (Reprise On Your Toes, On The Town) and musical direction by Michael Paternostro (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Thrill Me) is EXTENDING through Sunday, October 25 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

SH-BOOM! From the "marvelous" mind of creator Roger Bean, comes another trip to Springfield where we meet the "Crooning Crabcakes," the boy group banned from the Springfield High School prom which made it possible for "The Marvelous Wonderettes" to perform there. Now in an era before "American Idol," and "Star Search," the guys get one more chance at fame and fortune as Denny and his friend Eugene form a singing group so they can enter and win the local radio contest on Big Whopper Radio and realize their dreams of making it to the big time! With the help of their best friend Wally and their new friend Skip, this is the best quartet of singers since, well, you know who! Trouble comes in the form of Lois, who arrives to help put some polish on the group but who also broke Eugene's heart many years before. As Eugene falls apart , Skip, Wally and Denny fall in love - and hilarity and heartaches ensue! Will Lois and one of the boys find true love? Will these delightfully goofy guys be able to pull it together and win the contest? Featuring such classic songs as "Stay" (Just a Little Bit Longer)," "Runaround Sue," "The Great Pretender," "Tears On My Pillow," "Unchained Melody," "Earth Angel," "The Glory of Love," and of course the title song, LIFE COULD BE A DREAM is another musical trip down memory lane that will leave you laughing, singing and cheering - let's hear it for the boys!

ABOUT THE "DREAM" CAST

DOUG CARPENTER (Skip) recently graduated from UCLA with a Masters degree in vocal performance. Doug began his professional musical career in opera performing leading roles in regional companies like Utah Festival Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Palm Springs Opera Guild, and UCLA Opera Theater. Roles include Marcello in La Boheme, the title role in Don Giovanni, Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Silvio in Pagliacci, among many others. It wasn't until a year and a half ago that he rekindled his love for musical theater as his full time dream. Since then he has appeared with companies like CLOSBC (Prince- Cinderella), FCLO (Tony- West Side Story and Curly- Oklahoma!), UCLA theater dept. (Jaime- The Last Five Years) and most recently in concert as Billy in Carousel with the UCLA music dept.

RYAN CASTELLINO (Wally) was recently seen as the narrator in Miss Electricity at the La Jolla Playhouse. He also has been a part of The Flunky performing alongside Deborah Gibson, and was in the world premiere of Mask the musical at the Pasadena Playhouse playing Ruben. Other regional credits include Seymour in Little Shop, and
Kevin in Tommy. Proud graduate of UCLA's Ray Bolger Musical Theater program.

JIM HOLDRIDGE (Eugene) A NYC transplant, his LA credits include productions at South Coast Repertory, the Zephyr Theater, and the LA Drama Critics Circle Award Winning Assassins at West Coast Ensemble. Recent readings include Modern Love: the new Hall & Oats Musical, and Neurosis. Regionally he has worked at St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Rep, The Goodspeed Opera House, and was a long time member of the hit show Stomp in New York, Las Vegas, and International Tours. He recently completed the comedy pilot "This Can't Be My Life" coming to a network, near you, sometime soon.

Daniel Tatar (Denny) Los Angeles stage credits include: Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof (Rubicon Theatre Company), Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman (Havok Theatre), Ahmet Ertegun in the NAACP Award-winning Ray Charles Live (Pasadena Playhouse), Fervio in the Ovations Award-winning Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings (Theatre @ Boston Court), Jamie in The Last Five Years (Pasadena Playhouse), the Reprise! concerts of Elegies and Baby (as Danny, opposite Kerry Butler), Nick in Over the River and through the Woods (McCoy-Rigby),and Mohammed in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (Laguna Playhouse). Daniel originated the role of Man 1 in the Chicago and San Francisco companies of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which he also performed on the national tour. Regional: Steppenwolf Theatre Company's The Ballad of Little Jo (with Judy Kuhn), Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Drury Lane Oakbrook), Wally in Campaign of the Century (with Michael Rupert), Miss Saigon (Marriott Theatre), Forever Plaid (Theatre at the Center) and Gary Griffin's direction of Pacific Overtures (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre). Television: Season One finale of 90210, CSI:NY, Grey's Anatomy and Real Time with Bill Maher.

JESSICA KeeNan Wynn (Lois) is a recent graduate from UCLA's prestigious Ray Bolger Musical Theatre Program. Upon graduating, she did a workshop for a new Disney Villains Show written by [title of show] tony-nominated writers Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, where she played Cruella DeVil and Maleficent. She finished off her last year at UCLA with a successful Spring run of Cole Porter's Anything Goes as lead leading, Reno Sweeney. Her college credits include Jason Robert Brown's The Last 5 Years as Cathy, the role of Calypso in Mel Shapiro's original musical Homer In Cyberspace, Eva Peron in Evita, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Mabel in Mack an Mabel, and Woman 2 in Songs for A New World. Over the summer she contributed her voIce To a recording for an adaptation of Wuthering Heights the Musical, written by actor Mark Ryan. She is eager to jump into the Theatre World with all the incredible training she gained at UCLA, in hopes that she can carry on the legacy of her grand and great-grandparents, the famous Keenan and Ed Wynn.

