This Day In History, The Goodspeed Opera House Opens

Goodspeed Musicals

The Opera House was originally built by a local merchant and banker, William Goodspeed. Construction began in 1876 and finished in 1877. Despite the name, it was not in fact an opera house, but rather a venue for presenting plays. Its first play, Charles II, opened on October 24, 1877. After William Goodspeed’s death, the opera house fell into disrepair, facing a series of less glamorous uses—from a militia base during World War I to a general store and a Department of Transportation storage facility.

The building is unique for a theater. The theater itself is actually located on the top two floors of the building making for interesting and sometimes difficult scenery and show load-ins. Scenery is loaded-in from the dock area up a vacant elevator shaft that is now outfitted with a winch system to haul the scenery up to the stage level. Much care has to be taken in order to get the scenery up the shaft without scratching or ruining the scenery. One story told around Goodspeed is that while loading in the scenery for Annie’s original pre-Broadway run at Goodspeed is that a strong gust of wind took a large piece of scenery out of the hands of the loaders and blew it into the Connecticut River.

Reopened June 8, 1963: Goodspeed Musicals was formed in 1959 by a group of concerned citizens after the state of Connecticut had condemned the building. The state agreed to sell the building to the group for one dollar, provided they acquire enough funding to restore and maintain it. The restoration project took nearly four years and the Goodspeed Opera House was rededicated on June 8, 1963. The first performance in the new opera house was Oh, Lady! Lady! Under the direction of Michael P. Price since 1968, Goodspeed Musicals has sent 19 productions to Broadway. Goodspeed productions have won more than a dozen Tony Awards, while Goodspeed Musicals itself has won two special Tonys, one for outstanding contributions to American Musicals and the other for outstanding achievement by a regional theatre.

Tours of many of the Goodspeed facilities can be scheduled in advance for a small fee. Tickets to the opera house or theatre productions should be ordered in advance as most performances in the relatively small theater sell-out quickly.

From the Hartford Courant, and Wikipedia

Mark Harmon, who stars in ABC’s NCIS, (my favorite TV Show) Special Agent Leroy Jethroy Gibbs is married to Actress Pam Dawber who started her career at the Goodspeed:

Actress Pam Dawber grew up in a suburb of Detroit. Her career began to take off when a friend who was going to New York suggested that Pam accompany her and bring along her modeling portfolio to show various New York modeling agents. A leading role in a stock production of a musical comedy called “Sweet Adeline” at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. ABC cast Pam as the female lead in Mork & Mindy (1978) with Robin Williams. From: IMPD http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001118/bio