CANDIDE

June 1 – 30, 2001 – Bryant Lake Bowl Cabaret Theater

Music – Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics – John Latouche, Richard Wilbur & Stephen Sondheim
Book – Hugh Wheeler
Based on the Book by – Voltaire

Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is one of the greatest musicals of all time!  In one lightening-paced act, the hapless bastard cousin Candide is expelled from home, drafted into the Bulgarian army, brought before the Spanish Inquisition, swindled out of a fortune, and shipwrecked on a desert island before he discovers the road to happiness.  Time and again he is separated from his true love Cunegonde, but through it all Candide remembers the lesson of his dear master Dr. Pangloss: “Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”

Director / Choreographer – Steven Meerdink
Musical Director – Kevin Hansen

Cast
Candide – James Hanson
Cunegonde – Maureen Cassidy
Maximilian – Paul Whittemore
Paquette – Crystal Manik
Old Lady – Greta Grosch
Pangloss – Steven Meerdink
Ensemble – Laurie Etchen
Ensemble – Kevin Hansen
Ensemble – Eric Johnson
Ensemble – Susan Nickel
Ensemble – Ryan Quale
Ensemble – Tiffany Seymour

“Candide is full of fun!  What a delight when MMT pulls a jewel from the attic and gives it a fresh production.  Director Steven Meerdink steers right into the humor and his actors follow with gusto and surety.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Clocking in at a breathless 90 minutes, this Candide is a hurly-burly whose guiding philosophy seems to be ‘It isn’t done till it’s overdone.’  Director Steven J. Meerdink cuts loose with a giddy staging that’s flamboyant in its own low-budget way.  This is a show that seldom misses an opportunity for a visual gag, clever in its own right and judicious in borrowing from other sources (Madonna videos, the movieTitantic).  Candide has always been about its score, and under the direction of Kevin Hansen, this ensemble hits most of the emotional high marks in the music, whether they be silly or sublime.” – St. Paul Pioneer Press