PENSACOLA GARDEN STREET PLAYHOUSE (2007) - Independent News Feature Story

by Joani Delezen 

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON (a) hit touring musical set to open as debut performance at first professional regional theater on the Gulf Coast!

Nationally-known Director/Producer/Playwright/Composer & Stage Performer, GARY WALDMAN announced today that he, his longtime partner, JAMISON TROUTMAN and childhood best friend DAVID GERSON have signed a lease for a 4,000 square foot property on West Garden Street and that they are currently preparing to construct and open an off-Broadway style, professional theater in downtown Pensacola.

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON, the premiere production at this incredible new facility is set to open in just a few weeks, this coming January 30th.

 The theater will feature some of the best talent (performers and designers) from all over the World, from New York, California, Las Vegas, London and whomever is here on the Gulf Coast with the talent and experience to work on the professional stage.

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON 

at the Garden Street Playhouse, Pensacola (2008)

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SIMON stars KENNEY GREEN, returning from the original production of the show in Palm Beach and fresh from of-Broadway having just starred opposite Barry Williams (Greg BradyThe Brady Bunch) in Growing Up 70s. KENNEY is a performer in high-demand having worked with countless show business legends including Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Harolyn Blackwell, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marvin Hamlisch and Gladys Knight.

Also featured in SOUNDS OF SIMON will be Producing Artistic Director, GARY WALDMAN who also conceived, starred in and directed the original production. Gary will, once again, take the helm as Director as well as featured performer.

Well-known off-Broadway and touring performer MICHAEL INDEGLIO is also flying in from New York to add to a cast that also features two Pensacola local professionals:

CAMILLE PETRILLO, a highly accomplished musical theater star in her own right with a degree in Musical Theater from Alabama State University joins the cast along with KATRINA WASHINGTON who has performed in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Kenya. KATRINA is also founder and President of Guiding Youth to Success and Pretty in Pink a local program designed to empower youth academically and economically.

Waldman, 42, in the biz since childhood and Troutman, 30, who partnered with him ten years ago, moved to the Gulf Coast from Palm Beach earlier this year to produce their touring musical, I Write the Songs at the I.P. Casino in Biloxi. Having recently closed their longtime theater operation in West  Palm Beach, they fell in love with Pensacola, moved into a waterfront home in the Perdido Key area, and have been scoping out commercial properties since late June. Their original plan was to open a very small studio theater in which they would mount new musicals to tour nationwide after debuting to pocket-sized audiences downtown.

In October, Waldman, by total coincidence, reunited with his childhood best friend, David Gerson, also 42, now an independent businessman and professional social worker in rural Pennsylvania. Gerson, long wishing to carry on the traditions of his family (his maternal grandfather was a well-known New York City entrepreneur and one of the last formidable producers of the now bygone Yiddish Theater, once an entertainment staple of Second Avenue on the Big Apples lower East Side).

So now the project got a bit bigger. With the Saenger Theater closed for at least two seasons, Waldman and Troutman obviously recognized the dearth of professional live entertainment in the Panhandle areaand the Gulf Coast in general and have partnered with Gerson to open an actual, open to the public performance space. The tintimate space on West Garden  Street will feature 125 best seats in the house! Tickets are currently on sale for a mini-season Waldman has planned for the coming winter and spring.

Were opening with The Sounds of Simon, says Waldman of a musical he created three years ago with longtime musical collaborator Philip Hinton of Fort Lauderdale. We did a workshop production at our old theater in West  Palm Beach and it was one of the best things we ever did. Ive been waiting for an excuse to put up a fully developed production ever since. Waldman will also play one of the characters himself and direct the production based on the music of Paul Simon and the recordings of Simon & Garfunkel.

Following Simon will be The Last Session, a meaty off-Broadway and Los Angeles musical-comedy-dramatic hit that garnered almost every award imaginable in its big city runs yet has rarely been performed on the regional circuit.

Closing out the season will be the show that took Waldman and Troutman to the Gulf Coast in the first place, I Write the Songs. The show began as a musical tribute to master balladeer, Barry Manilow, but when originally produced by the team in 2003 at their theater in West Palm Beach, the show became such a phenomenon that Waldman developed it into a full-fledged rock opera and has been producing the show in city after city ever since.

Were actually putting it last in the season because we know it will probably extend through the entire summer! adds Waldman.

Also housed at 1625 Garden Street  West will be the new offices of Sandy Gee III Productions, Inc., Waldman, Troutman and Gersons new touring production company. Since the space will offer a full, state-of-the-art production facility for the off-Broadway style musicals the company produces, Pensacola may well be the original home of some of the futures HOTTEST SHOWS IN NEW YORK!    

WHAT:  THE SOUNDS OF SIMON  to open The Garden Street Playhouse
WHERE:  1625 Garden Street West (between I & J Streets), Pensacola, FL  32501
WHEN: The Sounds of Simon & playhouse Grand Opening, January 30th
CONTACT: GARY WALDMAN/JAMISON TROUTMAN, 850-438-9399
www.gardenstreetplayhouse.com