New DVD revisits bicentennial musical Lewiston – A New Home.’
LEWISTON – When the applause ended a decade ago, “Lewiston – A New Home” seemed more than over.
After six performances, the cast of 80 scattered. The props were discarded or reused for other plays. And a video of the show, a simple archival testament, only hinted at the original production.
However, a new DVD aims to change that.
In January, 10 years after the final performance, Richard Martin directed a new concert using 14 songs from the musical.
That show, produced at the Franco-American Heritage Center, has been captured in a DVD, now being sold at the center.
“It’s imperfect,” said Martin, who co-wrote the story that accompanied the music in its theatrical version. “But, you get a sense of the story line.”
Created for the city’s 1995 bicentennial, the musical was meant as a tribute to the city’s growth and its future.
Martin and friends, songwriter Paul Caron and story co-authors Mike Rosenthal and Lynn Geiger, spent more than a year crafting the show.
“It was a gift to the city,” said Martin, a co-author and the show’s director.
Nobody expected the work to continue to be produced.
Yet two more concerts, like those captured on the DVD, are planned for Aug. 4 and 6, during the new Festival FrancoFun. Tickets will go on sale in July.
Each new incarnation pleases Caron.
“It still connects with people,” said Caron, who worried that the purely concert form – minus the actors, costumes and dialogue – would be difficult to follow. “They were still able to follow the story. It still connects with parents and grandparents.”
Caron’s songs still apply to the much-changing city, Martin said.
“The show is about people, looking back to where they’ve been and wondering where they’re going,” Martin said.
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