Irrepressible Junie B. Jones Stars in Theatreworks/USA Musical Comedy Jan. 23
January 6, 2005
Junie B. Jones–the painfully honest, irrepressible and oddly insightful protagonist of a series of beloved books by Barbara Park–is graduating from kindergarten and headed to first grade in Theatreworks/USA’s new musical. The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State presents the show at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 23, in University Park’s Eisenhower Auditorium.
Tickets are on sale now at $10 each. For tickets and information, log on to www.cpa.psu.edu or phone 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown in the lobby of the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays (resuming Jan. 10); and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Based on a quartet of Park’s stories, the musical finds Junie B. making new friends, fretting about glasses and bossing the lunch lady. The creative team says Park’s novels, which are wildly popular among early-elementary readers, offer a wealth of material to craft a musical adaptation.
“I liked Barbara Park's sensibility,” says Zina Goldrich, who composed the music. “She is extremely funny, and I found myself laughing out loud many times as I read the books. I look for projects that are a bit quirky, and the Junie B. books have plenty of that.”
“I think Junie B. has everything I love in a character,” adds Marcy Heisler, who wrote the book and lyrics. “She’s smart, funny, talented, brave, vulnerable. I love how she’s bigger than life, but just like all of us. It’s wonderful to write a character at such a crossroads in her life, where her dreams are two sizes bigger than her experience or her vocabulary. It was an easy character to sing. Junie B. wants to be a star, and she learns that she is one just by being herself. I love that lesson.”
Goldrich wanted the score to have plenty of energy, so she kept going back to grooves from the 1960s and 1970s. “I guess it’s the music of my childhood, and it seemed to be a good fit,” she says. “With this type of show, I don’t think about the style ahead of time. When I sit down at the piano, I like to see what comes out. I try not to over-intellectualize. I go by feeling.”
Heisler and Goldrich are pretty sure children will be enthusiastic about the musical. “I hope they will respond to the fun that Junie B. and her friends have,” Goldrich says. “I think they’ll relate to the experiences,” Heisler adds. “I think theyll identify with the characters, and Peter Flynn and Dev Janki did such a beautiful job of staging it.”
McQuaide Blasko Attorneys at Law sponsors the performance. Radio station 95.3 3WZ is the media sponsor.
A special Artistic Viewpoints for children, which requires reservations, is open to ticket holders before the performance. Children can stop by anytime between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 to make top-secret personal-beeswax journals and enjoy snacks. Parents or guardians can reserve a spot for the pre-performance event by phoning 863-0388 or e-mailing psu-arts-tix@lists.psu.edu.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379