Bourbon Street is coming to Loyola with a 1960’s twist.
Ricky Graham will present the world premiere of his comedy “The Money Box,” an original musical adaption of Moliere’s “The Miser.” The production features music by Loyola alumnu0s Jefferson Turner and lyrics by Graham Patterson and Sean Patterson.
The lead, theatre arts sophomore Bobby Cheramie, plays 60-year-old Midas Harpangon, who is obsessed with money. Harpangon’s love for money is so strong that he owns a Bourbon street club named The Money Box. He is so driven by his wealth that he wants to trick female character Rosalie into marrying him.
“The character that I’m pursuing to marry owns a property right next to my property. I’m hoping that if I marry her, I could obtain her property and make my club bigger and attain more money,” Cheramie said.
Cheramie auditioned for Harpangon because he thought his personality would be an interesting challenge.
“This character was the over-the- top character that made me want to try out for it. It’s extremely fun to play a character that’s absurdly big and out there,” Cheramie said.
The stage manager, theatre arts senior David Gold, said that rehearsals were filled with hysterical moments that were sometimes so funny it took everyone a while to get back to work.
“It’s a comedy, we are finding new jokes, and it’s being rewritten all the time to make things funnier and to make it stick,” Gold said.
Make-up designer Reiley Morgan wanted the hair and makeup to stay true to its time. The girls will have big bows and even bigger hair.
“It’s very to the time, but also very extreme, fun and kind of funky. We have wigs for the girls, so it’s going to be big up-do’s, big sixties hair flips and bump-its. We got really fun things to add to the hair for different numbers,” Morgan said.
Costume director Kellie Grengs said it’s difficult keeping up with the various shows, but the final results are worth it.
“It all turns into a blur after a while. It’s like what show am I working on, and who am I dressing. But at the end of the day, opening night comes, and it’s exciting for the students to see all their hard work, hot gluing and sewing all these things together. Then they see it under the lights and it all comes together magically,” Grengs said.
Grengs also raves about the finale number costumes and gives a glimpse of what to expect.
“Cha-cha skirts and cha-cha sleeves for our epic finale, and the sequins will capture the light and sparkle really nicely,” Grengs said.
Gold said that it shouldn’t be hard to convince people to come and that it’s going to be a good night for theatre.
“It’s a fun time, the music is great. I mean I hear the music all night every night, and I still go home humming and singing it. It gets stuck in your head, it’s catchy,” Gold said.
Diana Mirfiq can be reached at [email protected]
Theater freshman Akeem Biggs, theater freshman Gabriel McCulloch and theater freshman Ryan Williams work on lighting for “The Money Box.” The play makes its world debut March 8. (ZACH BRIEN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)
