NEWS RELEASE
DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REALLY REFLECT UP?
Growing up Catholic is such serious
business. There's so much to consider. Purgatory and Limbo; venial and mortal
sin; penance, the Holy Trinity; raging hormones and the opposite sex. And nuns.
And priests.
Monmouth College’s late-summer
musical Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? explored the
agony and the ecstasy of the Catholic schoolroom through music, dance and lots
of laughs. It was presented August 24-26 and August 30-September 2 in the
college’s Wells Theatre.
The last production presented by
this group was the very successful Pump Boys and Dinettes which was
performed two years ago. Black Patent Leather Shoes is written by John R.
Powers with music and Lyrics by James Quinn and Alaric Jans.
The story focuses on eight children
during their Catholic elementary and high school education in the 1950s. The
musical is about Eddie (Perry White) and Becky (Carissa Van Ausdall) and their
experiences in a Catholic school. The audience witnesses their first confession,
first sex education lecture and many other events in their lives as they grow up
as friends and eventually fall in love. A twist develops later when Becky
decides to join a convent in a classic story of boy gets girl, boy loses girl. It
captures the funniest aspects of youthful growing pains and the trying moments
of adolescence. Audiences flocked to see the show in Chicago where it became
that city’s longest running musical.
This production was directed by
Tamyra Rankin with musical direction by Perry White and choreography by Dalene
White. Doug Rankin was the designer. Besides White and Van Ausdall as the leads,
also starring in the musical were Bill Wallace, Bill Turner, Candy Smith, Sandy
Giese, Aaron Cluka, M.E. Fowler, Becky Leisher, Erin Glasnovich, Sarah
Holman, and Chad McKenna.
The production was sponsored in
part by grants from the Buchanan Center for the Arts and the Illinois Arts
Council, a state agency