From 2007's "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

Those who remember better days often muse that Times Square was once a venue for legitimate creative enterprise; that now it's but another Disney center, where the design of the billboard is more interesting than the show itself.

Transplanted from the more worldly, commercial setting of the city and into the center of small towns, musical theatre has acquired a vitality as “wholesome entertainment” that shouldn't be taken for granted.  Maine State Music Theatre's upcoming 50th anniversary provides just the opportunity to examine the bond musical theatre has forged with small communities like Maine's mid-coast.

From its initiation in 1959, MSMT was set up as a kind of reprieve from the city.  Victoria Crandall, a well known concert pianist, musical director, and Broadway producer, started the Brunswick Summer Playhouse at a time when the industry was dominated by male producers and directors.  The Summer Playhouse allowed Crandall to exercise her creativity and industry know-how in ways that the more rigid Broadway structure did not (the recreational aspect of her project showing up teasingly in the name of the theatre).

Calling upon her New York connections and working with Bowdoin College, Crandall produced nine musicals that first summer, including Wright and Forrest's “The Song of Norway,” “Brigadoon,” and “Show Boat.”

 Increasing popularity in subsequent summers, however, required more planning and economy.  Suddenly, the little summer playhouse was gaining credibility as a legitimate musical theatre.

Crandall reduced the number of shows from nine to seven, and in 1967 the Brunswick Summer Playhouse became the “Brunswick Music Theatre.”  With the change in name came the explicit recognition of Crandall's project as a “musical theatre” and a signpost of summer's bookends, the theatre's performances running from June to August.  It no longer needed to be identified as a “summer” playhouse.  Rather, the theatre became synonymous with summer.

At the same time, summer theatres began cropping up all along the Maine Coast, but the Brunswick Music Theatre distinguised itself as the only venue offering musical theatre exclusively.

"Brigadoon" was one of the original Crandall productions from 1959.

Its confidence was growing, too.  No longer content with producing tried and true Broadway musicals, the Theatre displayed a willingness to take a chance on productions that performed unspectacularly in New York.  “A Song for Anastasia,” another Wright and Forrest show, flopped on Broadway but flourished in Brunswick as the revamped “The Anastasia Affair.”

Operations beyond the stage were growing as well.  The 1970s saw the birth of an internship and apprenticeship program for students interested in careers in professional theatre, and community support in the form of corporate sponsorships became essential to the theatre's growth.

It's ironic then, that as the Brunswick Music Theatre became more integral to the local community and less indebted to New York, it became a prominent destination for Broadway actors and tourists alike, as though its removal from New York made it more illustrious.  Exotic, even.  The prospect of seeing/working in a reputable theatre, coupled with the idea of Summer in Maine, was becoming a powerful draw.

The dialogue between Brunswick and New York continues.  Some of musical theatre's most respected performers-Jeremy Kushnier, Mark Jacoby, K.K. Preece, Tanya Dixon, Lori Tan Chin, and Beth Glover, to name a few-continue to work with MSMT.  Additionally, the current intern program is supplying the industry with a wealth of talent on and off the stage.  Interns have gone on to make major contributions to Broadway, landing leading roles and prominent work in shows like “Avenue Q,” “The Light in the Piazza,” and “Spelling Bee.”

It was twenty years ago, during the 30th anniversary season, that Governor McKernan honored Victoria Crandall for her work in the arts and officially renamed the Brunswick Music Theatre the “Maine State Music Theatre.”  In that span of time, Victoria Crandall died (1990), long-time industry actor/director Charles Abbot signed on as Artistic Director, Steven Peterson was hired as Managing Director of the growing business demands, and summer audiences have grown to number 60,000 per summer. 

Governor McKernan's christening of the Maine State Music Theatre was meant to reflect the theatre's vast patronage spanning beyond the mid-coast region, but packaged within that title is the belief that the Theatre is exemplary of Maine values.

Maine's relationship to musical theatre is not as retro-fitted as other aspects of the state’s culture.  MSMT's half-century presence at Pickard Theatre has literally enabled tens of thousands of local residents to pass down an appreciation of musical theatre, suddenly wholesome and refreshing next to the line-up of inevitably soulless summer movies and reality TV, to the next generations.  To that end,  MSMT is reporting fourth generation season ticket holders for the upcoming 2008 summer season.

As long as it stays in the family, it'll stay in Maine.

MSMT will present its 50th Anniversary Season from June 4th until August 24th, beginning with Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  Season tickets are now available by contacting the Box Office at 725-8769.  For more information visit www.msmt.org as it becomes available.