Meet the Cortland Repertory Theater’s 55th Season of Shows

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1 Always Classic. And for another edition, I’m Meet Cortland County. And joining me in the studio today, it’s the producing artistic director of the Cortland Repertory Theater, Kirby Thompson. How’s it going this morning? It’s great. Thanks for having me. I cannot believe Christmas is less than a week away.

We actually had the a hundred dollars gift card go out. This past week, right? In the 15 days of Christmas giveaways. But that wasn’t the only gift card that you can get to the Courtly Repertory Theater. So if, can you tell me about some of the, the holiday options if, someone’s looking for that last minute gift?

Kerby Thompson: Sure. It’s a great last minute gift. We have gift cards, which are basically, it. You, you pick, the dollar amount that you want. It can be any dollar amount, and you can give them to whoever you like. And they pick the show, the shows that they want to go to. And they can be for our downtown productions, they can be for our summer productions.

They can be used anywhere, and they don’t have any expiration date on them either. So they can use them. No, that’s, that’s a fantastic

Matt Brooks: gift. But you did say the S word that is summer. Yep.

Kerby Thompson: And,

Matt Brooks: I can’t believe 55th [00:01:00] season coming up in 2026. It’s unbelievable.

Kerby Thompson: Unbelievable. Yeah.

Matt Brooks: And it looks like you already have the lineup ready.

Kerby Thompson: We have a great lineup. We’re doing five shows, of course, and, four musicals this year in one play. We’re starting off with. A classic. The last few years we’ve started off our seasons with kind of a classic piece of musical theater, and this is the one that kind of started it all. It’s Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma.

Historically it is the first musical to incorporate, song and dance into the plot. Up until that po up until that point, musicals had. A plot going along. They stopped and they sang a song that had nothing to do with the plot, and then they went back to the plot. This was the first musical that just kind of incorporated character and, and plot points in the songs and, and the dances.

So,

Matt Brooks: yeah, and I mean, Broadway, all musicals would be. Wouldn’t be the same without

Kerby Thompson: Oklahoma. Exactly. It’s, it’s a classic and it’s well known and it’s still well known to this day. And, CRT has done it twice before, but it’s the first time that I’ve been doing it since I’ve been here, so I’m looking forward to it.

Oh, that’ll be, it’ll be a lot of fun. That’ll,

Matt Brooks: that’ll be, great to see [00:02:00] what’s, next show up

Kerby Thompson: next is, the CRT Pro, premier production of a, a relatively new comedy by Ken Ludwig. It’s called Baskerville. It’s a. It’s not a spoof, but it’s a comedy take on, sir Arthur Corn Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Hound to the basketballs.

And it’s, it’s still got the mystery. It’s still got a bit of the thrill, thriller aspect of the show, but what makes it funny is that it’s five actors playing over 40 characters. Wow. So, we’re gonna put together a great team, to put that show together, but it’s a lot of fun. Ludwigs. Really well known these days as being one of America’s premier playwrights of comedies and farces.

And we’ve done a few of his over the years, so this is the first time we’re doing this one, and it’ll be a lot of fun.

Matt Brooks: No, that, that, that sounds amazing. I mean, know that in some recent seasons we had the, having. Maybe two, actors or actresses on the stage, doing a couple, but Right, right. Five of 40, that’s, yeah, that’s

Kerby Thompson: gonna be quite a challenge for them, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

Wanted to see. Okay.

Matt Brooks: What marks the halfway mark of the system? Halfway

Kerby Thompson: part, we’re bringing in, [00:03:00] we’re putting together, a musical based on a movie, a very popular movie, nine to five. So this is the stage musical of nine to five with music and lyrics written by Dolly Parton. Everybody knows was in the original movie.

So it takes place the same time period, 1980 and, three, women who work in this office, with a, sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss. And, they put together a plan. And through some, foreseen and unforeseen circumstances, they end up teaching him a lesson and, turned out to be the leaders that they always knew they could be.

So it’s great. Comedy, and great music by Dolly. And, all original for that show, of course, with that title song of course. And, so, we’re excited to bring that in for the first time. I gotta say

Matt Brooks: nine to five is like my, Monday, theme song at this point. So it it, it’s great to see that that’s gonna be on a local stage.

