Clicky

Oakdale playhouse’s ‘Nice Work’ guaranteed to hit your funny bone

|

He promises you’ll laugh.

Patrick Grossman, director of CM Performing Arts Center‘s summer presentation of the Broadway musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” insists the comedy will have theatre goers in stitches.

“There’s not a line that goes by that you’re not laughing at something,” said Grossman, 36, the artistic director at the Oakdale playhouse since 2014. “Mixed with the comedy of the lines is the dancing, tap dancing and show girls, and the over-the-top sets. You can’t beat it.”

“Nice Work,” opens tomorrow, July 13, at 8 p.m. in CM’s Noel S. Ruiz Theatre. Performances run through Aug. 10.

Written by Joe DiPietro, Tony-winning writer of “Memphis” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” tells a story of a lovable playboy Jimmy Winter and a beautiful bootlegger Billie Bendix, who are portrayed by local actors, Steve Cottonaro and Bailey Whitney.

“It’s like four different stories going on at the same time, and they all butt heads at the end,” Grossman of Sayville said about the show, which features music by George and Ira Gershwin and was inspired by material by Guy Bolyon and P.G. Wodehouse.

“It’s a ‘classic’ in the sense that it’s set back in the 1930s with all the Gershwin music and the big-time sets and dancing,” said Grossman, who has been involved with the CM Performing Arts Center since he was in elementary school. “But it’s a little more modernized because it was written recently.”

Grossman said the ensemble cast of 25 rehearsed for six weeks before its first dress rehearsal Wednesday night. Tonight, the playhouse will host an invite-only preview performance.

CM Performing Arts Center is located at 931 Montauk Highway.

Here are “Nice Work” dates and showtimes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Local Supporters