'Liberty Smith' by NewArts - My Review

Early August means that the young people of the Newtown area are ready to present the performances of their always magical shows with the 1214 Foundation, now under the wing of NewArts Musicals. In their first year, they did a personalized version of ‘Seussical: The Musical’ with John Tartaglia as The Cat. Last year, the older students presented a rockin’ version of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ with Broadway veterans Clarke Thorell, Marla Mindelle, and Saum Eskandani, while the younger ones worked on ‘101 Dalmatians’ with Kristine Zbornik as the evil Cruella. Considering how high these previous productions have set the bar, I couldn’t help but be excited to see this year’s first choice.

Founder/Executive Producer Dr. Michael Baroody explained during his curtain speech that one of the goals for the NewArts productions is to provide the young adults with wonderful role models. Surrounding these already talented young performers with the greatness of theatre professionals will inspire them to greatness that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. This year these caring adults chose ‘Liberty Smith’ http://www.libertysmith.com/ for the mostly older students in the program.

Look out George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Paul Revere and your reported historical accomplishments. This story reveals for the first time that Liberty Smith is somehow responsible for just about all major events in the American Revolution. It’s ‘Forrest Gump’ meets ‘1776’ (with a little ‘Schoolhouse Rock: America Rock’ thrown in for good measure) where everyone can change the course of history... whether they make it into the textbooks or not. A synopsis appears on the show’s website.

CLICK HERE TO READ MY ENTIRE REVIEW ON ONSTAGE AS SOON AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.

‘Liberty Smith’ only ran this weekend, but next weekend NewArts will present six performances of ‘The Lion King, Jr.’ at Newtown High School. There is a double cast for this production featuring younger actors, many of whom were seated in front of me at the ‘Liberty Smith’ matinee. Tickets are available online or at the door. I recommend ordering your ticket online for assigned seating

Photo of members of the cast of ‘Liberty Smith’ courtesy of Sarah Baroody and 1214 Foundation