BOCA RATON — Jan McArt, the legendary Florida theater pioneer that two governors proclaimed to be the “First Lady of Florida Musical Theatre,” returns to the stage, this time starring in Tony Finstrom’s new comedy thriller, “Murder on Gin Lane.”
A reading of the play was presented Oct. 24 as part of McArt’s Theatre Arts Guild Play Reading Series at Boca Raton’s Lynn University (where she currently heads up the theatre arts program development)
Wayne Rudisill directed the reading, with a cast that included Jeffrey Bruce, soon to be seen in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Iris Acker, host of the Beacon TV series “Onstage with Iris Acker” and soon to be seen in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife at the Boca Raton Theatre Guild and Beth Holland, New York actress/song stylist and Board of Directors President for the Symphony of the Americas.
Another reading will then be presented at the Byron Carlyle Theatre in Miami Beach on November 5th at 7p.m. as part of the fourth annual all-night arts and culture festival “Sleepless Night Miami Beach.” The cast for the Miami Beach reading will again include McArt and Bruce, this time with Shari Upbin and Blanca Goodfriend.
The play takes place on Gin Lane, a narrow Southampton road filled with ocean-front mansions out on the end of New York’s Long Island, where Max Greenway (a Broadway producer/director) died last spring – apparently a suicide. But his widow, the former stage star Delphine Davenport, thinks it was … murder! She and her French maid, Fifi, are spending Labor Day weekend at the Greenway country estate, along with her stepsister, Winnie, and an old boy friend, Inspector Benjamin Walker, formerly of Scotland Yard. And she intends to solve this ‘homicide’ before Monday … if it kills her.
“I’m particularly excited about the October 24th event because that was the first time the play has ever been read in public,” said McArt.
“We decided to present it as a “radio” play,” said Finstrom. “So, rather than doing a simple reading, we’ll be presenting this as though we are in front of a radio studio audience, with sound effects and some music and a few costumes. Of course this play demands the presence of a big star, and I’m thrilled that Jan McArt is willing to take on the central role of a glamorous, former Broadway actress. The part fits her like a satin glove, and I think she plans to change costumes at least three times over the course of the presentation! It should be a lot of fun.”
Tickets to the production at the Byron Carlyle Theatre (current home of the Miami Beach Stage Door), 500 71st Street, Miami Beach are free. For more information on the “Sleepless Night” events, go to: http://sleeplessnight.org.