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THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER Book by Ken Ludwig, based on the book by Mark Twain Music and lyrics by Don Schlitz Directed by Scott Ellis Cast: Joshua Park (TomSawyer), Jim Poulos (Huck Finn), Kristen Bell (Becky Thatcher), Linda Purl (Aunt Polly), John Dossett (Judge Thatcher), Jane Connell (Widow Douglas), Tom Aldredge (Muff Potter), Kevin Durand (Injun Joe), John Christopher Jones (Dobbins), Tommy Hollis (Sprague), Richard Poe (Lanyard Bellamy and Marshall Pailet (Sid Sawyer). Additional Cast Members: Stephen Lee Anderson, An Whitlow Brown, Michael Burton, Pierce Cravens, Elan, Stacia Fernandez, Joe Gallagher, Blacke Hackler, Nikki M. James, Donna Lee Marshall, Erik J. McCormack, Amy Jo Phillips, Kate Reinders, Elise Santora, Mekenzie Rosen-Stone, Ric Stoneback, Sally Wilfert, Rommar Wilson. Choreographer: David Marques Set Design:Heidi Ettinger Lighting Design: Kenneth Posner Costume Design: Anthony Powell Sound Design:Lew Mead Musical Director: Paul Gemignani Orchestrations by Michael Starobin Hair Design: David Brian Brown Dance and Incidental Music: David Krane Fight Director: Rick Sordelet Dialect Coach: Kate Wilson Minskoff, 200 W. 45th St. (7th/8th Avs) 307-4100 From 4/03/01; opening 4/26/01. Tues-Sat. at 8pm, Wed ad Sat at 2pm, Sun at 3pm. Tkts--$35-$85 Details About the Plot For those unfamiliar with the story, here's Twain's plot in a nutshell: Mischievous Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg on the Mississippi River. He falls in love with Becky Thatcher, the new girl in town, and convinces her to get "engaged" but their romance ends when she learns that he had been engaged before. When Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night to try out a "cure" for warts, they witness the murder of young Doctor Robinson by the part-Indian "half-breed," Injun Joe. They swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they saw. Injun Joe blames Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is arrested, and meanwhile, Tom, Huck, and Tom's friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. They return a few days later, and interrupt their own funeral. A little later, Tom is restored to Becky's favor when accepts the blame for a book ripped by her. He also testifies at the trial of Muff Potter who is acquitted leading Injun Joe to flee the courtroom through a window. Summer arrives, and when Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a "ha'nted house", they spy on Injun Joe, disguised as a deaf and dumb Spaniard, and see him and a partner find a box of gold and carry it to another hiding place. While Huck shadows Injun Joe, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky, where the two become lost in the cavern. Meanwhile, Huck saves the Widow Douglas from being attacked by Injun Joe, and the entire town begins to search for the missing Becky and Tom. Looking for a way out, Tom spots Injun Joe in the cave. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky's father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death. A week later Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, which is given to Judge Thatcher to invest for them. Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and when he attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the Widow, he can join Tom's robber band. The novel grew out of Twain's personal memories of growing up in Hannibal in the 1840's. An introduction to the novel states that "most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred," and that the character of Tom Sawyer was an amalgm of three boys he had known. The other characters too evolved from people he knew. Unlike Tom Sawyer, has been generally accepted as an idyllic picture of boyhood life along the Mississippi and has escaped the scrutiny about politically incorrect language and attitude of the novel considered to be his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn, There were two Tom Sawyer sequels, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective but they never rivalled the popularity of the first book. |