The 60's Show

We spoke with Craig O'Keefe about "The 60's show" at Seven Angels Theater in Waterbury.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Craig o'keith. He is a musical director
and one of the producers for The Sixties Show at
Seven Angels Theater and Water Very good morning, Good morning too.
Elis for those who wo't know about the Sixties Show.
Without giving away the entire premise, tell us all about
it well.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Sixties Show is an off Broadway touring show, off
Broadway production about time traveling back to the nineteen sixties,
based around a live note for note recreation concert, and
there's a lots of multi media involved. There's a stage
set like a nineteen sixties television studio. So what we're

(00:41):
doing is we're reproducing hits besides in deep album cuts,
just like they sound exactly like they sound on the records.
We're doing this live, and I want to be clear
about that, so we're not using any samples or pre
recorded music or backtracks. These are six musicians doing it
live and again at tie in. The show ties into
the multimedia presentation, so it's a full on immersive event.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
What songs from the sixties can we expect or.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Just a couple, it's besides deep album cuts. You're gonna
hear stuff from whether it's Nilsen, Mamas and Papa's. You're
gonna hear Kinks, Beetlestones, who, You're gonna hear turtles. You're
gonna hear a bunch of things. So a lot of
something for everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I guess, is this an actual musical theater show or
this is just a concert of like sixties music.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Good question. It's a combination of both. So something like this,
it's never honest, it's never been done before. So it's
a high energy rock music show. But it evolves around
the narration. The multi media, so there's noe, we're not
in character, there's not any it's not traditional musical theater,

(01:53):
but it is an off Broadway theatrical production. It's a
multimedia show, so depending on where we play, but there's
always a screen behind us. And again each image pertains
to or or whether it's historical footage or images or
footage we've created. It's a variety of things that pertains
to that particular song in the year that were that,

(02:15):
the songs being played, and in between songs, there's definitely
segues and there's a pre show thing that has multimedia
and I don't want to give it away. If anyone
has seen the show this, this is an updated refresh.
We haven't been to The Seven Angels in some years
since right, I think that was our first, very first
show after the pandemic, and so it's a refresh if

(02:39):
anyone's seen us before. New songs, new multimedia, and new
narrations from new cast members, so something different. What's great
about The Seven Angels is we don't play theaters that
small anymore. We had a we're doing that. We just
got back from doing a show, a couple of shows
in southern California, and we usually play much bigger places,

(02:59):
but we had a run and we had to fill
in a date, so we called the Seven Angels what
we're doing in New England run coming up, and the
Seven Angels had a slot for us, which we're so
happy about because that was one of our first places
we've ever played. But again, it's a great place to
see us because we've never We don't play places not
small anymore, and I don't mean to say I don't

(03:20):
know how you can interpret that, but our production has grown,
so it's a great place to catch us. June sixth
it's only one night, only one night.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah. I always say that Seven Angels Theater is a
hidden gem in Waterbury. People don't realize how blessed we
are to have that there. That theater is amazing, and
the talent that comes through, the local talent and the
national talent, and there isn't a bad seat in the house. So, Craig,
what do you hope people take away with them when
the show is over?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, you know, I like that question. That's a good question.
So you know, everybody gets a different thing or experience
out of the show. And we have people that come
to these shows that were actually around buying records in
the sixties, and of course these are much older people,
but there's also people in their twenties and thirties and
forties and fifties or whatever who weren't born or weren't

(04:11):
old enough to buy records then. But this decade or
how we're doing this, and again we're just the messengers,
but this decade resonates with people the music. Again, it's
a big pop culture show we're doing too, so the
pop culture the historical and we're not preaching anything but
the historical significance of it and the music. But people

(04:32):
walk away with different things. And we were at a
show in San Diego on Friday this past Friday, and
you know, this happens a lot. There are people in
tears and I'm hoping we're not making them crack for batteriasons.
We get people just in tears and just laughing. And
there's a you know, kind of a myriad of emotions
with the show, and that's what it does. And if

(04:53):
anyone has seen us before in Connecticut, they will know
what I'm talking about. So it's we had a full
on sensory, immersive experience and you'll get that it can
be emotional. So that's where you'll walk away from.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I love it. It's moving, it touches you, it's funny,
it's a little sad, it's just great. Who doesn't want
to be moved?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, thank you so much for being here today and
explaining it all, so now we know exactly what we're
going to go and enjoy. I'm speaking with Craig O'Keefe.
He's musical director and one of the producers for the
Sixties Show at Seven Angels Theater. It's only on June sixth.
If you want tickets, go to seven Angelstheater dot org.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, and for your listeners again the sixtieshow dot com.
You can get some information about the show and see
who we are and who the cast members are, who
we played with and so hope to see everybody