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Big River: Theatre for Young Audiences Edition

Adapted for a smaller cast performing for today's young audiences, this version of Twain's timeless classic, propelled by Roger Miller's award-winning score, sweeps down the mighty Mississippi in a brilliantly theatrical celebration of friendship against all odds.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Musical
  • Adaptations (Literature), Comedy
  • 75 minutes

  • Time Period: 19th Century
  • Target Audience: Appropriate for all audiences
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings

  • Performance Group:
  • High School/Secondary

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! Seven Tony Awards including Best Musical (1985)
    Winner! Seven Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Music Lyrics and Orchestration (1985)
Newly revised adaptation designed for a smaller cast performing for today's young audiences! Ideal for teen actors.

With the support of over 100 consensus organizers (individuals and organizations serving the Black community), this revision of Broadway’s Tony-winning musical will lift your spirit. The small-cast, hour-long version of Mark Twain’s celebrated novel has removed offensive language and expanded the role of Jim, now the same age as Huck.

Twain’s classic sweeps audiences down the mighty Mississippi as the irrepressible Huck Finn helps his friend Jim, an enslaved teen, escape to freedom from enslavement. This tale of friendship against all odds is recreated for young audiences as two best friends demonstrate the power young people have to change the world.
REVIEWS:

"Expertly crafted... this heartwarming, entertaining adaptation has an important, empowering message for all who watch."

DC Theatre Scene

"Condensing the 1985 Tony Award-winning musical down to a brisk 70 minutes, this world premiere revisal takes a few artistic liberties to help reshape it into a piece for the young and young at heart. Happily, the results are engaging from start to finish... Huckleberry Finn’s Big River has enlightened the story and characters to make it even more contemporary... The creators have succeeded in fashioning a version of Twain’s American classic that sings with a renewed voice, celebrating personal freedom for all. I expect this TYA version of the musical will have a long life outside of Glen Echo as other theatres seek to produce stories that echo the diversity of our times."

DC Theatre Scene

"Brings new perspective to a classic novel... For those who may have been discouraged from reading the classic story of Huck Finn, this Big River is a thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining way to engage with the big ideas in Twain's indictment of slavery and the white culture that profited from it... In order to bring Twain’s creation to contemporary young audiences, the script has been simplified and reviewed by a panel of 'consensus organizers' – more than 100 African-American civil rights and community activists – during its development. The result is a much more straightforward portrait of the evolving relationship between Huck Finn and a runaway slave named Jim."

OnMilwaukee

"Expertly crafted... The excellence of this world premiere of Huckleberry Finn’s Big River ensures that it will become a family theater classic... this heartwarming, entertaining adaptation has an important, empowering message for all who watch."

DC Theatre Scene

Premiere Production:
  • Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on April 25, 1985. Directed by Des McAnuff and featuring Daniel H. Jenkins and Ron Richardson, the production earned seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for over 1,000 performances. On July 24, 2003, Big River returned to Broadway for a limited run. Directed by Jeff Calhoun, this Deaf West Theatre production incorporated American Sign Language and earned two Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical. In February 2019, Adventure Theatre MTC produced this TYA version of Big River as a joint production with the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.

    • Characters

    • Casting: 5M, 3F
    • Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Black Actor(s)
    • Casting Notes: Jim and Alice should be portrayed by Black actors.

  • HUCKLEBERRY FINN – An early adolescent boy who has no known father or mother
    JIM – A young enslaved man who seeks his freedom, slightly older than Huck
    WIDOW DOUGLAS – Doubles as Young Fool and Aunt Sally
    THE KING – A clever confidence man
    THE DUKE – An aspiring actor
    MARY JANE WILKES – A young heiress
    ALICE – A young enslaved woman; also appears as ensemble
    JUDGE THATCHER – Doubles as Man in Boat, Sheriff Bell and Silas Phelps

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Libretto/Vocal Book

    		$24.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped upon receipt of a signed License Agreement and full payment of all invoices. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    10 x Libretto-Vocal Books
    1 x Piano-Conductor (rehearsal & performance)
    1 x Acoustic Guitar
    1 x Violin

    		$895.00

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