![\"Married](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-OKeefe_and_Benjamin_1.jpg\")
Married musical writers Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin will present the world premiere of their new musical “Huzzah!” at the Old Globe. (The Old Globe)<\/p>\nThough it might not seem so at first consideration, the worlds of the theater and a Renaissance fair go together, kind of like a meat pie and a tankard of mead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Venn diagram between a Renaissance fair and theater is basically one circle,\u201d said Nell Benjamin, who with her spouse and writing partner Laurence O\u2019Keefe have crafted the world-premiere musical comedy \u201cHuzzah!\u201d for the Old Globe. \u201cIt\u2019s people building a reality, living in it and having fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Married musical writers Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin will present the world premiere of their new musical “Huzzah!” at the Old Globe. (The Old Globe)<\/p>\n
She and O\u2019Keefe, whose credits together include the \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d musical on Broadway and the Globe\u2019s \u201cCome Fall in Love \u2013 The DDLJ Musical,\u201d consider themselves \u201cbig fans\u201d of Renaissance festivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a place where nerds are safe and sexy,\u201d said O\u2019Keefe. \u201cI feel very at home there.\u201d<\/p>\n
When attending their first Renaissance fair years ago, the couple expected something silly, \u201cbut that was not what we found,\u201d Benjamin recalled. \u201cTo us, nothing was stupid, nothing was lame. They (participants) loved to perform and they had a sense of humor, a sense of history. These are our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Cailen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-huzzah-02.jpg\")
Cailen Fu as Kate Mirandola, left, and Liisi LaFontaine as Gwen Mirandola in the Old Globe\u2019s world premiere musical \u201cHuzzah!\u201d (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n
\u201cHuzzah!\u201d arrives with Ren fair costumes and lively sword play and a traditional maypole, but it is a family story at heart. Two sisters at odds, Gwen (Liisi LaFontaine) and Kate (Cailen Fu), band together in an effort to save their father\u2019s financially failing Kingsbridge Midsummer Renaissance Faire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe loved the idea that these amazing entities start out as mom-and-pop stores and are very vulnerable to the headwinds of capitalism,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cThe family is the fair, the fair is the family. The family gets in danger and has to heal itself in order to save the faire. We wanted to tell the hopefully truthful, funny but scary story of a family that nearly ruins itself and figures out how to pull back from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin likened the sisters\u2019 predicament to a \u201cThanksgiving where you go with your family and some of them drive you crazy, but for one holiday you have to make it work. This resonates with us all. Also, we\u2019re in a democracy and you have to make it work with people you really don\u2019t like or agree with. Once we had this sense of who the characters were, that drove us.\u201d<\/p>\n
After meeting with Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein \u201cway back in the distant past,\u201d as Benjamin recalled it, and receiving an enthusiastic response to the project, the initial plan was to stage \u201cHuzzah!\u201d in Balboa Park in the summer of 2020, or in 2021 at the latest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there was the pandemic,\u201d said O\u2019Keefe. \u201cBut we were patient and it\u2019s paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHuzzah!\u201d features a cast of 17 and scenic design by Todd Rosenthal, who also conceived the set for the Globe\u2019s recent production of \u201cNoises Off\u201d that previously occupied the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage. Haydee Zelideth is the costume designer, Alejandro Senior the music director, Katie Spelman the choreographer.<\/p>\n
![\"Liisi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-huzzah-03.jpg\")
Liisi LaFontaine as Gwen Mirandola, left, Leo Roberts as Sir Roland Prowd and Cailen Fu as Kate Mirandola in the Old Globe\u2019s world premiere musical \u201cHuzzah!\u201d (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n
Making her Old Globe directorial debut is New York-based Annie Tippe.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pleasure and joy has been working on new plays and musicals,\u201d Tippe said. \u201cThis musical is big and bright, and I feel like the work I\u2019ve done in the past has been more intimate in size and scope. But my work always has an emphasis on athleticism and on comedy, and anything that has good music I want to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Tippe \u201cThe beauty of a Renaissance fair is people of all different backgrounds coming together to build a world, and the world is not a reflection of our current world. It\u2019s the world they\u2019d like to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a space that represents complete freedom, a space for creativity and a space for history buffs and people who embrace the crafts and traditions of the past. It\u2019s also somewhere people can reclaim the past and write themselves into the kind of world they want to live in, that they want to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renaissance fairs date back to the early 1960s when what is believed to have been the first was staged in Agoura, northwest of Los Angeles. They\u2019re typically set anywhere between the 14th and 17th centuries depending on the fair, and remain popular around the world. The biannual Escondido Renaissance Faire returns Oct. 25 through Nov. 2 at Felicita County Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly fairs were teachers teaching kids about history,\u201d said Benjamin, \u201cand they got bigger and bigger because of the same thing that happened to us: People who came discovered it was a place they\u2019d never seen before. You have to make your own fun. You have to be part of it to get the most out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Tippe: \u201cA Renaissance fair says \u2018Come as you are, come as you want to be. Come be your truest self.\u2019 I think that\u2019s why Renaissance fairs attract beautiful queer communities. They are body positive. They attract actors, people who want to role-play, and they also attract families. People bring their kids there. It\u2019s a place of playfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tippe said she\u2019d never been to a Renaissance fair before she began working on \u201cHuzzah!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went for the first time,\u201d she said, \u201cI was nervous that I didn\u2019t have the intensity to be there. I found myself really falling in love with all the players and the people who were so committed to what they were doing. I liken that to going to see theater. We go to see people giving their all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Re-creating the world of the Renaissance fair in a proscenium theater at the Globe comes with its own challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the physical execution was very much with us from the very beginning,\u201d O\u2019Keefe explained. \u201cNell writes amazing visuals. We made a list: Horses? Sadly, no. There\u2019s a joust that is mentioned as happening offstage. Other things like people swinging swords, we knew we wanted to have actual people swinging swords. What we do not have room to put on stage is the question.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the musical score, \u201cWe did our research,\u201d said O\u2019Keefe. \u201cWe\u2019ve studied Renaissance music and we use some of that. We\u2019re always trying to bend musical forms and turn them into storytelling. This show has Celtic elements, ancient elements, Renaissance music, pop music.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Keefe and Benjamin met while students at Harvard and have been writing musicals together for a quarter-century. They call their collaborative process \u201ca back-and-forth\u201d passing of drafts in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to bring your \u2018A\u2019 game,\u201d said Benjamin. \u201cWe\u2019re competitive absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
She joked that \u201cSometimes \u2018I don\u2019t like that lyric\u2019 can turn into \u2018I don\u2019t like your tone\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t like your mother.\u2019 There\u2019s something lovely to have a concrete thing to fight about. It\u2019s almost like there\u2019s a built-in referee to every fight because there has to be a resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the worst insults we can deliver to each other is \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s clever, but it\u2019s filler.\u2019 At that point someone needs to take a walk around the block.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Huzzah!\u2019<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> Previews, Saturday through Sept. 24. Opens Sept. 25 and runs through Aug. 3. 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays<\/p>\n
![\"Cailen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-huzzah-01.jpg\")
Cailen Fu as Kate Mirandola, left, Leo Roberts as Sir Roland Prowd and Liisi LaFontaine as Gwen Mirandola in the Old Globe\u2019s world premiere musical \u201cHuzzah!\u201d (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n