ABOUT THE "DREAM" TEAM

Roger Bean (Writer/Director) directed the original Milwaukee Rep, Laguna Playhouse, Los Angeles and Off-Broadway productions of The Marvelous Wonderettes. For the Los Angeles production, MR. Bean received a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical, and The Marvelous Wonderettes received the 2007 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Musical. The Marvelous Wonderettes was also nominated for the 2009 Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical. Other musicals and revues created by MR. Bean, commissioned and premiered at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, include The Andrews Brothers (Musical Theatre West, Fullerton CLO, Cabaret Oldtown, Cabrillo Music Theatre); Route 66 (Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Moonlight Avo Playhouse, Invisible Theatre, Seven Angels, Springer Opera House); Honky Tonk Laundry (Centerstage Spokane, Des Moines Playhouse, Oregon Cabaret, Art Station Theatre); Why Do Fools Fall In Love? (Rocky Mountain Repertory, Venice Little Theatre); Winter Wonderettes (Delaware Theatre Company, Laguna Playhouse, Water Tower Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Festival, El Portal Theatre). MR. Bean has had the great pleasure of directing for the Delaware Theatre Co., Laguna Playhouse, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Northlight Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Madison Rep, Florida Studio, Oregon Cabaret, Skylight Opera, and numerous stages in-between.

Lee Martino (Choreographer) works extensively as a choreographer and director in theatre and live events. Lee is the resident choreographer for The Reprise Theatre Company under the Artistic Direction of Jason Alexander. Choreography for Reprise includes Li'l Abner, On Your Toes, Damn Yankees, On The Town, Brigadoon, I Love My Wife, The Fantasticks and several of the summer events at The John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. Most recent credits include: directing this years Alzheimer's Benefit, directing and staging American Stars In Concert starring Kimberly Locke, Melinda DooLittle, Diana DeGarmo and many others, choreography for the soon to be released animated feature Alpha Omega, Kiss Of The Spider Woman for Havok Theatre Company for which she just received the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Award, Fiddler On The Roof for the Rubicon Theatre Company, the World Premiere of Silk Stockings at Musical Theatre West, directing and choreographing What a Pair, a benefit for the John Wayne Cancer Institute starring some of the biggest female stars of TV, film and theatre, and the Bravo series Step It Up and Dance.

Other credits include: Beehive at the El Portal Theatre; the Full Monty and All Shook Up for Musical Theatre West; I Do I Do and Side By Side By Sondheim for The Pasadena Playhouse; Lies and Legend for the Rubicon Theatre, direction and choreography for several large-scale shows for Harley-Davidson throughout the country; Warner Bros. animated feature The King and I; Universal Studios' New York Rascal Show; Disney's Santa Clause 3 Stage Show at the El Capitan Theatre; Disney International's Latin American Stage Tour A Dream Is A Wish; the Opening Gala for Theatre Under the Stars, TUTS,' Hobby Performing Arts Center honoring Jerry Herman; the Opening of Ford Field, the Detroit Lions football stadium, starring Gladys Knight; the opening of the Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs starring Ruben Stoddard. Lee's work has been seen in many S.T.A.G.E. (Los Angeles' longest running AIDS benefit), Actor's Fund, and Alzheimer's benefits as well as the CHOC Follies, an annual event for Children's Hospital of Orange County. Lee's choreography has won her three Los Angeles Drama Critic's Awards, two Ovation Awards, Garland awards, and many nominations for these awards. Her On Your Toes for Reprise won her the 2007 Ovation, LADCC and Garland awards.

Michael Paternostro (Musical Director) is a native of New Orleans who lived most of the last 20 years in New York City. It is the role of Gregory Gardner in A Chorus Line that took Michael to NYC in a National Touring Company. After finishing his undergraduate degree at NYU, Michael began working as a musical actor as well as musician. On Broadway: Guys and Dolls (Rusty Charlie/crapshoot dancer), Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever (DJ Monty), as well as the original Broadway companies of Fosse, Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the 2006 Revival of A Chorus Line (Gregory Gardner). Touring: West Side Story (Action/Arab), and The Producers (Carmen Ghia). As a musician, Michael has musical directed and played the piano for BC/EFA Benefits for Guys and Dolls, Fosse, A Chorus Line, and The Producers. From the keyboard, he served as Musical Director for Havok Theatre's productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Thrill Me. Michael also made his Cabrillo Music Theater debut as musical director/keyboardist on BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO. He has also musical directed Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and Guare's Landscape of the Body. As an onstage musician, Michael has performed the roles of Sidney Cohn in On Your Toes and Oscar in 42nd Street both twice. For the record, Michael also played the accordion live onstage in Guys and Dolls, please ask. He also assistant directed How the Grinch Stole Christmas at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego.

LIFE COULD BE A DREAM features an award-winning design team. The scenic design is by Tom Buderwitz (Paradise Lost, Dog Sees God). The lighting design is by Ovation Award-winner Luke Moyer (Dracula, A Skull in Connemara). The Sound Design is by Cricket S. Myers (The Marvelous Wonderettes). The Costume Design is by Shon LeBlanc (The Women).

PERORMANCE AND PRICING SCHEDULE!

LIFE COULD BE A DREAM is EXTENDING through SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25 at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. The performance schedule is Thursdays & Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 3:00 & 8:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $40 for all performances. For Tickets, please call (323) 960-4412 or visit www.plays411.com/life or www.lifecouldbeadream.net.

 

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