“If you’ve come to curse your fate, or start to date at forty-eight. If you sleep through football recaps or if you’ve blown out both your kneecaps. If you still like Chuck Berry, if your ears are very hairy, welcome to mid-life!”- The cast of Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical.
Thinning hair, growing waistlines, ticking biological clocks, frequent doctor visits: ah, the joys of middle age. This cast of six explores the humorous side of aging. This series of musical numbers and vignettes is brash, honest, refreshing, and inventively silly.
Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical opened on February 3, 2006, at The Chanhassen Dinner Theaters, produced by Thomas Scallen. The show was directed by Michael Brindisi, choreographed by Heidi Spesard-Noble and musical direction was by Thomas Mustachio.
About the Playwrights: Bob Walton & Jim Walton
Bob Walton: Bob Walton and his brother, Jim, co-wrote and performed in My Brother’s Keeper, which received the 1997 Bistro Award for best musical, as well as Double Trouble (A Musical Tour de Farce). Their most recent collaboration is Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical, which had its 2006 world premiere at The Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Minnesota. Bob was co-author of the critically acclaimed Off Broadway play Game Show and has directed the play in Atlantic City and Toronto. As an actor in New York, Bob has appeared as Bert Barry in the revival of 42nd Street, The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, Once Upon A Mattress, Show Boat, City of Angels, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back and Preppies. He has many regional and stock credits, including Crazy for You, The Pajama Game and Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum at The Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park and the St. Louis Repertory Theater. Bob sang and played piano in the feature film After The Storm (starring Benjamin Bratt) and was seen on the TV shows Law and Order: SVU, Hope and Faith, Newhart, Eisenhower and Lutz, Pro's and Cons and Picket Fences. Married to Laurie Walton, they have two children: Emily and Alexander, and their dog, Zangler.
Jim Walton: Jim Walton has written with his brother, Bob, since 1991 when they wrote and performed in, My Brother’s Keeper, originally a Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit. This show later played the Pasadena Playhouse and several other regional theaters. Jim and Bob went on to collaborate on a two-actor musical, Double Trouble, in which they performed at Goodspeed at Chester and Stage One in Wichita, Kansas. This led to their creation of Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical which, along the way to its production at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, has starred notables such as Beth Leavel, Pam Myers and Michelle Pawk. Jim also appeared with Bob in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 (revival) for Encore Presentations. His Broadway credits as an actor include: The Music Man (2000 revival), Sweeney Todd (1989 revival), 42nd Street and Merrily We Roll Along, among others. Off-Broadway credits are: And The World Goes ‘Round, Closer Than Ever and Scrambled Feet. Jim also starred as ‘Bobby Child’ in Crazy For You, ‘Young Buddy’ in Follies: In Concert and as a principal in The All Night Strut, all taped by PBS. He has performed in countless musicals across the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Jim was born in Tachikawa, Japan, raised in Marion, Indiana and graduated from the University of Cincinnati's, College-Conservatory of Music. -- www.theatre3dallas.com
