The Double-Threat Trio

Trevor Hennigan as Kenny

Trevor Hennigan is beyond thrilled to be returning to Broadway Rose after nearly a decade away! He was previously seen at Broadway Rose in Cats and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Trevor holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and a master’s degree at Pacific University in teaching special education. He is currently a special education and drama teacher in the Portland area and is so grateful for the opportunity to begin performing again. He sends all his love and gratitude to his family and new husband Jeremy.

 

Margo Schembre as Millicent

An Alaskan native, Margo studied opera at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has been seen throughout the Bay Area in musical theatre and operetta. After escaping California, she has been seen here at Broadway Rose as General Cartwright in Guys & Dolls, and in the cast of The Sound of Music and The Music Man. With Enlightened Theatrics in Salem, she was Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show. Her first love are the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and she’s performed with Opera on The Bluff in Portland as Buttercup in H.M.S Pinafore, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, and Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard. Locally she has also worked with Lakewood Theatre Company as Madame Blutovsky in The Ghost of David Belasco. Favorite roles in San Francisco include Aldonza (Man of La Mancha), The Baker’s Wife (Into the Woods), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Lizzie (110 in the Shade), and Marian (The Music Man).

 

Galen Schloming as Jamison

Broadway Rose Theatre Company: Ensemble, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Lakewood Theatre Company: Shakespeare, Something Rotten. Oregon Cabaret Theatre: John Watson, Baskerville; Anthony, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Brad Majors, The Rocky Horror Show. Pacific Conservatory Theatre: Mrs. Bumbrake/Teacher, Peter and the Starcatcher; Paco (u/s Don Quixote), Man of La Mancha; Quartet/Ensemble (u/s Pickering), My Fair Lady. The Marriott Theatre: Nathan Anderson, Shenandoah. The Shedd Institute: Tom Trainor, No No Nanette; Dick Trevor, Lady Be Good; Marcellus Washburn, The Music Man. Central Coast Shakespeare: Mercutio, Romeo & Juliet. Sierra Repertory Theatre: Superintendent, The Drowsy Chaperone. Camelot Theatre: Billy Lawlor, 42nd Street; Cain/Japheth, Children of Eden.

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Leah Yorkston as Nina

Leah Yorkston is back on the Broadway Rose stage after spending the summer playing Marie the fairy godmother in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. You may have also seen her as The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, Maria in The Sound of Music, the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, all at the Broadway Rose. Other favorite roles: Marian (The Music Man), Janet (The Rocky Horror Show), Tilly (Melancholy Play), and Betty Haynes (White Christmas). She also appeared in IFC’s Documentary Now! episode, “Original Cast Album: Co-Op.” Leah is a voice teacher and a member of the teaching staff at Resound NW. More at: www.LeahYorkston.com.

Directed and Choreographed by
Dan Murphy

Music Direction by
Lissa Halsinger

Scenic Design by
Raef Wheaton

Costume Design by
Samantha Kuester

Lighting Design by
Jeff Forbes

Sound Design by
Brian Karl Moen

Prop Design by
Sam Manilla

Stage Manager
Jessica Junor

Piano
Lissa Halsinger

Percussion
Mitch Wilson

Adam Overett, the creator of The Double-Threat Trio, is a writer and performer of musical theatre who has appeared on Broadway and around the world. Staffer Dani Wright sat down with Adam recently to learn more about the story behind this new madcap musical.

What was your inspiration for writing The Double-Threat Trio?
I was on tour with Dirty Dancing in which I played a speaking character role (not dancing). I wrote a song for a fundraiser we were doing that was called “An Actor Who Sings,” that was basically making fun of myself for being able to act and sing but not dance. Then I wrote another song about a singer who can move but can’t act, and a song about a dancer who can’t sing. At first I thought these could be a fun trio of songs that worked as a cabaret idea, but then I realized there was a story in there, and I wanted to see what happened if these three characters actually got together. I added a fourth character who would do all the other jobs in making a show – she would literally wear all the different hats, because we in theatre know that’s often how theatre gets made anyway. And that’s how it began. It’s definitely grown so much along the way, starting from just a couple one-off songs that resulted in a full book musical. And none of the original trio of songs are actually in the show ­– except one of them morphed into the opening number “Actor/Singer/Dancer” where they’re all represented.

