Goodspeed Theater (Chester, CT)

By a light estimate I see about 50 productions a year. There are weeks when I see three shows, but it is rare when I don't see any. Some love sports. I love theater. Which is why theaters being shut down during the pandemic was especially hard for me.

Broadway was closed for 18 months (about 550 days). I wrote about seeing my first post-pandemic production -- Godspell at Notre Dame High School. They skipped intermission and made us sit far apart, but in March 2021 it was sweet sitting in the auditorium where I saw productions with Ashley running around backstage. 

About that time Goodspeed Theater in Connecticut offered an opportunity to livestream their production: Passing Through, a new musical about a man who walked from Pennsylvania to California collecting stories. It is based on a true story. Rather than showing a new production, they sold the rights to watch a show they produced in the last idyllic pre-pandemic year. It didn't matter, I paid a few dollars to watch the show from my living room and devoured the experience. I even read Andrew Forsthoefel's book Walking to Listen, the inspiration for the musical. I'm surprised I did not blog about it, but I am not finding a reference to it here.

I loved the show. I could picture myself talking to strangers again and learning their stories. Something I enjoyed before the pandemic, but was suppressed from doing due to a global pandemic.

As a result of ordering the show, I ended up on their email list. I promised myself I'd make the trip to see a show in their theater. Over the past three and a half years the timing did not work out. Either the show was something I had seen before (and did not wish to travel nearly four hours to see again) or we were too busy to make the drive.

Then came The Great Emu War: a new emusical at their Terris Theater in Chester, CT. They tend to show more traditional works at the Goodspeed Theater in East Haddam, CT. This show was created the year before at the Festival of New Musicals. Don and I are interested in visiting next year's event in January.

The play is mostly factual with the main exception being that the emus talk. Post-WWI returning ANZAC soldiers were given land in Western Australia to farm. These men were not farmers, plus that year was particularly harsh. The emus invaded looking for food, and the soldiers did what soldiers do -- they tried to kill them. They managed to only kill one emu.

The musical is hilarious. It is worth checking out the clips on their website. If you are with a theater, please consider doing this PG-13 show. Though a musical, it only has two musicians (drummer and keyboard), the set was minimal. The costumes were easy. I laughed so hard.

We walked around Chester's tiny main street area. We had a great lunch in a
charming shop, then returned after the show for dessert. In the meantime there was a shift change and the entire aura changed. I did see a Help Wanted sign in the window, so hopefully they are replacing their after school helper. It was nearly comical. Fortunately lunch was amazing.

We broke up the drive home by stopping at the seaside town of Milford. I had a couple of other towns eyed up (New Milford and Litchfield) but they would be hourlong detours and there was already enough driving taking place. We stopped for dinner in Tarrytown, NY (famous for being the setting of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow), which was all decked out for Halloween. We hope for a long weekend in the area to also see cousins Martin and Franca, and NCB.

If you do go to the Terris Theater they ask patrons to arrive 45 minutes early. That's because their parking lot is tiny. They really pack the cars in there, and make latecomers park in town.

One more note, do not sit in the back row. There is absolutely no leg room as if they ran out space and decided to squeeze in one more row just because. We made out fine, but will aim a little closer next time.