• Fri. Apr 19th, 2024

Ken Ludwig’s play “Treasure Island,” based on the adventure novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, is an amazing show of swashbuckling piracy, long-lost treasure and revenge. The stars of the show are Jim Hawkins, a 14-year-old innkeeper’s son who dreams of adventure, and infamous anti-hero Long John Silver.

Kimberly Borst directs Sinclair Theatre’s production of the play that will kick off the 2019 season. Gary Minyard contributes the fight choreography, and Micah Koverman stars as Hawkins, while Long John Silver is played by Chase Niemitalo.

 Matt Poliachik, Rafael Santillan, Ben Anders, Rachel Charles, Kofi Gunter, DeShawn Christian, Austin Vega, CJ Suchyta, Mari Pullings, Shaun Diggs, Chris Koehler, Topher Leavitt, Stephen Powell and Chris Goetz round out the rest of the cast.

Treasure Island runs for the next two weeks, starting Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. and finishing on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. in Blair Hall Theatre. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. Oct. 17 is Throwback Thursday and tickets will be $10 for the 7 p.m. show. American Sign Language interpreted performances are Sunday and Thursday.

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Koverman and Niemitalo in promo shots for the show. (Source: Patti Celek)

With exciting music, an intricate set (featuring a 360° rotating pirate ship!), handcrafted costumes and stage combat that the actors have been practicing since early summer, it is an ambitious and monumental production!

Ken Ludwig is a two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright who has written over 26 plays and musicals, including six shows on Broadway and seven in London’s West End. 

His first Broadway play, “Lend Me A Tenor,” won two Tony Awards. His other awards include the Helen Hayes Award, the 2017 Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in the American Theatre, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Contributions to the American Theater. 

His book “How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare,” published by Penguin/Random House, won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of the Year, and his essays are published by the Yale Review. 

Ken’s best-known works include “Crazy For You” (five years on Broadway, Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical), “Lend Me A Tenor,” “Moon Over Buffalo,” “The Game’s Afoot,” “Baskerville,” “Sherwood,” “A Fox on the Fairway” and a stage version of “Murder on the Orient Express,” written expressly at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate. 

A reading of the original novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, complete with each character having their own unique voice. (YouTube/Greatest Audiobooks)

His newest play, “The Gods of Comedy,” premiered in 2019 at The McCarter Theater in Princeton and The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. On Broadway and the West End, his plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shalhoub, Lynn Redgrave and Joan Collins. 

He holds degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University. His work has been performed in over 30 countries in more than 20 languages, and is produced somewhere in the United States and abroad every night of the year.

LeAnne McPherson
Reporter