It’s hard

Kerby Thompson: to wake up without. Thinking time out of bed in some the kitchen. So she really changed everybody when she wrote that song. So, so it’ll be a great show to bring [00:04:00] in, after that in, July, later July. It’s a show, it’s called a Chamber Musical. It’s a small musical, two person musical with just three, instruments in the pit of piano or guitar.

Cello, it’s called Daddy Long Legs, based on the novel of the same name. And it was also made into a movie, with Fred Astaire and Leslie Carone. I think it was in the late forties or early fifties, I’m not sure. But it’s about, a young woman at the turn of the century into the 19 hundreds who describes herself as the oldest orphan living in the John Greer home.

And she is given a rare. Opportunity to attend college, funded by a mysterious benefactor with the stipulation that she writes him a letter once a month letting him know what she’s learning at college. And so over the time that she’s there, they develop this relationship and she, she. Calls him Daddy long legs because she doesn’t know his name.

And then there’s a secret at the end of this that, kind of changes their relationships, which you’ll have to see the show to find out what that secret is. But it’s a beautiful show, a beautiful music, all [00:05:00] original, not, not any of the, music from the Fred Astaire movie. And, it’s just a heartwarming, show about the independence of a, of a young woman finding her way.

Matt Brooks: And with the, the smaller chamber crew, it’s probably has much more. Like intimate sounding music. ’cause there’s just less parts going on. Right,

Kerby Thompson: right. And it’s the style of music written for the show too, is very intimate. And that’s what’s great about the pavilion. I’ve said this a lot before. We can do a show like Oklahoma, which is big, a big cast, lots of people on stage and not feel overpowered by the.

The size of it, and also do this intimate type of show and not feel lost. It’s a very, it’s a great show for the Pavilion. It’s an amazing venue. Yeah.

Matt Brooks: Now I can only see the, the program upside down, but I recognize the last one from a mile

Kerby Thompson: away. Yep. So for the first time at CRT, for three weeks, from the end of July into August, we are doing the musical Annie.

A lot of people know it. Oh yeah. Are familiar with it. And, Annie was the. The last show that we put into the season and, when I took a step back and looked at the season, I said, this is a very [00:06:00] optimistic season. It’s a very positive season. Yeah. It feels like something that we need right now.

It’s a very uplifting and, and, and just a very positive season, and I don’t think. There could be a more optimistic musical than Annie because of the song that everybody knows is tomorrow, yep. And it’s only a day away. And, I think it’s, it’s a great ending to this, this season of, and of course Annie is about Little Orphan Annie who, gets pulled out of the orphanage and, and, starts, being raised by Daddy Warbucks and what, how that her changes her life.

Matt Brooks: No, it’s an iconic story and I can’t believe that we can’t see these shows tomorrow, but. Tell me about, ticket information. I know you’re talking about you could buy tickets for individual shows. That’s not quite on sale yet, but Right. The, flex tickets and, season tickets will be on sooner.

Kerby Thompson: So we are selling subscriptions, right.

And, flex Passes as well. So subscriptions are, you pick a night and a seat and you go to that night in seat for all five shows. Flex Passes gives you the flexibility to pick, which shows you want to go see, and which nights you can go on. It’s [00:07:00] great for people with busy schedules. They can and work their theater around their schedules with a flex pass.

But for individual tickets, if you’re only interested in going to see one or two shows, those don’t go on sale until May 18th. But again, subscriptions, flex Passes and gift cards are all on sale. As we speak,

Matt Brooks: and if people are interested in getting those tickets and passes sooner than later, where do the people go?

Kerby Thompson: We are, open at 24 Port Watson Street, our box office, and, open nine to four. Monday through Friday. We are open. Next week, Monday and Tuesday, and then we’re closed for the holidays. But we’ll be open again, of course after January 1st. And, you can also go online to cortland rep.org or give us a call at (800) 427-6160.

Matt Brooks: Well, if I wasn’t wishing for warmer weather, already, 55th season, can’t come soon enough. Gotta Thank you, Kirby, for giving us this. Quite early preview and, hope you enjoy the holidays.

Kerby Thompson: You too. Thank you. Can’t wait

Matt Brooks: till, warmer weather and these great shows being on the CRT stages. Happy [00:08:00] Holidays

Kerby Thompson: to

Matt Brooks: everybody out there in Radioland too.

Oh no. This has been another edition of meet Corland County here on X 1 0 1 Always Classic. I’m Matt Brooks.