SEQUIM — A band of singers has come together to revel in romance, cinema and sweet songs — for the second time around.
Just a hint, now, of the musical numbers to fill the Dungeness Schoolhouse this weekend and next: “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” from the 1932 movie “Monte Carlo;” Cole Porter’s smoldering “Night and Day,” the Rodgers and Hart song “There’s a Small Hotel.”
This is the second annual “Movies & Their Music” revue, featuring singers, actors, skits and duets. “There’s a Small Hotel,” for example, will be offered by Ric Munhall and Valerie Lape, vocalists well-known on the local music and theater scene.
Conductor Dewey Ehling and writer Carol Swarbrick Dries are originators of “Movies & Their Music,” a Readers Theatre Plus production opening tonight and running through next weekend at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road. The show’s vintage songs — “Stormy Weather,” “Ten Cents a Dance,” “A Fine Romance” and “The Object of My Affection” to name a few — serve as signposts on a romantic walk. The music will start at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, tonight through Feb. 17 at the 120-year-old schoolhouse.
As with all Readers Theatre Plus offerings, “Movies & their Music” is a fundraiser for a local charity. This time the beneficiary is the Sequim Guild for Seattle Children’s Hospital, which helps fund uncompensated care for families in need.
Tickets are $15 per person or two for $25 and available at Odyssey Books, 114 W. Front St., Port Angeles, and at Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St., Sequim. Remaining tickets will be available at the door.
“Movies & Their Music” made its debut in February 2012, and came off so well, said singer Cheryl Bell, that cast and crew were eager to bring it back. This year’s production highlights cinema from the 1930s and ’40s, with songs sung a cappella.
Ehling and Janice Parks will start the show dressed as ushers from Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the movie house on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. To put listeners in the mood, the matched pair will sing Jerry Herman’s “Just Go to the Movies”:
Follow me, I have two on the aisle.
Need to relax?
Need to escape?
Go see Fay Wray in the paw of the ape.
Watch Errol Flynn shooting his bow,
Just go to the movies,
Just go to a picture show, oh . . .
More songs and stories will unfold in the voices of Bell, Barbara Hughes, Trent Pomeroy, Karen Pritchard, Carl Honore, Breva Funston, Dani Keller and Anneka Morgan.
In the show’s narrative, Munhall will play the part of “Gone with the Wind” producer David O. Selznick and, toward the end, he will offer “Thanks for the Memory.”
“Sing for Your Supper” will fuel a skit, and finally, a vignette around “Over the Rainbow” will give the audience a chance to join in.
“Whether you remember the ’30s, or just like old movies and music, you are sure to have a good time,” promised Bell.
To find out more about this and other productions from Readers Theatre Plus, whose mission is to “create a better community through the arts,” visit http://readerstheatreplus.com.