Easy Street Productions plans family musicals

The musicals will be in both Powers Auditorium and Ford Family Recital Hall.
By GUY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Easy Street Productions will put on a series of family musicals at DeYor Center next season that are not only new to the area, but will also showcase the Mahoning Valley's homegrown talent.
The series will begin Sept. 28 with Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," and also includes "Forever Plaid" in February 2008 and Disney's "High School Musical" in May 2008. Each production will run for three performances over a weekend, with an option to hold it over if ticket demand warrants it.
Easy Street has gotten quite good at what it does, having staged crowd-pleasing extravaganzas such as its annual Christmas show, "Miracle on Easy Street," for decades. For its DeYor series, the professional troupe plans to take it to the next level.
Extensive auditions will be held to cast the musicals, said Maureen Collins, who, along with Todd Hancock, is co-founder of Easy Street. "People from our Valley will finally be able to be featured in this beautiful space," she said.
Nor is the troupe sparing expenses.
"We've already secured a revolving stage and beautiful costumes for 'Beauty and the Beast,'" said Hancock. So far, Easy Street has 125,000 invested in staging the musical, he said.
"Beauty" is a fairy tale that transports audiences to a castle inhabited by a hideous beast and his enchanted staff. The Tony Award-winning musical, which has never graced a Mahoning Valley stage above the high school level, will be performed at Powers Auditorium.
'Forever Plaid'
For the second production, the series will move to the much smaller Ford Family Recital Hall. That's because the lesser-known "Forever Plaid" lends itself to a more intimate place, said Hancock.
The comic musical tells the story of the Plaids, a 1950s male vocal group whose members are killed in a car crash on their way to their first big gig, but are miraculously revived. With precision harmonies, outlandish choreography and overzealous percussion, the Plaids sing some of the greatest hits of the era, including "Catch a Falling Star," "Three Coins in the Fountain" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing."
'High School Musical'
Perhaps most exciting is the final production, Disney's "High School Musical," to be staged in Powers. "Musical" started a little over a year ago as a Disney Channel movie aimed at young teens and became a cultural phenomenon. In late 2006, Disney turned the wildly popular show into a stage show and put it on national tour. It played to sold-out arenas in Pittsburgh and Cleveland earlier this year.
Disney released a stage version for the spring season, but so far, very few high schools and theater groups bought the rights.
That could be because it takes a while before the movie-to-play production is tweaked enough to get it just right, according to Hancock. "It's easy to transform a play into a movie, but harder to make a movie into a play," he said.
There is talk of transforming "Musical" into a Broadway show -- which could put a moratorium on local productions -- but before that could happen, Easy Street plans to bring it to life in Youngstown.
"Musical" is about a group of high school students struggling with issues of popularity, first love, balancing education with extracurricular activities and the values of family and friends. Its soundtrack has sold more than 4 million copies.
"We will conduct a talent search for high school students for the play," said Hancock.
Season subscriptions that include all three shows are now on sale for 75. "We always say we provide Big Apple entertainment at half the price," said Hancock.