Broadway showtunes meet life lessons in a unique cabaret performance coming to South Whidbey.
A small cast of singers, actors and one pianist from all over the island have joined together to present “Life: A User’s Manual” on Aug. 9, 10, 16 and 17 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island in Freeland.
The show includes 21 songs first heard on Broadway between 1942 and 2024, ranging from Stephen Sondheim classics to the modern works of Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Stage director Ken Merrell, a Freeland resident, came up with the thematic idea of setting up the performance like the manual for a refrigerator, with sections for safety concerns, care and maintenance, operations and warranty information.
“It’s a small cast but it’s a very strong cast,” said Merrell, who also sings and acts in the show. “And it’s just incredible to work with that level of musicianship across a cast like that.”
Before coming to Whidbey, he was formerly the artistic director for a community theater in Chico, California for many years.
Also a Freeland resident, Eileen Soskin serves as the musical director and pianist of “Life: A User’s Manual.”
“We’re having great fun in rehearsals and the show itself is coming together with moments of power and moments of reflection on life’s mysteries, joys and sorrows,” Soskin said.
Recent Oak Harbor High School graduate and rising star Eclipse Garrett was invited to join the cast by Soskin.
“Getting an email from someone like Eileen who is an industry veteran and she taught at Peabody (Institute), that was like crazy for me,” Garrett said. “Not something that I ever expected to happen right out of high school.”
A Coupeville resident, Garrett has been in at least 10 Whidbey Playhouse productions. This fall they plan to attend Emerson College in Boston to study theater education and performance.
Garrett was also encouraged to join the cast by Darren McCoy, their choir teacher, and McCoy’s wife Heather Good, who has been in a couple of projects with Garrett and has helped coach them with audition material. The couple live in Oak Harbor and met through the Whidbey Playhouse.
According to Garrett, “Life: A User’s Manual” contains a host of songs that people from a younger generation may not be familiar with. There are, however, a couple songs from “Hamilton” and music from “Into the Woods” is featured prominently.
One of Garrett’s pieces that they love dissecting is from “Cabaret.” Although they can’t personally relate to the character, they’re able to somehow find a piece of themself that understands exactly what she’s talking about, at the deepest human level, without having had any of her experiences.
“I think that’s really powerful for people to see something so different and unexpected coming from a young person or something very pure and innocent coming from an older person,” Garrett said. “Just those types of juxtapositions really make people think.”
The show includes an uplifting number from “Suffs,” a musical that premiered on Broadway earlier this year that is about the women’s suffrage movement in America.
“No musical is perfect and certainly the production and origin story of musicals often are very different from what ends up being performed on the stage,” Garrett said, “but the song that we sing from that show in particular is very powerful and relevant, fortunately and unfortunately.”
“Life: A User’s Manual” will be Garrett’s last show on Whidbey for a while – at least until next summer.
Each performance begins at 7 p.m. A goodwill donation of $25 is suggested to cover the price of admission. The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island in located at 20103 Highway 525.
