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The Shedd's annual series of musicals opens with an adaptation of the Mark Twain novel. The show features some of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s best-known songs.
When Heidi Turnquist talks to her cast and crew during rehearsals for “A Connecticut Yankee,” one word keeps coming up:
“Shenanigans.”
“A Connecticut Yankee,” which opens July 11 as the first presentation in this year’s Shedd Theatricals series, is full of shenanigans, Turnquist said — and for our purposes, let’s define the word as “high-spirited silliness.”
“It’s just that this show is shenanigans,” she said. “It’s got great music, really strong actors … and it’s just a lot of fun.”
The musical, with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, is based on Mark Twain’s 1889 novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” The book, in which an American suffers a blow on the head and dreams that he becomes a member of King Arthur’s court, has been adapted a number of times for movies and TV shows — usually, Turnquist noted, with the darker parts of the book excised, the better to focus on the silliness.
The Rodgers and Hart musical debuted in 1927, but the version on stage this weekend at the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts is its 1943 revival, which begins with a wartime setting.
Turnquist said The Shedd had copies of both versions of the show on file, but she was drawn to the later version in part because she loves “the look and feel of that 1940s World War II era.”
But the main reason she wanted to do the 1940s version, she said, was because of “To Keep My Love Alive,” a song that Rodgers and Hart added to the updated show. “It’s just a brilliant song,” she said. (It also was the last song credit for Hart.)
Even people who may not be familiar with the musical will know many of the songs — tunes that have become part of the Great American Songbook, like “Thou Swell,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “On a Desert Island With Thee” and “I Feel at Home With You.”
“You just can’t go wrong with Rodgers and Hart,” Turnquist said, “and Hart especially. He was just such a brilliant lyricist.”
The Shedd Theatricals series focuses on Broadway musicals featuring songs that have become classics. This year’s season highlights the work of Rodgers: In addition to “Connecticut Yankee,” the season features “Pal Joey” (opening Oct. 3), another collaboration with Hart, and “Oklahoma!” (opening Nov. 28), the landmark musical Rodgers created with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
Once the season lineup was set, Turnquist asked to direct “Connecticut Yankee.”
“I’ve done the serious shows. I’ve done the fun shows,” she said. “I enjoy them both. This year, I just really wanted to have some fun with it.”
She resisted any urge to somehow update the show — for the most part. “We really want to stay true to the original as much as possible,” she said. “We do throw in a couple of little Easter egg jokes, because a show like this not only allows for it, but almost encourages it.”
For example?
Turnquist didn’t want to divulge too much, but fans of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” might notice a shoutout or two to the classic 1975 film — which is, after all, set in the same Arthurian era.
For Turnquist, who also serves as The Shedd’s director of education and runs the institute’s E.Y. Harburg Academy of Musical Theatre, there’s another treat in directing “A Connecticut Yankee”: Many of the cast members have been her students in her Shedd classes.
“Working with young adults who I knew when they were 13, 14, the skill level that they’re bringing in is really amazing,” she said.
And it’s fun, she added, to introduce them to some of the tunes in the Great American Songbook.
“It’s a really cool feeling to know that, OK, they fell in love with these songs, just like I did when I was that age.”
If you go
The Shedd Theatricals production of “A Connecticut Yankee” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. July 11, 12, 18 and 19, with 3 p.m. matinees scheduled for July 13 and 20. It’s being staged in the Jaqua Concert Hall at The Shedd Institute, 868 High St. in Eugene. Tickets range from $21.75 to $45.
