Local performers in new comedy-musical

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7/28/2010 11:57:00 AM

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Photo by Ian Dunn
Susan Gubsch and Michael McCormick, both of Cashmere, perform in the Leavenworth Summer Theater production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” The show opens tonight at the Leavenworth Festhalle.

Local performers in new comedy-musical

Chelsea Gorrow
Staff Writer

The latest addition to the Leavenworth Summer Theater is said to be "funny, funny, funny, funny." That show is "How to Succeed in business Without Really Trying."

"It's a fantastic show and as I said, it's really funny," said director Kevin McKee. "It was first a book and then they made it in to a musical and then into a movie and it's all about a window washer who follows instructions in this book to rise to the top of this organization in a matter of weeks."

The show is set to be revived on Broadway next spring starring Daniel Radcliff of Harry Potter fame.

The show originally debuted on Broadway in the 1960s and has since won seven Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize.

"This show is going to be great and we have a great cast that we've put together," McKee said.

The two leading cast members are a real-life couple, Jeff Heminger and Susan Smoots, who met working in Leavenworth Summer Theater, and later became engaged.

"They really worked out well for the show," McKee said. "They have some difficult parts when they have to fake no attraction to each other but they do it, they're actors."

Heminger starred as the comic lead in Singing in the Rain last year, McKee said, himself a director and an actor involved over the last five years with Leavenworth Summer Theater.

McKee has worked on "Brigadoon," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Sugar." He's also the understudy to Captain Von Trapp in this year's Sound of Music.

Susan Gubsch, Cashmere High School drama teacher and Mother Abbess in the Sound of Music, plays the boss's secretary in the production.

"She has a big number at the end and we were lucky to get her for my show. It's a completely different role than Mother Abbess and the show, I think, is different from most musicals," McKee said. "It's all about working in an office and trying to get ahead and surviving in cubicles. Think 1960s and 'Mad Men.' It's definitely a sign of the times, too. All of the secretaries are women and all of the executives are men. There's a lot of political incorrectness on how they interact. One of the big numbers is about a secretary not being a toy. It's a funny show and I'd encourage everyone to come out and see it."

"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" plays in the Festhalle through Aug. 28. For tickets and show times, visit www.leavenworthsummertheater.org.

Chelsea Gorrow can be reached at 548-5286 or reporter@leavenworthecho.com.

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