When did you start writing The Double-Threat Trio?
I wrote that original song in 2009, but it didn’t start developing as a show in earnest for a while. The first read through was in 2016, and I developed it over the course of 2017. Then Mark Fleischer from Pittsburgh CLO was looking to develop small cast shows of five and under and this was a cast of four, so I sent him the script, and it was accepted for the Pittsburgh CLO SPARK festival of new musicals. We had a three week workshop putting the show up, getting it on its feet, doing a lot of staging, and a bit of props – the show changed a bunch in those three weeks. Then we did another weeklong workshop later in the year, and The Double-Threat Trio had its premiere in 2019. I never really thought at the beginning of all this when I was writing a song for fun, that it would eventually turn into this story that I’ve come to enjoy working with people on.

Do you see yourself in any of these characters?
In a way I see myself in all of them, including Millicent, the multi-hat character. But I think I probably most identify with Jamison, the actor who sings, because I’ve been an actor and singer for most of my life, but I’ve just never been a trained dancer. So if there’s a hole in my personal triple-threat crown, that’s it. Jamison is the character who struggles the most with his insecurity in not having that third talent. They all do – they all have a sense of this third thing that they don’t do very well, and for each of them it’s something they are scared of for some reason.

How do you write? What comes first?
I would say story comes first, because I know that everything has to serve the story or it will get tossed aside. When I’m working on a show from the ground up, it usually bubbles up in terms of individual moments and ideas – what if that happened? What if there was a character who did this? What would that lead to? I develop the story first because ultimately the music, lyrics, and dialogue need to serve that story. It’s definitely not a linear process, but I do try to get to know the story and the characters as well as I can before I try to do much specific writing.

How did you start out in theatre?
I think the first thing I wanted to do was be a paleontologist when I was about three, because I was obsessed with dinosaurs. After that I somehow found music and stories. My mother said I would listen to records for hours a day. I started learning how to play the piano and singing in a children’s choir in Denver, Colorado where I grew up. I was always reading and writing stories. I read Narnia and Oz and I really loved inventing and living in totally different worlds. I also did a lot of poetry writing as a kid because I loved rhyming and meter and structure, and that would ultimately make its way into writing lyrics for songs. I remember I was in a first grade music class and we learned a Halloween song and I went home and scribbled out pages of new lines that we could sing. When I brought it back to my teacher she said, “Maybe you should be a lyricist, do you know what that is?” All my teachers knew when I was pretty young, that this was what I wanted to do. I loved music and stories from a really young age and as I got older it all started to coalesce – I wanted to tell stories through music. I started acting and singing and writing. I went to school and studied literature and music, and I came to New York as an actor, singer, and writer, trying to do it all. I’ve always been very passionate about telling stories through music.

What would you say has been your most challenging theatre project?
When I joined the company of a The Light in the Piazza on Broadway back in 2006, it was my Broadway debut, and you would think that was every person’s dream! I was terrified. Of course, there was joy, too. I was surrounded by incredible performers I had so much respect for, and I was going in as an understudy, and I had to learn so much and be ready with it on a moment’s notice without the normal rehearsal process actors usually get. It was a very scary but incredibly rewarding challenge – to date it’s still the most exciting job I’ve had and the best role I’ve played, Fabrizio, and it gave me a ton of respect for understudies. They are incredible.

