Set at a Catskills resort in 1960, this is the sweetly comic story of Lois and Marge, two friends from Brooklyn in search of good times and romance over one wild Labor Day weekend. The score showcases 18 Neil Sedaka classics, including Where the Boys Are, Sweet Sixteen, Calendar Girl, Stupid Cupid, Solitaire and, of course, Breaking Up is Hard to Do!
‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ a light entertainment at Golden Apple By Susan Rife, Herald-Tribune
Stay focused on the silly friendship between Marge Gelman and Lois Warner at a Catskills resort in the 1906s, and you’re likely to find “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” pretty easy to take.
The two young women, played by Sarah Cassidy and Alana Opie in the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s production of a musical built around the songs of Neil Sedaka, are at Esther’s for a Labor Day weekend that was supposed to be Marge’s honeymoon before she was left at the altar (hence the title). There, they meet the dashing crooner Del Delmonico (Brian Minyard), headliner at Esther’s; his sidekick Harvey (Steve Carroll) and Esther’s nerdy, shy assistant Gabe (Robby May). Love will be found again in easy-to-anticipate pairings (you don’t really think Del’s going to fall for Marge…do you?).
Brian Minyard, Helen Holliday and Robby May in "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" at the Golden Apple.
The music is as light and frothy as the foam on a cherry Coke, built around Sedaka’s hits like “Where the Boys Are,” “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,” “Stupid Cupid”, “Calendar Girl” and “Love Will Keep Us Together.”
Probably the brightest light in the show comes from Alana Opie as Lois, a bit of a ditz who speaks in malapropisms as she tries to distract Marge from a broken heart with “a weekend of whitefish, mah-jongg and boys.” The two girls’ voices fit sweetly together on “Where the Boys Are” and “My Friend.”
Minyard has the right moves to play Delmonico, but his voice, previously appreciated in such Golden Apple shows as “Johnny Guitar,” “Carnival,” “Urinetown” and “Bingo, the Musical,” seemed thin and uninspired Thursday night. The music itself threatens to overwhelm with saccharinity, if not given more of a vocal punch.
Steve Carroll works up some nice chemistry with his “boss,” Esther (Helen Holliday) in “Next Door to an Angel” and “King of Clowns.” And Robby May brings a sweet bumbling style to Gabe, especially in his solo, “Laughter in the Rain.”
Musicians Berry Ayers, Don Sturrock and John Januszewski provide solid underpinning to the singing.
‘‘Breaking Up’ scores a hit at the Golden Apple By Steven J. Smith
Theatre Critic
SCENE Magazine
Esther’s Paradise, a 1960s Catskills resort falling on hard times, is the setting for this delightful, inventive little musical that features 18 unforgettable Neil Sedaka tunes. Esther (Helen Holliday) needs $8,000 to resurrect the place and keep her star performers Del (Brian Minyard) and Harvey (Steve Carroll, a.k.a. your humble reviewer) entertaining the crowds. Meanwhile, Gabe (Robby May), a talented songwriter, languishes in Del’s shadow ghostwriting his songs as Marge (Sarah Cassidy) and her best friend Lois (Alana Opie) look for some excitement and a new lease on life after Marge was left standing at the altar.
Can money be raised to save the resort? Will Marge ever find true love? Will Gabe’s talents get recognized? Will Del score an undeserved shot on “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark? You can see the answers coming from miles away, but there is absolutely no way you’ll leave the theatre without a smile on your face and plenty of hummable tunes in your head.
Aside from the title song, the score features such Sedaka classics as “Where The Boys Are,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Solitaire,” “Laughing In The Rain,” “Love Will Keep Us Together,” and many, many more — admirably performed by the talented and engaging cast — all under the lighthearted direction of Kyle Ennis Turoff and musical director Berry Ayers. The show is as satisfying as a chocolate malted served up by a soda jerk at your favorite 1960s drugstore. And Sedaka’s songs are classics because they blissfully celebrate the simple joys of life and love. Don’t miss this show for a tuneful, fun-filled stroll down memory lane!
Already enjoying brisk ticket sales, “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” has just been extended through Feb. 26. Following that is the triumphant return of “Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom” — a sassy, brassy, irreverent musical revue that pokes fun at Disney’s heroines — that runs from Feb. 28 through March 25. And just announced is “Oliver!” which opens on March 27 and will run through May 5. For more info log on to www.thegoldenapple.com or call the box office at 941-366-5454.
‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’ at the Golden Apple By Kay Kipling, Sarasota Magazine
For anyone who’s ever been to the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, and for anyone who’s read about their recent financial woes, it was comforting to see an almost full house the other night at their current production, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do. It gives Apple fans some hope for the future.
But Breaking Up is not about the future; it’s a fond look at the past—1960, to be exact—when the Catskill resort scene was in reasonably good health and songwriter Neil Sedaka ruled the airwaves. As you can tell from the show’s title, it’s Sedaka’s music that fills this light, frequently entertaining piece (with book by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters), which follows the misadventures of two girls over one Labor Day weekend at Esther’s Paradise in upstate New York.
Marge (Sarah Cassidy), a bespectacled aspiring dentist, is supposed to be there on her honeymoon, but she got dumped at the altar and so her friend Lois (Alana Opie), who’s loyal if not too bright, is along for the pre-paid trip, trying to cheer Marge up by introducing her to the resort’s lounge singer lizard, Del Delmonico (Brian Minyard). Not only does Del believe he’s God’s gift to women, he thinks he’s going to make it big in show biz when a scout from American Bandstand turns up at Esther’s. But, in the very slight number of plot complications the show allows, Del’s nerdy cousin Gabe (Robby May) may get in the way of his plans.
Round out the character list with the resort owner (Helen Holliday), who’s long widowed but just may be the apple of someone’s eye, that of club comic Harvey (Steve Carroll). Will anyone get the gal or guy of their dreams? Will Esther’s survive hard times? And will someone be on their way to stardom?
Those questions are answered in the course of the two-hour (with intermission) show, which bears a plethora of both well-known and perhaps lesser-known Sedaka tunes, from Where the Boys Are to Calendar Girl toStupid Cupid. It’s directed with an eye and ear for getting the most laughs by Kyle Ennis Turoff, and the cast is up to that task.
It’s also true that the actors’ voices, for the most part, are better suited to traditional musical theater than pop tunes, and at least one cast member (Minyard) wasn’t in best voice the night I attended (sounded like colds and flu season in the audience, too). One also can’t help wishing for more of a band to fill out the sound we remember of these hit songs.
Still, there are some good renditions, especially Laughter in the Rain and the show closer, Love Will Keep Us Together. And there’s no doubt the evening will summon up musical memories for audiences of baby boomer age and beyond.
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do continues through Feb. 26; call 366-5454 or go to thegoldenapple.com for tickets.
‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’ at the Golden Apple By Marie J. Kilker TotalTheater.com
It’s the ‘60s. Left at the altar, Marge finds “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” so best friend Lois persuades her to get away and forget. They eschew any “Lonely Night” by booking an end-of-season stay in a Catskills resort “Where the Boys Are” -- Esther’s Paradise.
Esther’s egotistical nightclub star Del croons “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” to all ages of appreciative gals. He’s really aiming to impress an incognito scout from “American Bandstand.” Lois mistakenly acts as a “Stupid Cupid” between him and Marge. Actually, Marge attracts Gabe, secretly the writer of the songs that make Del a success.
While Del pretends Marge is a dream like “Betty Grable,” Harvey, the resort’s “King of Clowns,” hankers after Helen Holliday’s nice, attractive Esther. In her presence he feels “Next Door to an Angel,” and it may be that she needs more than a widow’s memories of marriage.
When disenchanted Marge thinks she may be headed for a “Solitaire” life, Gabe and she share “Laughter in the Rain.” After a number of relationships and discoveries of “Bandstand”-worthy talent get straightened out, all can sing “Love Will Keep Us Together.”
With appropriate musical backing, the cast does justice to Neil Sedaka’s songs. Sarah Cassidy’s Marge matures nicely, and Alana Opie shows Lois is as worthy an entertainer as a friend. That Brian Minyard rightly infuses Del with a satiric ego doesn’t mean his songs aren’t good to hear.
Robby May evokes sympathy for Gabe. As the comic so old-fashioned that he was playing “when the Dead Sea was only sick,” Steve Carroll keeps the audience laughing at but always liking him.
