Just A Brief Intermission

APT ‘remixes’ Season 35 for eight shows in eight months

If ever anyone could put a positive spin on postponing a theater season, it’s Ed McClure.

“Eight shows in eight months,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s never been done at APT before. It will be exciting!”

Of course, no one thought it would be done at Arkansas Public Theatre during Season 34, which was midway through its slate of shows when the pandemic rolled into town. Neither was it something that could have been anticipated when Season 35 was announced on Jan. 17, says McClure, one of the company’s founders and its artistic director. At the beginning of March, the theater had just closed “Newsies” after three weekends of record attendance, rehearsals were nearly complete for Steve Martin’s comedy “Meteor Shower,” tickets were being sold, the set had been built, and costumes were hanging in the dressing rooms. Opening night should have been March 20.

When it became apparent covid-19 was going to hang around longer than expected, “Meteor Shower” was rescheduled to open June 5. Then, in May, APT canceled the summer musical, “Pippin,” moving “Meteor Shower” to the late-July/early August spot on the schedule. At the time, McClure called the sadness in the decision to cancel the summer musical for the first time in 34 years “unimaginable,” but he said even though he felt like the company could keep the audience safe, it couldn’t keep the musicians, actors, singers, dancers and technical crew appropriately distanced.

“APT has distinguished itself for its first class, impressive musicals that have delighted and thrilled our community,” McClure said at the time. “As one might imagine, this decision did not come easily for any of us at APT.”

And, he added, the situation was still constantly changing. “Everything is on the table right now.”

On July 7, the other proverbial shoe fell. APT canceled all of its stage shows for the rest of 2020.

“When Broadway announced it was closed until January 2021, it was the same time the [virus] numbers in Arkansas began going the wrong direction,” McClure says. “Those two facts were the perfect storm as far as the Executive Committee was concerned, and they agreed with my recommendation to close until next year.”

That decision made, McClure says, “I wanted to do as many of the shows as we could that had been promised from the time we closed mid-March. It was important that our patrons knew we were doing our very best to deliver what we had advertised.

“Musicals are hard to socially distance because of the size of the cast,” McClure goes on to explain. “That’s why we will be presenting seven non-musicals — all with modest sized casts

that we will be able to manage should the need still be there next year.”

He’s calling it the Remixed Season 35, and like the remixes often done at the conclusion of musicals, it will be fast and furious, starting with the longawaited “Meteor Shower.”

“The cast and crew are solid gold,” McClure says. “They have never complained or grumbled with what is now our third reschedule. They are just great.”

And McClure promises audiences will see exactly the level of professionalism — and magic — APT has up its sleeve.

“We never quite overlap [shows],” he says. “But it’s going to be nonstop on the APT stage.”

(Courtesy Photo/APT) Corky (Stephanie Whitcomb, left) and Norm (Scott Kammerzell, second from left) aren’t sure what to make of the unusual gift of eggplant that’s appeared along with two unusual guests, Laura (Amy Eversole) and Gerald (Joseph Farmer) in the Arkansas Public Theatre production of Steve Martin’s “Meteor Shower.” The show was ready to open in March, when the coronavirus forced its postponement — until 2021.