BECKLEY, W.Va. — A cast and crew of about 60 are ready for the premiere of a long-waited musical at Grandview Park’s Cliffside Amphitheater in Raleigh County tonight.
Efforts from Theatre West Virginia to gain the rights to the 1992 film “Paradise Park” began about four years ago. Theatre West Virginia General Manager Scott Hill asked the story’s original writer and director Danny Boyd to turn it into a musical.
“We’ve been working this thing for the last three years heavy and it’s all come to pass this Friday at Grandview,” Hill told MetroNews affiliate WJLS. “So we’re really excited. We’ve got actors that have had 20 years of experience and actors that have had 20 weeks of experience.”
The film shares the story of an elderly woman in a West Virginia trailer park who dreams that God will come to their community and grant them all a wish. Ross Cline plays “Casey”, one of the leading roles in the musical. Casey also serves as the narrator of the story.
“He knows all of the dirt on everybody in Paradise Park,” said Cline. “He’s kind of like your tour guide around. He’s sort of knows everything about the characters and he’ll just get you on the inside.”
Cline is still new at acting, but was eager to accept one of the leading roles in “Paradise Park”. He said he was drawn to the story’s theme which resonates across West Virginia.
“I just really liked that scene of community. I think that’s just a good story for ‘Paradise Park’. Anyone who is community-driven or has a strong part of the community will get something out of this for sure.”
Hill added he admired Cline’s “homespun but quirky” personality when he first saw him perform in Woodrow Wilson High School’s “Wizard of Oz”. After several months of rehearsal, both agreed it will be rewarding to perform “Paradise Park” throughout the summer.
“If it was easy, everybody would do it. We’re excited to see what happens because it is nice to see actors when they come in, they’re reading someone else’s lines the first couple of days and then at some point in time the words become theirs. The words are still the same words in the same order, but it changes.”
The musical runs through July 1. More information on tickets, showtimes and “Paradise Park” can be found here.