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Being Earnest
Music by Paul Gordon and Jay Gruska
Book and Lyrics by Paul Gordon
www link
Type of Show
Full-length Musical
Performance Type
Live
Digital
Acts
2 acts
Duration
120 min
Performing Groups
Professional Theatre
Community Theatre
College/University
High School/Secondary
Cast Summary
Without doubling: 4f, 5m. With doubling: 4f, 3m.
Overview
Being Earnest, but wearing go-go boots.  Tony Nominee Paul Gordon and Grammy/Emmy nominee Jay Gruska have transformed Wilde's Victorian era play into a mod masterpiece set on Carnaby Street in 1965.  The score pays homage to the likes of The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, and The Bee Gees, while the script crackles with the witty Wilde-isms.  Will it make the local English teacher clutch their pearls, or Beatles-fan with delight?  It's anyone's guess...

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“Purists of the original classic will be scandalized."  – Talkin’ Broadway

You may want to see this one more than once before it takes Broadway by storm.  It's great fun, and great humor, and adds up to a terrific evening.” --  Mountain View Voice

“The songs are breezy and toe-tapping and often very successful at advancing the plot. The beauty in the songs also help give this a more mass appeal, reaching a larger audience than even the source material could.”  -- Examiner.com
Plot
An updated version of the Oscar Wilde Classic set in 1965 in the heart of Carnabey Street.  In the midst of a London buzzing with mod fashion, new music, and evolving ideas of morality, handsome, witty young friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff each find themselves adopting the pseudonym 'Ernest' for various complicated reasons. When the two women they court both confess to loving the name as much as the man and all four unexpectedly meet at Worthing’s country home under the disapproving eye of Lady Bracknell, one of theatre's most sharp-tongued dowagers, a wild comedy of romance and mistaken identities ensues.
Casting
Without doubling: 4f, 5m. With doubling: 4f, 3m.
Female Principals
2
Male Principals
2
Supporting Females
2
Supporting Males
3
ALGY
Principal
A young man in his 20s.
JACK
Principal
A young man in his 20s.
CECILY
Principal
A young woman in her 20s.
GWENDOLEN
Principal
A young woman in her 20s.
LADY BRACKNELL
Supporting
Gwendolen's mother.
MISS PRISM
Supporting
Cecily's tutor.
DR. CHASUBLE
Supporting
A vicar. Can be doubled with Land and Merriman.
LANE
Supporting
Algy's butler. Can be doubled with Chasubule and Merriman.
MERRIMAN
Supporting
The chauffeur. Can be doubled with Lane and Chasubule.
Uproar Theatrics 2024