Beehive: The 60’s Musical
Winter Park Playhouse
Created by Larry Gallagher
Directed by Steven Flaa
Musical Direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park, FL
We all love the 60’s, even if we weren’t really there. The post war generation hit is high point in those halcyon days; mass media allowed relaxed morals, bright fabrics, and the idea “youth” was a product, and not just an adjective. It also allowed a new musical style parents hated but secretly danced to. Sure, there was a war, race riots and assassinations, but they aren’t allowed inside this hallowed theater so let’s get to the good stuff!
Act One focuses on the girl group sound that filled those A.M. airwaves and eventually late night informercials selling CD collections we all secretly own. Numbers are mostly lead and chorus, and open with “Let’s Rock” and end the first act with a British Invasion medley. Along the way it’s hit after hit after hit: “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To,” “Sweet Talking Guy,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” ‘Where the Boys Are,” and “Then He Kissed Me” are typical. As the show ages, more pointed songs creep in and “Abraham, Martin and John “ dampened things a bit, but we recovered our groove nicely with the entire British Invasion.
As the costumes pile up back stage, we gently reminisce over chances that may have passed us by, or mistakes we made that we will never replicate. Act Two dips in the LSD culture and anti-war material, a Janice Joplin double compete with oddly colored glasses and a mega-bandana lead us out of the decade, leaving the whole disco / punk / soul world to another evening. They say if you remember the 1960’s you weren’t really there. Well, I was. Or maybe I wasn’t. It’s all so confusing….
