OFF-BROADWAY TO WINTER PARK

‘Daddy Long Legs’ musical has fans from around the world — and local connection

Theater producer Michael Jackowitz was listening to CDs of new musicals while driving, hoping to find his next project. It wasn’t going well. “I listened to 30 seconds of the first CD and hit eject,” recalls Jackowitz, who grew up in Winter Park. “I listened to more of the second CD but didn’t feel a passion for it.”

Then came “Daddy Long Legs.” It stopped him in his tracks.

“By the third song, I pulled over,” Jackowitz remembers. “I knew I wanted to produce this show.”

More than a decade later — and after runs in London’s West End and off-Broadway — “Daddy Long Legs” opens today at Winter Park Playhouse, Jackowitz’s old stomping grounds.

Roy Alan and Heather Alexander, who run the Playhouse, caught the show two years ago in New York. They had the same response as Jackowitz.

“From the first note of the musical, we were completely enthralled,” says Alan, who will direct the Playhouse production.

Based on a 1912 novel by Jean Webster, “Daddy Long Legs” tells the story of Jerusha, an orphan who receives the chance of a lifetime: An orphanage trustee has offered to fund a college education for her with only two conditions: She must write him a letter each month, and she can never learn who he is.

“It’s not our usual light fare,” says Alan. The Playhouse is best-known for silly comedies and musical revues that highlight popular singers and songwriters.

But the show fits the Playhouse’s mission.

“It’s an uplifting musical,” says Alexander, the theater’s executive director.

Alan puts it this way: “There might be tears, but the tears are tears of joy. It makes you feel so good you want to cry.”

The story is told through the letters that Jerusha writes. The staging is tricky as the play’s only two characters don’t actually meet in person. The Playhouse set gives each character distinct surroundings.

“They are on the same stage but in different worlds,” Al-

COURTESY OF WINTER PARK PLAYHOUSE A challenge in staging "Daddy Long Legs" is that the musical's two characters communicate via letter. The Winter Park Playhouse production, which opens tonight, stars Larry Alexander and Hannah Laird.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL JACKOWITZ The team behind the creation of “Daddy Long Legs” included, from left, writer-director John Caird, composer Paul Gordon and producer Michael Jackowitz, who grew up in Winter Park.