Swingtime Canteen

Book by Linda Thorsen Bond, William Repicci and Charles Busch
Orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Bob McDowell
Special material by Dick Gallager

Presented November 2005 at the Norway Grange

Sponsored by New Balance Foundation. Orchestra underwritten by Norway Savings Bank.

Directed by Linda Sturdivant.

Swingtime Canteen, the "Star Spangled Musical Hit", enjoyed over 300 performances Off Broadway before beginning a London production.

It has become a staple of musical theaters across the country. The show takes its inspiration from the films and personalties that helped to define the national consciousness know as "the war effort".

After 17 years with MGM, still-glamorous movie legend Marian Ames has endured four flop films in a row and is being put out to pasture. But this is 1944 and no time for self pity. So Marian has gathered up her instrument playing gal pals from the Hollywood Canteen and headed for London to entertain the troops. Joining her are Jo Sterling, (her drum playing stand-in on 17 pictures), her skittish niece Katie Gammersflugel, solid as a rock piano playing riveter Topeka Abotelli and leggy chorine Lilly McBain.

Get ready for the rip-roaringest canteen show of them all as these five archetypal film characters from the 1940's prove their mettle while they sing over 30 vintage classics from the war years. Not your standard nostalgia-fest, Gannet papers calls the show "A musical frolic with true camp flavor" while Time Magazine hails it as, "A Wowser! An evocative balancing act of music and comedy, parody and sentiment. They make the good war sound great!."

Laughs, tears, emotional fireworks, air raids and a celebration of women during the war punctuate this hilarious and heart warming story. Songs include: "Don't Fence Me In," "I'll Be Seeing You," "Sing Sing Sing," "How High the Moon," "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," "Sentimental Journey," "Apple Blossom Time," a fast-paced, 12-song Andrews Sisters medley and many more.