We -- Nancy White, Bob Johnston and Jeff Hochhauser -- are the writers of the musical
"Anne and Gilbert", sequel to "Anne of Green Gables". Our show is based on Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island. The show had its premiere in the summer of 2005 in Victoria-by-the-Sea, Prince Edward Island, Canada, with Marla McLean and Peter Deiwick in the leads. (You can hear their glorious voices in some of the songs from the show posted here. )They're from the cast recording of selections from the show, produced by Campbell Webster Entertainment, which also produces the live shows on PEI.
The picture above is of Nancy, Jeff and Bob outside the ridiculously charming Victoria Playhouse,in 2005.
"Anne and Gilbert"-- a genuine hit in Victoria, was staged in Summerside,PEI, at the Jubilee Theatre in 2006 and 2007, and is returning in the summer of 2008. It had an amateur production in Lethbridge, Alberta, in March 2007 (Catholic Central High School), and a production in Gananoque (Thousand Islands Playhouse) in the summer of 2007.
This summer, director Greg Wanless is moving the Playhouse production to the Grand Theatre in Kingston,Ontario, then touring it. (See schedule below.)
Bob Johnston and Nancy White are Torontonians (though Nancy grew up in PEI) and Jeff is a New Yorker. Writing the show was Jeff's idea. He had written with Bob before on other musicals, notably "Theda Bara and the Frontier Rabbi", and their new show "Vaudeville Man". Jeff wrote the "Anne and Gilbert" book, and he and Bob wrote about half the songs. Nancy, added to the team early on, wrote the other half of the songs. Nancy's a performing singer/songwriter, noted especially for her novelty songs, and Bob has been her piano player for many years. (see MySpace.com/nancywhitemusic).
We decided to put up a MySpace in order to keep in touch with the growing "Anne and Gilbert" community -- especially with the singer/actor/dancers who've honoured us by bringing the show to life, and with performers who would like to do the show some day, or are interested in using songs from the show in auditions or cabarets. The songs most requested are "Someone Handed Me the Moon" (an Anne song) and "All You Can Do Is Wait" (a Gilbert song).
We'll try to post performance dates, and blog a bit, with news about the shows. We're not the producers, just the writers. But we do hear a bit of what's going on in our various Avonleas.
2008 is the hundredth anniversary of the publishing of Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables". A good time to send our "Anne and Gilbert" songs a bit further out into the world.
I'm hitting the road in a couple of weeks to raise money for War Child, Coast-to-coast – 50 cities – ALL PROCEEDS TO WARCHILD. Why? 66% of all war victims are CHILDREN. Shocked like me? War Child helps these children that have been affected by war. Check out the new blog – the whole story is up there. Love to have you be a part of it.
You’ll find a Blog, Tour page and a Bio page. I’ll be blogging daily from the road.
I've just had a couple of the show's songs --not on the original cast selections cd -- demo'd for your listening and dancing pleasure. "Polishing Silver", sung here by Suzy Wilde as Anne and Maddy Wilde as Diana, is a first act duet which was left out of the Victoria production because the director thought it was too dark.Happily, last summer's director, Tim French, restored it. The song comes after Diana tells Anne she's just become engaged, and Anne asks her what she knows about "married life". Not as much as Anne assumes! In the middle,Anne sings about her own reservations about love,based on her early observations in loveless foster homes. This song makes it easier for the audience to understand Anne's inability to fall in love with Gilbert. It also has lots about Victorian domesticity in it. We got Jesse MacMillan from the R&BG Boyz band to sing Roy's song, "May I Offer My Umbrella". Roy is the wealthy charmer Anne meets at Redmond, under a tree, in the rain, just as in "Averil's Ideal". Roy, in spite of his bad poetry, becomes a serious rival for Gilbert.Does he win her recalcitrant hand? Sorry- I cannot reveal the ending. Liz Acker plays keyboard on this recording, which was engineered by Doug Wilde. (And yes, we have pdf files of the music,available for a modest fee. )
How amazing to find you here! Long time no talk. I think of the show often, and only wish I could have been a part of it more! Pat McRoberts and I are great friends now after doing all those workshops! We did our own sold out Cabaret act last year! I would love to sing anything you guys ever do.! Congrats on your success.Anne and Gilbert will always have a special place in my heart. xo-erin
"Mrs. Lynde" here! Looking forward to another summer in Summerside where only the best people from Avonlea spend June, July, August and September. As you know, Thomas passed on recently and I have moved in with Marilla and we are getting along, even though, sharing a kitchen can be, well, DIFFICULT ... but she is an excellent cook - a bit plain for my taste, but good solid stick-to-your-ribs food. Matthew used to move a bit slower after Sunday dinner I recall, but I don't remember if it was the food or the minister's visit ... I shall keep you up to date with reminiscences from Avonlea - I can't believe it will be 100 years this summer since little "Anne" came to us - you'd think we'd all be dead by now! But as they say, "you're never safe from surprises ...!"