The Golden Apple has an established fine record of producing juke box musicals. Director/choreographer Kyle Ennis Turoff isn’t “Breaking Up” that record in the least staging Sedaka’s songs.
‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’ at the Golden Apple
By Kim Cool
Venice Gondolier
It was nice to see a nearly full house once again at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre in Sarasota.
The occasion was opening night of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," which features the songs of Neil Sedaka in a love story light format that takes place in a Catskills resort showroom run by Esther Simovitz (Helen Holliday), with Harvey Feldman (Steve Carroll) as the resident emcee.
The operative words are Catskills resort. Del Delmonico (Brian Minyard) has been promoted from pool boy to the lead singer in the resort’s dinner show, and resort guests Marge Gelman (Sarah Cassidy) and Lois Warner (Alana Opie) end up as his female back-up singers for different reasons. Delmonico got his promotion mostly because of the songs he supposedly composed but, as it turns out, they are the work of Gabe Green (Robby May). That Gabe also is a better singer is another key to the potential outcome of this story told in song.
Carroll, who is best known locally for his one-man show, The Lone Eagle," about Charles Lindbergh, brings a wealth of talent honed on national television, in film and the Great White Way to his role in "Breaking Up." The result is an endearing portrayal of a sad clown character who loves from afar.
Minyard is so bad he is good as the no-talent guy who is getting by on his looks and another man’s talent. That was no easy task, for Minyard actually can sing but had to portray someone who is a bit off key.
Alana Opie makes her Apple debut as Lois. She has performed at The Players and the Glen Ridge. Hopefully she will become an Apple regular.
Cassidy actually has real Catskill experience, which she brings to the show, and Holliday has plenty of cabaret experience, which comes in handy for this part.
In addition to the title song, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," there are such hits of the ’50s and ’60s as "Where the Boys Are," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," "Stupid Cupid," "Calendar Girl," "Laughter in the Rain," "Stairway to Heaven" and "Love Will Keep Us Together."
Directed by Kyle Ennis Turoff, "Breaking Up" is filled with fun and even a bit of audience participation that uncovers some rare talents. The book for "Breaking Up" was written by Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters. The music was by Neil Sedaka with lyrics by Sedaka, Howard Greenfield and Philip Cody.
For tickets and performance days and times, call the box office at 941-652-0920 or 800-652-0920. A buffet dinner by Chef Caldwell is included with tickets for this show.
Coming up next is a reprise of "Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom," an award-winning musical on its way to Broadway. The story is about the fairy tale princesses and their complaints about the way they have been treated in the Disney theme parks.
'Breaking Up is Hard to Do' offers a sweet, slice of escapist nostalgia at the Golden Apple
Bradenton Herald
Especially if you grew up in, or have perhaps idealized, an Eisenhower-era of innocent romance that probably never existed.
The Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s production of the Neal Sedaka-celebrating jukebox musical from 2005 has barely enough of a book by Ben H. Winters and Erik Jackson to connect the 18 songs:
"Where the Boys Are", "Sweet Sixteen", "Calendar Girl", “Love Will Keep Us Together,” and, of course, the chart-topping title tune, just to name a few.
Charming performances, particularly by Sarah Cassidy (as Marge Gelman) and Robby May (Gabe Green) also greatly help goose along the paper-thin plot about Lois (Alana Opie) and Marge.
It’s 1960 and Marge just got dumped so the two friends go to a low-rent Catskill resort for the Labor Day weekend in search of love.
Or at least fun.
Aspiring singer Marge falls for house crooner Del Delmonico (Brian Minyard) before realizing he’s a phony and nerd Gabe is the one who really has the goods.
It’s one of those plot points that announces itself from about six numbers away but works thanks to the chops of Cassidy and May.
Meanwhile, manager Esther Simowitz (Helen Holliday) and veteran stand-up comic/emcee Harvey Feldman (Steve Carroll) engage in a wonderful war of words and barely hidden romance. Their verbal jabs are true treats as is their stirring second act duet of “King of Clowns.”
In the end, everybody in the cast happily sings “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the song Sedaka co-wrote with Howard Greenfield in 1973 that became a mega hit for The Captain and Tennille a couple years later.
It’s a silly love song, and the show is far from substantial but it’s hard not to walk away feeling a bit uplifted by “Breaking Up is Hard to Do.”
