Scurry to Oak Harbor for 'Daddy Long Legs'

Go and fill the seats so that the Whidbey Playhouse Community Theatre will have another smash hit on their hands with “Daddy Long Legs” on the order of last winter’s “The Producers.” This musical is a literal love affair between leads Darren and Heather Good McCoy, as Jervis and Jerusha. Off stage they are married. Heather has a stage presence that is only partially from a winning smile that she flashes before and after tears. She sings sweetly, too.

The play, based on Jean Webster’s 1912 novel, has a very 21st century feel, but maybe feminism, whether “New American Woman” or not, and socialism are always rising hopes. The story is very old: secret benefactor helps poor forlorn orphan, sending her to college. She blossoms, matures, learns and yearns for love. With a two person cast it is no spoiler alert as to the outcome.

A third of the 30 songs are duets, and the McCoys sing over and under and with and against each other in every possible combination. This is not opera, but the play is as much sung as spoken. It is lively, and the music is live.

Darren is the show’s musical director. His day job is music teacher at Oak Harbor High School and he is the director of the Whidbey Community Chorus. He knows what he has produced.

The Playhouse’s production values keep increasing. The simple set is wonderful: a handful of 19h century trunks are strewn about the stage and luggage is ready to be picked up stage left. That wall has several giant, floor to ceiling sheets of kraft paper with cursive writing appropriately scaled filling every page. Jervis’ turn-of-that-century’s law office is stage right. Against the far wall is a wooden telephone. And the back stage effects looking out the bay window, with snow and clouds is well done. Credit co-director Cynthia Kleppang, sharing directing with Doug Langrock, for the set concept. They keep the pace fast and the action moving forward, too.

The set crew gets kudos for execution.

Jerusha opens in song, lamenting that she is the “Oldest Orphan in the John Grier Home.” She is the smartest and the most sensitive, too. Jervis comes to his office, in darkness and with his back to the audience, a nice touch. He is not introduced, lit up, until the third number, the duet, “Mr. Girl Hater,” as the naïve, guessing Jerusha projects several fantasies on her benefactor,dubbed Daddy Long Legs.

Suffice it to say that Jervis has fantasies of his own. Ideas and imagination do that. Letter writing with paper and stamps, waiting for its arrival. holding it, rereading it, and tacking it to the bookcase has romanticism to it that is not just on the stage. The duo sing many of the letters, moving the action forward more in words than deeds.

Jervis, who hides as “Mr. Smith,” has the upper hand. That he types instructions to Jerusha, is delicious, as is her willful disobedience as she matures into a college senior.

A play like this can only end well, and it does. Credit John Caird for the book and Paul Gordon for the music and lyrics. The 2008 musical has played New York, but perhaps not Broadway. It is well worth the drive to Oak Harbor. It runs Sept. 7-23, Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: 360-679-2237 or [email protected].