“Lucky Stiff” began preview performances last Tuesday night at Florida Repertory Theatre. Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen describes the plot of his offbeat musical-murder-mystery-farce.
“It’s about this hapless shoe salesman who finds out he’s heir to $6 million in diamonds, but in order to get the diamonds, he has to go through all of these actions with his uncle, who happens to be dead,” said Longenhagen. “If he doesn’t complete those tasks, the $6 million in diamonds goes to the dogs; literally, to the Brooklyn School for the Dogs.”
While hapless Harry Witherspoon may be the lead character, the star of each performance is a celebrity corpse.
“What we’ve done is we have some V.I.P.s, some celebrities who are stepping in to play the cadaver, and on different nights, we’ll have different V.I.P.s,” Longenhagen said.
On opening night, the stiff was Fort Myers’ esteemed mayor, Kevin Anderson. Longenhagen wouldn’t divulge who else audiences will find reposed in cheap sunglasses in the wheelchair Harry’s pushing around the stage.
“In fact, you won’t necessarily know until after Act One, because we have a placard that we’re going to put out there and then we’ll do a reveal as to who’s actually playing the cadaver that evening,” said Longenhagen.
While the cadaver has no lines, they’re a prominent part of the show and will rise from the dead to take their bows with the rest of the cast after the final curtain.
“It’s just a pure fun evening of theater,” Longenhagen added. “Great music, great musical.”
“Lucky Stiff” is in the historic Arcade Theatre opened Friday, January 10. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays through January 26.
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Sam Sherwood plays the part of Harry Witherspoon. He was last seen as Hank Williams in "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" last season. Sherwood’s Off-Broadway credits include “Woody Sez” (Irish Rep) and “Fancy: A Country Musical” (Developmental lab). Select regional theater credits include Jimmy Ray in “Bright Star” (Arrow Rock Lyceum); Tully in “Escape to Margaritaville” (Actors’ Playhouse, Engeman Theatre); Jesus in “Godspell” (Ivoryton Playhouse); John Denver in “Almost Heaven” (Riverside Theatre); Woody Guthrie in “Woody Sez” (TheaterWorks Hartford); Guy in “Once” (Ivoryton); “Pump Boys & Dinettes” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (Flat Rock Playhouse); Carl Perkins in “Million Dollar Quartet” and in the world premiere of “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas.”
The rest of the cast is composed of (alphabetically) Chrissy Albanese (Landlady and others), Nicholas Caycedo (Solicitor & Emcee), Kim Morgan Dean (Rita La Porta), JJ Gibson (Swing), Hannah McGinley Lemasters (Annabel Glick), Patrick Richwood (Vincent Di Ruzzio), Jacqueline St. Pierre (Dominique du Monaco and others), Gerritt VanderMeer (Luigi Gaudi) and Noah Warford (Punk, Bellhop and others).
Jason Parrish directs.
As a member of the original founding company of Florida Repertory Theatre, Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen is entering his third decade with the Rep.
An accomplished actor, director, producer, teacher, and coach, Longenhagen has enjoyed a career of almost 40 years in professional theater, radio, television and film.
Since 1998, Longenhagen has worked on over 73 productions at Florida Rep as an actor, director, fight choreographer, and dialect coach. He was last seen on the Arcade Stage in last year’s hurricane relief fundraiser, “Love Letters.” His other acting credits include performances at The Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, Florida Stage, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Quantum Theatre, Pirate Playhouse, Trilogy Theatre, Pennsylvania Stage Company, Inner Space Theatre, The Mountain Playhouse, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, The Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Philadelphia Shakespeare, The Pantages Theatre, The Great American Children’s Theatre, Theatre at Hartwood, The Fulton Theatre, Pittsburgh Musical Theatre, Opera Delaware, St Vincent Theatre, Theatre Row Theatre, and Stage Right.
Directing credits at Florida Rep include “Maytag Virgin,” “On Golden Pond,” “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” “Barefoot in the Park,” PlayLab readings of “Split in Three,” “Where I Dwell,” “We Will Not Be Silent,” and more. Longenhagen has choreographed fight scenes for and voice/dialect coached more than 29 shows at the Rep where selected credits include “The Miracle Worker,” “Outside Mullingar,” “Moon Over Buffalo,” “Disgraced,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Twelve Angry Men,” “August Osage County” and “Boeing Boeing.”
Longenhagen served as an assistant professor of theatre at Florida Gulf Coast University and was chair of the Theatre Program’s Marketing and Recruitment Committee.
Longenhagen also spent two years touring the United States as a noted public speaker conducting workshops on real estate investing. In 2006, he joined Abbott Productions, Inc. ascending from office manager to vice president of marketing to president and chief of operations. He has been responsible for the production of numerous national advertising campaigns and video projects across numerous businesses.
After receiving his B.A. in Speech Communication while at West Chester University where he was a four-time Irene Ryan nominee to the region, the recipient of the Tom Dudash Memorial Award for Children’s Theatre, and The Most Outstanding Student in Speech Communication & Theatre, Longenhagen also served as the resident director for Pittsburgh’s “Shakespeare in the Schools” while continuing to work as an actor in New York City.
Longenhagen holds a master of fine arts from the University of Pittsburgh and is certified with the Society of American Fight Directors at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been a member of the Actors Equity Association since 1993.
Born and raised near Allentown, Pennsylvania, Longenhagen's career in Regional Theatre took him all over the country. In the 1990s, he settled in Southwest Florida, his “ideal community.” It was there he met his wife, Liz Abbott, who grew up on Sanibel Island. Greg and Liz have happily made their home in Fort Myers for 24 years where they are raising their two children, Liza, a student at Bishop Verot High School, and Jack, who attends Sanibel Middle School.