World Premiere of Children's Musical Comes to Moorestown

Shortly after wrapping up the east coast premiere of Elf Jr., the Moorestown Theater Company will take center stage once again, this time with a world premiere.

The award-winning Moorestown Theater Company (MTC) has been asked by Music Theatre International (MTI) to stage the ‘World Premiere Workshop Production’ of a new children’s musical, Magic Tree House: A Ghost Tale For Mr. Dickens, Jr.

The workshop production, which MTC is calling ‘Preview Stage’, was auditioned in November and will have three shows this weekend.

“When we take the stage Saturday morning at 10 a.m., this will be the first time this show has ever been done,” said MTC Producing Artistic Director Mark Morgan, who said the company’s production of Elf Jr. sold a lot of tickets and was well-received.

That show wrapped up on Sunday, which gives the company less than a week before its latest production, which Morgan believes to be the first world premiere in Moorestown’s history.

Of the 47 actors who performing in Magic Tree: A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr., 20 also performed in Elf Jr., Morgan said. All actors are ages 6-17.

Following Saturday’s 10 a.m. showing, there will be a 2 p.m. showing. There will also be a 2 p.m. show on Sunday.

All shows will be performed at Moorestown Upper Elementary School (325 Borton Landing Road).

MTI staff will come from New York to see this world premiere.

Tickets are $10 for all Reserved Seats at www.MoorestownTheaterCompany.org

“This is a huge honor for the Moorestown Theater Company” Morgan said. “Of the thousands of theater companies in the United States that produce theater by children for children, MTI came to MTC to give this new script its first-ever staging! We are humbled to be asked and very thankful for the opportunity this workshop presents for our young performers.”

This new children’s musical, which is based on one of the stories in the best-selling “Magic Tree House” Collection of children’s books by Mary Pope Osborne, tells the story of ‘Jack’ and his younger sister ‘Annie.’

Jack and Annie go back in time to 1843 to convince ‘Charles Dickens’ not to give up his writing career. With some magic that they are allowed to use in the stories via ‘Merlin the Magician’ and ‘Morgan Le Fay’ (from “Camelot”), Jack and Annie show Mr. Dickens what the world would be like without his stories.

Their magic brings out the three ‘Ghosts,’ which help convince Mr. Dickens to continue his writing career in general. Specifically, they convince him to write A Christmas Carol, in which they end up appearing.

Other characters that Jack and Annie meet in this musical include ‘Oliver Twist’, ’Fagan’, ‘Pickwick’, ‘Tiny Tim’, ‘Queen Victoria’, and the aforementioned three ‘Ghosts’.

The book of the musical is by Jenny Laird and Will Osborne (Mary’s husband), with lyrics by Randy Courts and Will Osborne, and music by Randy Courts.

“I wanted to have a theater company that was close to New York City, whose work I was familiar with, and that I trusted to do a great job with new material, and the first one that I thought of was the Moorestown Theater Company,” MTI Senior Operations Officer John Prignano said.

Prignano said that he plans to travel to New Jersey, not only to see the musical performed on Sunday, but to speak with the MTC staff and cast members to get their thoughts about the show’s script and songs, as well as the process of ‘workshopping’ a new production.

Morgan said the workshopping process has been difficult, as his cast is essentially perfecting the materials for this show that will be used by theater companies worldwide going forward.

Although the company was told it didn’t have to do new sets and costumes for the show, Morgan said MTC wanted to go all out in putting the show together.

The Directing Staff for MTC’s Preview Stage ’14 consists of Morgan as Director, Vocal Director Carol Ann Murray, and Choreographer Kaitlin Tumulty.

Thom Sirkot designed costumes for this show as well, after designing eight new costumes for Elf Jr.

Sirkot is an award-winning costume designer who has worked with Barrymore Award winners in Philadelphia in the past.

For more information or for group rates, call MTC at 856-778-8357.

The attached images were provided by Mark Morgan:

Image #1: Left to right: Garrett Walsh, 14, of Moorestown plays Charles Dickens; Juliet Morgan, 11, of Moorestown, plays Annie.

Image #2: Julia Scott, 13, of Moorestown, plays Morgan LeFay; Juliet Morgan, 11, of Moorestown, plays Annie; Garrett Walsh, 14, of Moorestown plays Charles Dickens; and Ethan Zeligson,14, of Cherry Hill plays Merlin.

Image #3: Julia Scott, 13, of Moorestown, and Ethan Zeligson, 14, of Cherry Hill, point at Juliet Morgan, 11, of Moorestown, during rehearsal for the Moorestown Theater Company’s World Premiere of Magic Tree House: A Ghost Tale For Mr. Dickens, Jr., set for this weekend.