Photo Flash: SELF HELP Opens at Newport Playhouse Friday

If laughter is the best medicine, then Newport Playhouse & Cabaret Restaurant's newest production of Self Help by Norm Foster and directed byMichael Gregory Johnson will leave local audiences feeling as healthy as a thoroughbred horse. Foster's larger than life brand of comedy has earned him the title of "Canada's most produced playwright," and the author keeps his sights firmly on the audiences' funny bone. Self Help opens THIS FRIDAYSeptember 8th and runs through Sunday, October 8, 2017 at the Newport Playhouse & Cabaret Restaurant, 102 Connell Highway, Newport, RI 02840. Tickets for the show, homemade buffet, song-filled post show cabaret are under $50. Purchase online at www.newportplayhouse.com or by calling(401) 848-7529.

Check out photos from the show below!

Meet Hal and Cindy Savage, two starving actors whose big break has never come. They scheme to remake themselves as life-coach gurus to finally achieve fame and fortune. Fast forward seven years and the fallout from their deceit leads to an extra marital affair that is (literally) dead on arrival. Playing the actors turned faux self-help gurus are Newport's Rick Bagley and Marilyn Busch of Greenville. Bagley is no stranger to Playhouse audiences as this play marks his 32nd performance on the Newport stage.

Aiding and abetting the couple in their plot is their tough as nails agent, Ruby Delvecchio, played by local favorite Sandi Nicastro of Coventry. Meanwhile naive new housemaid Bernice (played on alternate nights byTonya Killavey of Tiverton and Lisa Reimer of Warwick) is desperately trying to get a handle on her employers' comings and goings. Adding a dash of mystery to the mix is handsome reporter Jeremy Cash, played on alternate performances by Newport residents Charles Kehres and Travis Krening.

In addition to directing the production, Smithfield native Michael Gregory Johnson does double duty as a bumbling detective assigned to the case. The production team creating the couple's lavish estate are lighting designerJacob Davis, and Ms. Killavey also taking on the set design duties and production stage manager Olivia M. Sahlin (from Dighton, MA).

Hardly a straight-laced drama, Self Help's comedic twists and turns promise to keep audiences in stitches until the very end. Johnson says he hopes to lead audiences on an escapist romp of comic proportions. He explains, "To paraphrase Burt Bacharach, I feel that "what the world needs now, is laughs...sweet laughs..." adding, "and boy, this show is just the ticket for folks to just sit back and let those belly laughs fly."

Photos courtesy of Newport Playhouse

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