Happily Ever After

Written and Performed by Mary Martello
Directed by Jennifer Childs
March 4th- March 28th, 2010

Philadelphia, PA- 1812 Productions is pleased to present four-time Barrymore Award winner Mary Martello as she portrays long beloved fairytale characters like you’ve never seen them before. Happily Ever After will run from March 4th through March 28th at The Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom Street. Opening Night is Wednesday March 10th at 7pm. For tickets and information, call 215.592.9580 or visit www.1812productions.com

After a theatre career spanning more than 50 years, Philadelphia theatre marvel Mary Martello embarks on her first solo adventure in Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After is Martello’s first production of her own creation and features a collection of classic and original songs.

Featuring Ms. Martello in six different roles, Happily Ever After lifts the curtain on the untold lives of childhood heroines who kissed Prince Charming, escaped wicked step mothers, and changed beasts into beaus. But what constitutes the perfect life and what does it mean to say, “they lived happily ever after’? These questions sparked a creative journey which led to the show’s creation. Martello says of her inspiration, “A number of years ago I was walking in the freezing, pouring sleet going from a rehearsal at one theatre to a performance at another. The wind was blowing little icy shards into my face and I was feeling grouchy and resentful and sorry for myself. Suddenly I realized that I was living my dream come true. This was it! I was an actress going from one theatre to another to work! The very things that I had dreamt about spending my life doing, I was actually doing! I accepted that the reality of ‘happily ever after’ existed right here in the midst of my daily life.”

It was after hearing a song from the musical version of Beauty and the Beast, though, which began the comedy invention of Happily Ever After. Martello continues, “I was listening to the song There’s Been a Change in Me, which is sung by the character Belle. Hearing it made me wonder about approaching fifty and menopause and how interesting it would be to sing that song from that point of view. The idea began to expand to other princesses, Hansel and Gretel, the Wicked Queen. Suddenly I thought of Peter Pan as a drag queen on Medicaid and off we went!”

Accompanied by Musical Director Eric Ebbenga, and set in a pub just down the street from the Enchanted Castle, Martello tells and sings her versions of the stories behind Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, the always thwarted Wicked Queen, and the perennial youth, Peter Pan. And in a nod to the magic of fairytale cinema, Martello will perform a special duet with an animated friend—a creation being crafted exclusively for this production.

The show’s director, Jennifer Childs says, “What I love about the piece that Mary is making is how she takes something that has become a negative cliché ("happily ever after doesn't exist") and transforms it into something that is positive and true ("happily ever after does exist....just not in the way you expected it to”). In looking at all these ingénues, Mary is hilarious and outrageous and painfully honest and moving—I'm really excited to be a part of this piece.”

Martello adds, “Now that I’m a grandmother—and with the princess craze being heavily marketed to our daughters and granddaughters—I like the idea of taking a realistic, funny, screwy look at the years between ‘and they lived happily ever after’ and senility. Plus I always knew (as does every woman—and perhaps some men, too) that I am a true princess. Didn’t you?”


Company History
Artistic Director Jennifer Childs along with Pete Pryor founded 1812 Productions in the spring of 1998 with a goal to entertain and educate audiences through comedy, and to support and hire local artists. Their education program, 1812 Outreach, has received multiple nominations and been awarded the Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service. On April 20, 2005, 1812 Productions received an honorary citation from the City of Philadelphia for outstanding work and commitment to the Philadelphia arts community. 1812 Productions, while continually on the search for a permanent home, continues to perform at various locations in Philadelphia.


Cast & Crew

Mary Martello (Creator/Performer): Mary started performing at the age of seven back in Michigan and kept it up throughout four kids and fifty years. She received her formal training at BoarsHead Theatre with John Peakes and Richard Thomsen, cutting her teeth on everything from Shakespeare and musical comedy to original plays and musicals. She kept that up in Virginia at Barksdale Dinner Theatre, Theatre IV and Virginia Museum Theatre; In New York at Light Opera of Manhattan, the Public Theatre and a variety of off-off Broadway; to New Jersey at Foundation Theatre, Passage Theatre, Theatre Intime and seven seasons at McCarter Theatre. She began working regularly in Philadelphia in 1998 and found a creative home. She has had the privilege of working at The Arden, Azuka, Interact, Lantern, People’s Light, The Prince, The Walnut, The Wilma and of course here at 1812 Productions, still doing everything from Shakespeare and musical comedy to original plays and musicals. Happily Ever After is her first one-woman show.

Jennifer Childs (Director): Jennifer Childs is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of 1812 Productions. For 1812 she has created over a dozen original pieces including This Is The Week That Is, Cherry Bomb, Always a Lady and Let’s Pretend We’re Married. Favorite recent projects outside of 1812 include performing in Philadelphia Theatre Company’s The Happiness Lecture with Bill Irwin, directing Nichole Canuso’s Fail Better, and dancing with Karen Getz and friends in Disco Descending at the Live Arts Festival. She recently received her second Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts to develop her first solo piece, Why I’m Scared of Dance by Jen Childs.


Happily Ever After
Fact Sheet

Written & Performed by: Mary Martello

Directed by: Jennifer Childs

Location: The Adrienne Theatre
2030 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tickets: $20—$35

Dates: March 4th- March 28th, 2010

Tickets and
Contact Information: 1812 Productions
421 N. 7th Street
Suite 218
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 592-9560
info@1812productions.org
www.1812productions.org

Press Photos & Credits: www.1812productions.org/press