Get wasted away in ‘Margaritaville’ as musical with Jimmy Buffett tunes hits Wichita

Take two dozen Jimmy Buffett hits, shake well, and you’ve got “Escape to Margaritaville,” the jukebox musical about finding romance during a tropical bachelorette party.

The show, which opens this weekend at Forum Theatre, builds a plot about around the tunes of the Parrothead idol, with Caribbean bar singer Tully (played by Zach Garraway) falling for tourist Tammy (Nora Graham), while bartender Brick (Jackson Dorris) connects with Tammy’s friend Rachel (Courtney Wages).

“The show is about Rachel and Tammy, and they’re going on Tammy’s bachelorette party to Margaritaville,” Wages said. “Tammy is carefree and fun, and Rachel is more uptight and serious.”

“It’s a light, fun piece with a nice, fun plot and great Jimmy Buffett music,” Kathryn Page Hauptman, Forum artistic director, said.

The Margaritaville cast

The cast also includes Anjelica McRae Breathett as the bar owner and Alexander Ogburn as the Buffett-inspired “old geezer that lives in the bar and drinks too much and knows the true meaning of life and the value of life,” Hauptman said.

Wages is also the choreographer for “Margaritaville,” with a variety of dance styles that include tap.

“We have lots of spectacle pieces – lots of clean, sharp choreo – but we also bring in the classics of Jimmy Buffett that the audience can sing along to,” she said. “It’s really fun.”

“There are some shows where it’s stylized and technical,” Hauptman added. “This show has a lot of fun dance numbers. It’s more comedic, it’s fun.”

Jimmy Buffett songs in the show

Hauptman said she chose “Margaritaville” for the dual purpose of serving as the Kansas Rural Water Association convention entertainment, which Forum provides every year.

Cast members, Hauptman and Wages said, had a varying range of familiarity with the Buffett tunes in “Escape to Margaritaville,” including “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere,” “Come Monday” and “One Particular Harbor.”

“We have a diverse age within the cast,” Wages said. “Either you grew up listening to it, because your parents loved Jimmy Buffett music, or that you know the classic. Everyone in the cast knew at least a handful of songs.”

How to see ‘Escape to Margaritaville’

When: April 24 to May 11; performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Wilke Center, First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway

Tickets: $32-$42, with discounts for military and students, at 316-618-0444 or forumtheatre.org