The “Greatest Story Ever Told” has been recounted in various forms over the past two millennia and, in 1981, popular folk singer Harry Chapin penned the music and lyrics to “The Cotton Patch Gospel,” a musical written by Tom Key and Russell Treyz, based on Clarence Jordan’s book, “The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and John.”

The musical kicks off the Croswell Opera House 2012 season with performances April 13-15 and Sunday, April 15. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. for Friday and Saturday performances. Matinee performances are at 2:30 p.m. April 14-15. Tickets are $28 for adults, $25 for students and seniors and $15 for children 12 and under. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling (517) 264-SHOW (265-7469) or at the door.

The familiar stories of the Bible are transplanted to rural Georgia, with Gainesville as a stand-in for Bethlehem, Valdosta for Nazareth and Atlanta for Jerusalem.

From left, Barb Vaught, Rick Vaught, Michelle Miller, Margaret Hyre, Charlie Steffens, Marianne Steffens. Seated, James Swendsen.

Director Joyce Cameron of Clinton, Mich., said she first saw the film a few years back.

“At first, I thought it was the strangest, hokiest thing I’d ever seen, but it grew on me,” she said. “When I found out the Croswell was producing this show, I asked who was directing. They said they didn’t know so I suggested myself.”

She got the job. Cameron said she loves the Passion story and “I wanted to help tell this quirky version.”

The music of Harry Chapin also drew Cameron to the production.

“I have always loved Harry Chapin and folk music,” she said. “This is the bluegrass ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’”

Imagine the Gospel of Matthew set in Georgia in the 1960s and all of the possibilities for character interaction and that is “Cotton Patch Gospel,” according to Cameron.

“We held auditions at the Croswell and decided to take all those who could read and sing well, regardless of their looks,” Cameron said.   “This is a show that needs a wide variety of people, looks and ages.”

“Cotton Patch Gospel” is James Hanley’s third Croswell production. A political science professor at Adrian College, Hanley toured with a college drama group when he was attending Greenville College in Illinois, but had not performed in more than 20 years when he landed a role in “Of Mice and Men” in 2009.

Johanna Hanley has been in five Croswell shows and had no professional theater experience.

“My only stage experience was in college and community choruses,” she said. “I became interested in being onstage after I was working at the Croswell and volunteered to be part of the chorus in ‘A Christmas Carol’ when they needed more adults. It was so much fun, I wanted to do more.”

The Hanleys’ three daughters, Olivia, 14; Ivy, 10; and Ava, 9, are joining their parents onstage.

“They all have been onstage at the Croswell before and have small roles in this production,” Johanna said.

Cameron, a music teacher at Clinton Community Schools for the past 22 years, earned her bachelor’s degree in music from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and her master’s degree in music education from Western Michigan University.

“My theater background is all experiential,” she said. “I started out performing in musicals in junior high and have continued right up until recently.”

Cameron has four children. Her youngest is playing Young Jesus in the show, one of a handful of actors playing multiple roles throughout the production.

Also in the cast are James Swendsen of Adrian as Jesus and Mark Hyre of Tecumseh as Matthew. Josie and Michelle Miller and Rick and Barb Vaught of Adrian and Margaret Hyre, Charlie Steffens and Marianne Steffens of Tecumseh round out the cast. The bluegrass band for the show, which joins the cast onstage and gets involved in the action, is led by David Rains of Adrian on keyboard, Amy Marr of Britton on fiddle, Nate Bagby and Jeremy Blaska of Tecumseh on guitar, Chris Livesay of Saline on bass and Mark Palms of Manchester on banjo. Rains is the show’s music director.

Tags: Adrian, Croswell Opera House, Harry Chapin, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Cotton Patch Gospel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 at 10:50 am and is filed under Star, Theater.
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“Zombie Bank.” “Yo-Yo’s Ma.” “Go Away, Sarah Palin.” “Billy the Squid.” “Econo-Me-Oh-My.”

It’s clear Tom Chapin has fun whether he’s singing for kids or adults.

Consider his latest release, “Give Peas a Chance.” There’s an ode to picky eaters: “Don’t Try It on Me.”

“I’ve had picky eaters in my kids and my grandchildren; I’ve been on the other side of it,” he said during a call from his home in Rockingham County, N.Y.. “We had great fun with some of the words: tried calamari, tried couscous, ratatouille and baba ganoush.”

Chapin

Released in June, Chapin’s 12th disc for families is billed as “whole grain music for free-ranging earthlings.”

“I’ve been a board member for WhyHunger, the organization that my late brother, Harry, started 36 years ago. And I’ve become very aware that when you start talking about hunger and poverty, you inevitably begin to talk about food and where it comes from and who grows it and what they grow and why, and who controls the land,” Chapin said.

“I thought this would be really a good thing to talk to the family about in a nonpolemic way, just write songs in the Tom Chapin canon, try to write delightful songs that are really singable and yet have some information in them for parents and kids.”

Chapin also finds amusement writing for adults. National Public Radio (NPR) asked if he’d be interested in penning some political, news-related songs.

“I got together with John Forster, who I’ve been writing the kids stuff with, and Michael Mark, and over the years we’ve written a bunch of songs that we tried to get on NPR; it’s a specific kind of writing, which John Forster calls ‘musical op-eds,’ ” he said and laughed.

“One got on about testing called ‘Not on the Test,’ which is now actually a website, and we did a video for it because it got such a response, and one about when Oprah started her magazine,” the Grammy Award winner said.

In 2010, Chapin and Forster released “Broadsides,” a collection of songs written for NPR.

Another song, “This Pretty Planet,” was played by NASA in 1998 to wake up the space shuttle Discovery crew.

Millions woke up to the Emmy and Peabody award-winning “Make a Wish,” a TV show the formerly mustachioed musician hosted from 1971-76.

These days, the singer-songwriter provokes thought — and laughter.

There’s that Internet hit about the former vice presidential candidate.

“It was my band and myself riffing on how much publicity she got even after the election, so we wrote this silly little song,” he said and then sang, “Go away, Sarah Palin, go away/ You had more airtime than Britney or O.J./ Your ideas were unspecific/ But your outfits were terrific/ Go away, Sarah Palin, go away.”

“The first time we sang it, someone in the audience at this little club in Piermont, N.Y., videotaped it and put it up on YouTube, and that got a huge life.”

Chapin will play at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Ark in Ann Arbor. Tickets are $22.50. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

“I’ll probably do [Harry’s] ‘Cats in the Cradle’ and I’ll certainly do ‘Circle,’ ” he said. “We have a request line on the website [tomchapin.com], so people can request songs. It’s a nice way of connecting.”

Tags: Ann Arbor, Harry Chapin, The Ark, Tom Chapin

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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