Nice Work If You Can Get It – 2012 version
Music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, Book by Joe DiPietro
Crocker Theater Performances:
Saturday November 4 at 7:30 p.m. • Saturday November 11, 18 at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m.
Friday November 17 at 7:30 p.m. • Sunday November 5, 12, 19 at 2:00 p.m.
Director’s Comment: You can’t hide behind razz-ma-tazz deception in the zany updated (2012) version of the Golden Era musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, featuring toe-tapping, top-of-the-chart Gershwin tunes, including Fascinating Rhythm, Someone to Watch Over Me, S’Wonderful and the title song, Nice Work If You Can Get It. Set in the late 1920’s, this prohibition story nods it’s head to contemporary issues of legalizing marijuana, as well as timely pokes at political leaders and the upper 1%. Come laugh, tap your toes and escape from the weary world into the crazy world of Nice Work.
Cabrillo Theater department production in a cast of 26 students who dance, sing and act. Leading are Chris Tocollino as Jimmy, Aynsley Upton as Billie, Evandra Aurelia as Eileen and Brennen Perry as Cookie. Anita Natalie plays the Duchess. Others include: • Duke – Sid Freeland • Jeannie – Lauren Lindstrum • Chief Berry – Gary Edwards • Senator – Gary Kohler • Millicent – Sally Bookman
Ensemble: Isabella Negrete, Alec Adamson, Mikayla Tom, Conrado Perez, Emma Thomas, Aki’o Nanamura, Ana Paula Santee, Jimi Gleitsman, Tiffany Cesarin, Shane Johnson Maggie Pierce, Sara Narragon, Nicole Toccalino, Sara Stock, Jake Kofler, Max Chambers
Songs: Demon Rum, ‘S Wonderful, Fascinating Rhythm, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, Someone to Watch Over Me, Hangin’ Around With you, Delicious, I’ve Got A Crush On You, But Not For Me
Set in the 1920s, Nice Work If You Can Get It is the story of charming and wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter, who meets rough female bootlegger Billie Bendix the weekend of his wedding. Jimmy, who has been married three (or is it four?) times before, is preparing to marry Eileen Evergreen, a self-obsessed modern dancer.
Thinking Jimmy and Eileen will be out of town, Billie and her gang hide cases of alcohol the basement of Jimmy’s Long Island mansion. But when Jimmy, his wife-to-be and her prohibitionist family show up at the mansion for the wedding, Billie and her cohorts pose as servants, causing hijinks galore.
Tony Award winning author Joe DiPietro: “Someone to Watch Over Me,” which is usually sung by a dewy-eyed ingénue, is now sung by a dewy-eyed ingénue dressed as a rumrunner and brandishing a rifle. And as in all those golden-era shows, the boys do get the girls, but here the girls wind up with all of the power.
Nice Work If You Can Get It is a new Gershwin musical about all the good things in life — music and laughter and falling in love. Every character in the show learns to find his or her joy, and I hope audiences do the same.”