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Rehearsing for an enormous stage musical like Theatre Calgary’s Escape to Margaritaville can get a bit gruelling and Katie McMillan has the callouses to show it.
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In Escape to Margaritaville, which runs within the Max Bell Theatre till Might 13, McMillan performs Rachel, a younger, career-minded lady who agrees to accompany her buddy Tammy (Michele Shuster) on a trip to the Caribbean island of Margaritaville earlier than Tammy will get married to her controlling fiance. It’s in Margaritaville that Rachel and Tammy meet part-time singer Tully (Nathan Gibb Johnson) and bartender Brick (Glen Mills). The viewers has two hours to marvel if these good-time seashore boys can win the hearts of the massive metropolis vacationers.
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The jukebox musical, which had a quick six-month run on Broadway in 2018, options such chart-topping Jimmy Buffett songs as Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise, It’s 5 O’Clock Someplace, Fins, Volcano and Come Monday.
“Even when somebody doesn’t know a complete lot of Jimmy Buffet songs, they may know Margaritaville. It’s a traditional and it lets them understand how a lot enjoyable his music is,” says McMillan, who shortly turned a fan of Buffet’s slower, sweeter ballads like Coast of Marseilles.
“It’s throughout that music that Rachel has to make an enormous resolution, so I actually have needed to hearken to these lyrics and so they’re lovely. Nathan sings and performs the guitar for this one and for a number of others.”
It’s that very same guitar that gave McMillan her finger callouses.
“I needed to study to play guitar for Three Chords the place Tully teaches Rachel to play his guitar however I used to be supplied the choice of additionally taking part in guitar for A Pirate Seems to be at Forty, a music close to the top of the present. Three Chords is strictly what it says however Pirate has a number of chords and is far more troublesome.”
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For Pirate, Gibbs and fellow forged member Alex Smith got here to the rescue.
“Each Nathan and Alex are superb musicians. Thank heavens for them. I had been attempting to study by myself from YouTube to little avail. That is the type of firm we’ve for Margaritaville. Everyone seems to be there for you.”
McMillan says this actually shouldn’t have stunned her as a result of a lot of the performers who’re primarily based in Calgary know one another by means of StoryBook Theatre the place they honed their efficiency expertise, and they’re now half of a big circle of pals.
That is McMillan’s third mainstage present for Theatre Calgary. She was additionally in Mary and Max: A Musical and The Louder We Get and was additionally a member of the ensemble for Ragtime: A Live performance Efficiency.
“Margaritaville is the primary time I get to play an grownup for Theatre Calgary. In Mary and Max, I used to be a baby and in The Louder We Get I used to be a youngster. Lastly, I’m taking part in my age which is why I perceive the entire setup for Margaritaville. I’m on the age the place a number of of my pals are getting engaged and this concept of a final trip with pals doesn’t appear so farfetched.”
McMillan has by no means truly been on an unique seashore trip however “simply being on the set Tamara Marie Kucheran has created for us makes me really feel as if I’ve been to the Caribbean.”
The musical boasts songs like Why Don’t We Get Drunk, It’s 5 O’Clock Someplace and My Head Hurts however McMillan insists “individuals will probably be stunned as a result of the present additionally has an excellent deal to say about friendship and following one’s goals and people are two issues which have at all times meant an excellent deal in my life and I don’t assume I’m alone in that.”
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Escape to Margaritaville is a particular fan present for Theatre Calgary. In January 2022, Theatre Calgary ran a contest that requested audiences to decide on a present they wished to finish the 2022/2023 season and Escape to Margaritaville gained arms down. TC’s government director Maya Choldin says she thinks Margaritaville struck a chord as a result of “this metropolis is prepared for a little bit of an escape from the chilly to the tropics, to enjoyable and pleasure. It is a present that may have individuals singing within the automobile on their means house from the theatre with a smile on their faces.”
Tickets for Escape to Margaritaville will be bought at theatrecalgary.com.