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TV and newspapers: Detroit media historical past
The Detroit Free Press has been publishing for the reason that mid-Nineteenth century.
- “Gilligan’s Island” debuted in 1964 and lasted 98 episodes.
- Playwright Sean Paraventi grew up loving the sitcom and sang the theme track at a expertise present as a toddler.
- “The Seven Castaways” will likely be carried out at Hamtramck’s Planet Ant.
Come sit proper again and also you’ll hear a story, a story of a fateful journey. Only when “The Seven Castaways” opens Sept. 5 at Hamtramck’s Planet Ant, it is going to be much more raunchy, twisted and humorous in an grownup method than the Nineteen Sixties sitcom concerning the three-hour boat tour gone flawed that impressed it.
This musical parody of “Gilligan’s Island” is “not for the kids or the easily offended,” a press launch on the manufacturing cautions.
“It takes the story of the castaways to maybe places the TV show couldn’t,” says Sean Paraventi, the Detroit playwright who got here up with the comedy. “OK, there are seven adults stuck on this island. What could have happened to these adults in the most absurd way?”
Adds Paraventi, referencing a Tony-winning musical parody, “I think ‘The Seven Castaways,’ hopefully, does for ‘Gilligan’s Island’ what ‘Avenue Q‘ did for ‘Sesame Street.’”
It has been greater than 60 years since Gilligan, the Skipper, the millionaire and his spouse, the film star, the professor and Mary Ann launched into a short, disastrous journey on the S.S. Minnow, solely to be left stranded after a storm.
“Gilligan’s Island” debuted in 1964 as a foolish, harmless TV sequence at a time when America was nonetheless mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It lasted solely three seasons and 98 episodes, nevertheless it continues to stay on in TV eternity, aka fixed syndication all over the world.
Paraventi, 58, who additionally does advertising and marketing for the auto business, says he grew up watching and loving the present.
“It was just a huge part of my early childhood. It was a go-to TV show. I was pretty obsessed with the reruns as a small child. I would stand on the porch and sing the theme song, belting it out as long as possible. I think when I was about 5, I sang it at a talent show at Camp Dearborn in front of hundreds of people,” he remembers.
Paraventi traces his fondness for the sitcom partly to his personal identification with the goofy title character performed by the late Bob Denver. “I just thought it was really funny and entertaining as a child. I probably sort of related to Gilligan because I was kind of a goof and I was the youngest child and got blamed for a lot of things.”
Paraventi and his Assembly Line Theatre Company are partnering with Hamtramck’s Planet Ant on “The Seven Castaways,” which is his first musical.
The manufacturing is directed by Cassandra Svacha, Paraventi’s longtime buddy and collaborator who has labored with him on previous productions like a 2017 manufacturing of an edgy play about gentrification that facilities on a younger white couple internet hosting a cocktail party in a Detroit home they’re renovating.
The solid of “The Seven Castaways” contains Allison Megroet, Bailey Boudreau, Dave Durham, Dez Walker, Maureen Paraventi, Alexia Allagreen and Joe Bailey.
Although Paraventi desires to maintain most particulars a shock for the viewers, he says there will likely be songs concerning the castaways and dream sequences that had been frequent storylines for the real-life present, together with tunes about secrets and techniques stored by the characters and the opposite facet of the island.
He says Gilligan might be the character within the parody who goes essentially the most in opposition to his candy, bumbling TV kind.
Paraventi says the potential viewers for “The Seven Castaways” is not restricted to boomers. “I think it appeals to hardcore fans and anybody with just a vague recollection of the show. Our youngest cast member is 23 and he seems to be really enjoying it.”
Looks just like the S.S. Minnow continues to be able to entertaining audiences on a six-decade tour.
Contact Detroit Free Press popular culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
‘The Seven Castaways’
8 p.m. Sept. 5, 6, 12 and 13; 3 p.m. Sept. 7 & 14
Planet Ant’s Ant Hall
2320 Caniff, Hamtramck
$30
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