(Host) A brand new, original musical has opened at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction.

The four cast members have all worked on Broadway, and they tell a love story with a very modern twist.

VPR's Betty Smith takes us Backstage at the Northern Stage premier of Take Two.

(Smith) The subtitle of the show is "Your Second Chance is Waiting." It's about those moments in our lives when a relationship with a partner, parent or best friend falters - or fails. The play explores how to repair the damage - or fill the empty space left behind.
Sam, played by Mary Gutzi, is a newly-separated 50-something.

(Gutzi) "I'll go to the gym
And learn how to flex
I'll read Doctor Ruth
For advice about sex
‘Cause 60's the new 40.

(Smith) Brett Schrier composed the music and Catherine Doherty wrote the book and lyrics. Doherty describes how they got started.

 

(Doherty) "We had worked on `Chorus Line' together, and after working on `I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change' and `Midlife, the Crisis' musical, which are small, four- to six-character shows that are very producible and an interesting mix of genre where they're kind of these sketch, review, cabaret type shows, we started talking about perhaps developing a show of our own. And we started talking about adding another element into it where the characters are very much connected and not necessarily have one actor play six or seven roles in sketch review but have them play a full character throughout the whole show."

(Smith) The characters include a recently-separated couple in their 50s; their daughter, a young widow; and her co-worker, a young man who was married to a woman but has recently come out. All four are facing the prospect of dating again. Schrier and Doherty were considering the usual ways people go about meeting someone new...at a bar, the local church choir.

(Doherty) "And then we realized that one of the most prevalent things that's happening in our culture now is that people go online to these match services, these dating services o line. So that became the conceit and the premise of the story, that all four of these characters at the beginning of the show go online to post a profile on a Website that deals with people that had been divorced or had lost their first partner or what have you."

 

(Smith) In addition to using Internet Web searches and posting onto websites, "Take Two" makes use of cell phones, texting, call waiting and Instant Messaging. This provided director Brooke Ciardelli with something of a challenge.

(Ciardelli) "It's not really very interesting to watch somebody put their face in the computer and go, `Click, click, click, click, click.' So we had to do a lot of strategic work to make sure that we would establish that conceit, so that the audience would know what was happening. And yet at the same time, the performance needed to be developed in a way that the audience was allowed inside that character's performance."

(Smith) Innovative solutions were found. And the use of new technology provided Doherty with an abundance of thematic material.

(Doherty) "Well, once we decided to use the conceit of online dating, then that opened up a world of possibility where there's that anxiety, that nervousness, that excitement of who is that new person going to be? What is that first date going to be like? And taking a glimpse at when they end up going on that first date, or how they project themselves on a profile. It's a daunting thing to say, `I'm going to put myself out online, and describe myself online.' And how do you want to do that? There's a whole number about: What do I say about myself, how do I describe myself?"

 

(Excerpt) "It's been match after match.
And there ain't been no glow.
I've worn face after face,
And I need to recycle myself.

"Who do I wear * this time?
I could be so many people.

"Do you want me to be perky?
Do you want me to be humble?
Do you want me to be forward?
Do you want me to be smart?"

"Who do I wear this time?"

(Smith) "Take Two" has been in the works for more than two years. After its Northern Stage debut concludes, Doherty and Schrier hope other theater companies around the country will take an interest in "Take Two."

(Smith) For VPR News, I'm Betty Smith, Backstage in White River.

Note: "Take Two" continues at Northern Stage in White River Junction through May 17.