The Blue Lagoon: A Musical, a subversively funny take on the classic tale of shipwrecked teen cousins in lust, will Saturdays January 9 & 16, 2010 at 8pm at The Parliament House (410 N. Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32819). Tickets are twelve bucks and are available online. THE BLUE LAGOON: A Musical is based on Henry de Vere Stacpoole’s 1908 novel The Blue Lagoon: A Romance, which has inspired several stage and screen adaptations over the years, including the infamous 1980 film starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. The latest incarnation — featuring book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Padget — premiered at the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C., where it enjoyed a sold-out run and an enthusiastic response from audiences and critics.
Nelson Pressley of The Washington Post praised the show for its “lovely melodic themes” and its playful, alternative style: “two goofy performers and an inflatable baby pool as the lagoon in question — how Fringe is that?”
The New York premiere of The Blue Lagoon: A Musical at New York Cringe Fest 2009 featured Shayna Albertson (2008 graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts) as Emmeline and Anthony Johnson who recently performed in the NETworks North American and Asian tour of the musical Hairspray. The production of The Blue Lagoon, as directed by Orlando’s own Kenny Howard at The Producers Club in Manhattan garnered multiple Cringe Festival awards including a Best Actor award for Johnson and a Directing award for Howard.
It is that award-winning New York production which is being faithfully recreated at the Parliament House, lock, stock, and wading pool. Shayna Albertson and Anthony Johnson are being flown in form NYC to recreate their roles is this funky little musical send- up of this classic tale of s teenage cousins who get jiggy with one another in an untamed paradise.