The Regions - Goodspeed Opera House

The Regions

For the next month or so, we'll be visiting the web sites of major regional theatres. This week:

Goodspeed Opera House

The original Goodspeed Opera House facilities have survived a varied past. The Opera House itself was built in 1876 by shipping magnate William Goodspeed. Later it was pressed into duty as militia base, general store, and storage facilities for the Connecticut Highway Department. The Goodspeed Opera House Foundation was created to restore and oversee the theatre and in 1959 restoration was begun with a first new production opening in 1963. In addition, in 1982 Susan Bates, Inc. donated their old factory in Chester, CT to the Foundation. Two years later this new building opened as Goodspeed-at-Chester/The Norma Terris Theatre, "dedicated... to the development of new musicals."

Goodspeed has been the recipient of two special Tony Awards (1980 and 1995), and has seen a number of its production move on, including The Most Happy Fella, Take Me Along, Harrigan 'n Hart, Something's Afoot, Annie, Shenandoah and Man of La Mancha.

The 1999 season includes On the Twentieth Century, No, No, Nanette, and Glimmerglass. (Goodspeed-at-Chester's season has yet to be announced.)

The Goodspeed Web Site

The site is comparatively huge in relation to many regional theatres and maintained admirably by Kate Pacowta. A consistent navigation frame, located at the bottom of the window makes the site easy to traverse.

Although there is really nothing to let you know that there is a link hiding within, a button in the upper portion of the home page labelled New will get you to a listing of recent changes to the site as well as some recent press releases.

Goodspeed does not yet allow on-line purchasing of tickets, but on its Box Office page you will find basic seating charts, audience services, driving directions, and the Box Office phone number.

The Production Departments pages provide listing of staff, detailed specifications of the theatres and shops, addresses and phone numbers, and a listing of open positions in the departments. There's also a "Making of Finian's Rainbow" section, affording a glimpse backstage into the building of the physical elements of the show.

Managed by librarian Lisa Viall (with an advisory board of musical theatre luminaries), The Goodspeed Library of Musical Theatre (see the link entitled "Library") is known as one of the most extensive research facilities devoted to musical theatre. They maintain a massive collection of recordings, printed music, books, libretti, video cassettes, programs, photographs, and memorabilia - much of it donated by theatre professionals and collectors.

A Past Productions page (use the "Musicals" button) includes a chronological (backwards) listing of Goodspeed's shows, with links to pages of additional information for each show. The actual format for each of these additional pages is

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