What’s something you wish you had known when you were trying to get started in theatre?
Something that I wish I’d known even earlier than I did, is to be yourself, to be proud of yourself, and to follow the thing that lights you up. People aren’t looking for you to do things right, they’re looking for you to do you. In my first auditions as a young actor I was trying to nail the part or get just the right accent or go into an audition and convince the people that I was going to do just what they were looking for, but they want you to bring yourself to this process and that’s where you’re going to find the greatest fulfillment anyways, when you’re bringing your own joy to the work. It’s also the only thing that you can do that no one else can, to bring your unique perspective, your unique voice, your unique point of view ­– and it can take a while to even figure out what that means. What do I have to say that hasn’t been said or that is new and different? That line from Sunday in the Park with George is very apt – “I’ve nothing to say…that’s not been said,” and the response is, “Said by you, though” – people want to hear from you. It can be a lifelong journey finding that voice, letting it come out, but it really is what people look for. As a writer that’s my central theme: that people learning that who they are, including all their flaws, is what people really want from them. I have a lot of characters trying to be a certain way in order to gain access or acceptance or to move in the world, because they think that’s how they’re supposed to do it, and what they have to go through is to learn that to be authentically themselves is what will bring them that connection they’re looking for.

What is your favorite musical?
There are so many that l love to death, and it’s so hard to pick one ­­– Into the Woods, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ­– basically Sondheim’s whole cannon has been very influential. I think West Side Story has an absolutely glorious score, and there are so many colors to being human that are found in a Sondheim show – it’s the truth and depth of his characters and his wit that I love. Some of the classic shows like Gypsy and Fiddler on the Roof have different elements that make a dream musical. I love the soaring melodic magnificence of Alan Menken in Disney musicals like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King. I’m also influenced by some opera ­– Mozart and Puccini. One day I want to teach a college course on “St Matthew Passion” by Bach being one of the greatest examples of musical storytelling that we have. My dream musical is one that unites all of these different elements, and that’s what I’m always trying to write.

Any upcoming projects you’d like to mention?
I’m working on remounting and creating another production of my show, My Life Is a Musical. I’m also writing the score for a movie musical with humans and puppets, and putting together a 3-person musical that is a fantastical comedic ghost story love letter to classic theatre.

If you weren’t in musical theatre what do you think you’d be doing?
I would probably be trying to be a Supreme Court justice. I have a lifelong passion and interest in constitutional law and interpretation.

What do you want audience members to take away from The Double-Threat Trio?
I hope the audience laughs like crazy. I hope they have a great time. I hope they fall in love with this team of people, this family of characters, and that they come away with the idea that we all have flaws and insecurities. We all have things that we are afraid to do. We all try to be perfect and make everything work out, but really the best way we can do that is to put aside the insistence on perfection, and jump in.

The Double-Threat Trio is suitable for most theatergoers, however audience discretion is advised. Some adult language. Strobe light effects will be used during this show.

Click here for our pre-viewing guide for sensory- and content-sensitive patrons (PDF).

I first heard of The Double-Threat Trio when our Marketing Director Alan Anderson and I attended the National Alliance for Musical Theatre conference in Pittsburgh in 2017, hosted by Pittsburgh CLO. The conference coincided with the SPARK festival, a weekend featuring productions of new musicals including a reading of the hilarious new work The Double-Threat Trio. We decided to keep this show in mind for future seasons. SPARK is also where we found another delightful new musical – Up and Away, which we produced in 2020. Thank you, Pittsburgh CLO!

As we were putting together our 2024 season, I revisited The Double-Threat Trio script and found myself laughing out loud as I read it. I contacted Adam Overett, the composer, lyricist, and book writer. Adam couldn’t have been more gracious and affable as we worked together to put everything in place for us to open our 33rd season with his show.

Everyone attending musical theatre can appreciate a triple-threat – someone who can act, sing, and dance! But when each character lacks one of these skills, hilarity ensues. At Broadway Rose, we put together each season with a goal to feature a mixture of classics, contemporary, and newer works, offering a little something for everyone. Thank you for joining us for this witty new production The Double-Threat Trio.

– Dan Murphy