Ace (musical)
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| Ace | |
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| Show logo | |
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| Music | Richard Oberacker |
| Lyrics | Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker |
| Book | Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker |
| Productions | 2006 Regional productions |
Ace is a musical with a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, and music by Oberacker. The story about a boy who discovers his past and himself through a series of dreams about a flying ace was inspired by Robert Taylor's father training to be a pilot, and his mother having near fatal bout with depression. Taylor and Oberacker met and began to discuss the show while touring in 2003 with The Lion King.[1]
In September 2005, parts of Ace were shown at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s (NAMT) Festival of New Musicals in New York. The musical debuted at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis on September 6, 2006.[2] It was directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Andrew Palermo. After closing in St. Louis on October 1, Ace opened in Cincinnati at the Playhouse in the Park on October 17[3], where it continued to run until November 17. It then played at the San Diego Old Globe Theatre from January 13, 2007 through February 18.[4]
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
- Act I
In St. Louis, Missouri in 1952, a 10-year-old boy named Billy Lucas telephones the police and tells the police officer that his mother is hurt. Soon, Billy in the hospital with a doctor talking about his mother’s case. He says that Billy’s mother obviously had tried to harm herself. A social worker then explains that Billy will have to stay in a temporary foster home while his mother is under treatment in the hospital’s mental ward (“It’s Better This Way”). Many people appear to say what a horrible person Billy is. In the end, Billy is placed with Mr. Edward and Louise Milligan. Mrs. Milligan informes Billy that Mr. Milligan worked on the St. Louis arch. Billy is very hostile towards Mrs. Milligan. After a few days, seeing Billy’s unhappiness with his new home, Mr. Milligan decides to get Billy a new toy. He goes to a toy store, and after much deliberation, decides to get Billy a new toy plane. He brings it home to Billy, and Billy reluctantly accepts his present. He falls asleep with his new plane, and then we see someone open his bedroom door. Billy wakes up and startled asks the man who he his and why he is on his room. The man simply answers, “Just call me Ace.” After convincing Billy, that it is safe, Ace takes Billy to April 1908, in an airfield, where he is introduced to John Roberts and Ruth Whitlow. These two are meeting for the first time and start to fall for each other. Billy is taken out of his dream and back to his room.
Billy starts school and is picked on by the other kids for being new. He meets Emily, another new kid at the school. Emily becomes his only friend. He decides to tell Emily about the strange dreams that he has been having. He takes her to his room and she tries to figure out why the dreams are occurring. Billy continues to have the strange dreams. In his dreams Ace, takes him through a world where John Roberts and Ruth fall in love and Ruth becomes pregnant, just before John Roberts goes off to war. While fighting in the air, John Roberts is shot down by enemy fire. Billy runs to John Roberts to help him and tells that Ruth will know, as Ace had instructed him.
- Act II
Billy is much happier with his new surroundings. He again is transported to his dream world with Ace. This time he is introduced to Charlie Robert Anderson, the son of Ruth and John Roberts. Billy discovers that Charlie is Ace. Ace wanted to design planes, and his mother wanted him to join the air force as his father had. He next went on to St. Louis University, where he met a girl. This girl turned out to be Elizabeth Lucas, Billy’s mother. She was in the journalism program at St. Louis University. Ace and Elizabeth start to date and eventually marry. Billy finds that Ace is his dad and wants to leave his dream. He hated his father since he was a child, for leaving him and his mother. Billy throws out the plane in anger at Ace, but Ace brings it back to him, because Ace has something to show him. Ace decides to join the Air Force as his father did, because his mother, Ruth, made him feel guilty about it. After leaving for China, Elizabeth finds out that she is pregnant and wants Ace to come home. However, Ace cannot leave the frontlines. While on a night mission, Ace and his fellow pilots come under enemy fire. His plane is hit and his fuel line is broken, and he can’t make it back to the base. Ace, with Billy in the back seat, flies straight up into the air, up to the stars, which he’s always wanted to see. Ace tells Billy in the last moments of his life, “You can choose to fly.” Billy is very sad to see his dad die, but now he understands.
After his father died, his mother went into a deep depression, not being able to bear his death. Billy goes to Mr. and Mrs. Milligan and tells them that he wants to see his mother right away. He goes with Mrs. Crandall, the social worker, and his foster parents to see his mother, who is now out of the hospital. He explains to her that he knows everything, and that he can, “choose to fly.”
[edit] Roles and original cast
- Billy - Noah Galvin
- Mrs. Crandall/Clara Whitlow - Traci Lyn Thomas
- Elizabeth - Jessica Boevers
- Louise - Amy Bodnar
- Edward/Stampley - Duke Lafoon
- Ace - Matt Bogart
- John Robert - Chris Peluso
- School Bully/Young Charlie - Jimmy McEvoy
- Ruth - Heather Ayers
- Emily - Gabrielle Boyadjian
- Lt. Sanders/Tim Sullivan - Richard Barth
- Cooper/Michael Myron - Danny Rothman
[edit] Song list
- In The Skies
- Life Can Be Cruel
- It Took This Moment
- Make It From Scratch
- Be My Bride
- Letter From The Front
- The Dogfight
- Soaring Again
- It's Just A Matter Of Time
- I Know It Can Be Done
- Missing Pieces
- Sooner Or Later
- In The Skies (reprise)
- We're The Only Ones
- Seeing Things In A Different Light
- That's That It Should Say
- Finale Sequence
[edit] Awards
Ace was nominated for twelve 2006 Kevin Kline Awards, winning six: Marie Anne Chiment, Outstanding Costume Design; Chris Akerlind, Outstanding Lighting Design; David Korins, Outstanding Set Design; John H. Shivers, David Patridge, Outstanding Sound Design; Richard Oberacker, Robert Taylor, Outstanding New Play or Musical; and Noah Galvin, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. It also won the Mickey Kaplan New American Play prize.
