Arts & Entertainment

Van Zandt-Milmore Team Brings Show to Holmdel

Middletown native and bi-coastal resident, Van Zandt, and area native and partner, Jane Milmore come home again for show

From the Holmdel Theater Company ...

The Holmdel Theatre Company will present Drop Dead! Nov. 3 through 12 at the Duncan Smith Theater in Holmdel.

A murder mystery farce, written by Middletown native and part-time resident Billy Van Zandt and his writing partner Jane Milmore, Drop Dead! follows a group of washed-up actors who come together in a potboiler murder mystery directed by "Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage," Victor Le Pewe, a psychotic, eye-twitching megalomaniac.

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During dress rehearsal, the set falls, props break, and the producer and an actor are murdered. The killings continue on opening night, and it’s up to the surviving thespians to save the show and their careers by solving the mystery and staying alive for curtain calls.

Director Gary Shaffer returns to the Holmdel Theatre Company after directing Noises Off, The Foreigner and Side by Side by Sondheim for the company in recent years. This production features local actors Cody Dalton (Oakhurst), Rebecca Flynn (Red Bank), Dave Harris (Red Bank), Michael Kroll (Tinton Falls), Dave Murray (Highlands), Rudy Palma (South Amboy), Aaron Ratzan (Matawan), Geoff Shields (Highlands), Bob Thompson (Roebling), and Leslie Wheeler (Lakewood).

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Most of the cast and crew have worked alongside the Van Zandt-Milmore for years. In addition to directing their current hit off-Broadway comedy,
You’ve Got Hate Mail, Shaffer also co-directed Van Zandt and Milmore in the premiere of their musical, High School Reunion: The Musical, in 2009.

Bob Thompson has been working with Billy and Jane for more than 35 years. He was an original cast member in many of their plays: Infidelities, The Senator Wore Pantyhose, What the Butler Saw, Merrily We Dance and Sing, Silent Laughter, and High School Reunion: The Musical. Thompson also worked backstage on the original premiere of Drop Dead! at both the Dam Site and its off-Broadway run.

Actor Michael Kroll has been working with Van Zandt and Milmore for 25 years. He was an original cast member of their What the Bell Hop Saw, Confessions of a Dirty Blonde, Infidelities, Thank you and Good Night, Silent Laughter and others.

Another familiar face in Van Zandt-Milmore productions, Geoff Shields, has worked with Van Zandt and Milmore in the premieres of A Night at the Nutcracker, Wrong Window and Silent Laughter. Rebecca Flynn has spent the last year and a half understudying Jane in You’ve Got Hate Mail in New York.

Drop Dead! was originally produced as I Don't Want Her, You Cadaver at the Dam Site Dinner Theater in Tinton Falls (now MJ's). It was the first Van Zandt/Milmore play to go off-Broadway.

Drop Dead! starred the original Dam Site cast and played a six-week run to sold-out crowds. In 1991, the show opened in Los Angeles at the Court Theater, starring Adrienne Barbeau (Maude), Rose Marie (Dick Van Dyke Show), Donny Most (Happy Days), Craig Bierko (Music Man), Barney Martin (Seinfeld), Michael Kostroff (The Producers), and from the original cast: Van Zandt and Milmore, Jonathan D. Mack and Glenn Kelman. Variety called Drop Dead! "a nonstop physical comedy that turns the world of theater on its head!"

Performances by Holmdel Theatre Company will be on Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. with a matinee beginning at 3 p.m. on Nov. 6. All performances are at the Duncan Smith Theater, located at 36 Crawfords Corner Road. Tickets cost $22, $17 seniors, $12 students.

Reservations may be made by calling the box office at 212-868-4444 or at www.holmdeltheatrecompany.org.


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