'Cheaper By The Dozen' to open in Huron

Father (Geoff Stephenson of Huron, Ohio) and Mother (Brittany Kvitko of Philadelphia) in the Huron Playhouse production of 'Cheaper By The Dozen.' The play will run Tuesday through July 9 at the McCormick School on Ohio Street in Huron. Curtain time is 8 p.m.

HURON, Ohio -- Take a family of 12 children and add parents who are efficiency experts, and you have a recipe for laughter when the result is Cheaper by the Dozen, opening Tuesday at the Huron Playhouse as the second show of its summer season.

The first show of the season, Beguiled Again: The Songs of Rodgers and Hart, continues at 8 nightly through Saturday.

Adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel from the 1948 book by Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen is based on the true adventures of the Gilbreth family. Set during the early 1900s, the play recounts many of the incidents in the family's life when Frank and Lillian Gilbreth tested their efficiency theories on their large family.

Featured in the cast are Geoff Stephenson and Brittany Kvitko as the parents; playing the children are Derek Brookens, Hunter Cawthorne, Paige Graham, Ruby Grammatico, Evan Hoffman, Rachel Hull, Layne Schneider, Graeme Schwartz, and Cassie Shane. (Some of the children are babies and are only mentioned in the show.)

Matthew Martello of Pinckney, Mich., is directing.

"Beguiled Again" continues through Saturday, and "Cheaper by the Dozen" opens Tuesday and runs through July 10 in the Huron Playhouse in the McCormick School, 325 Ohio St., Huron, Ohio, about 65 miles southeast of Toledo. Tickets are $16 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, and $12 for children 11 and younger. Information: 419-433-4744.

Findlay musical

FINDLAY -- The University of Findlay continues its SummerStock season with Bye Bye Birdie.

The musical comedy by Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams is set in the 1950s, when Conrad Birdie, a teen singing idol, is drafted into the Army.

His legions of fans are horrified, and playing on this, Birdie's managers set up a publicity stunt: a contest wherein the winner will be invited to The Ed Sullivan Show to receive a kiss from Birdie.

This sets up conflicts between parents and teenagers, teen sweethearts, and even Birdie's managers, who are desperately scheming to come up with one more hit song for Birdie so they can afford to retire to a normal life together.

The original Broadway production opened on Broadway in 1960 and was nominated for eight Tony awards, winning four, including best musical.

Rounding out the UF SummerStock season will be The Drowsy Chaperone July 20-24.

"Bye Bye Birdie" opens at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Egner Center for the Performing Arts on the Findlay campus, about 45 miles south of Toledo. Additional shows are at 8 p.m. July 7-9 and 2 p.m. July 10. Tickets are $15 from the university box office. Information: 419-434-5335.

Contact Nanciann Cherry at: ncherry@theblade.com or 419-724-6130.