Broadway star, city resident stars in ‘A Catered Affair’

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11:42 PM Thursday, September 1, 2011

By Eric Robinette

Staff Writer

LEBANON — Most people move from the community theater stage to the Broadway stage, not the other way around. But Dawn Stone, of Lebanon, has made the opposite, more unconventional move, and she loves it.

Stone, who has starred in “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway, stars in the Lebanon Theatre Company’s “A Catered Affair.” It plays Sept. 9-11 and 16-18 at the theater, at 10 S. Mechanic St.

The show, set in the 1950s, concerns a mother trying to give her daughter the huge wedding she never had for herself. The problem is, the daughter doesn’t want a big wedding because her fiancee’s family is poor. Also complicating matters is the fact that the bride’s father finally gets a chance to start his own business.

The story was made into a movie in 1956 starring Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine, and was adapted into a musical by Harvey Fierstein with music by John Bucchino. Stone plays the mother of the girl getting married.

A Lebanon native, Stone made her way to Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, then to the Broadway stage in “Phantom” and then to theaters in Europe, singing opera and playing “Phantom” there, as well. For family reasons, she moved back to Lebanon nine years ago, and now works as music teacher at Sycamore High School, and is more than happy to be on the LTC stage.

Although “A Catered Affair” is a musical, it’s not splashy and outsized like many shows are. The music often comes in subtly and doesn’t have that obvious “Here comes a song” moment, Stone noted.

“I love this show and I love my character. It’s real. It’s not razz matazzy,” she said.

She said she can relate to her character because, “She’s living her life. She’s not doing what she thought she would be doing, but she’s still doing it anyway.”

Stone can relate to that. She didn’t know her musical travels would take her where they did, but she loves how things turned out.

“It’s great. Community theater is a collaborative art, and you’re helping build a tradition,” she said.

Another actor in the show is Kelsey Celek, who plays the matron of honor in the wedding party.

“Even though it takes place in the ’50s, it’s still resonant in these economic times,” she said. “Even though the musical is smaller in scale, it’s bigger in relationships.”

Still, like most musicals, it lifts the spirit, Stone said.

“I love the music. It’s beautiful and it makes you cry, but it puts it back together in the end,” she said.

Tickets for the show cost $45 for the package that includes dinner at the Golden Lamb on  Sept. 9. Other showtimes are  8 p.m. Sept. 10, 16 and 17, and  2 p.m. Sept. 11-18.

How to go

What: “A Catered Affair”

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 9, 10, 16, 17; 2 p.m. Sept. 11-18.

Where: Lebanon Theatre Company, 10 S. Mechanic St.

Cost: $45 for Sept. 9 dinner at Golden Lamb, $18 for all other tickets. Call (513) 228-0932

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