Written by Ben Cox – As his voicemail greeting will tell you, Larry Mathis may be retired, but he is busier now than he ever was before.
On top of serving as a City Council member for the city of Brownwood, announcing home football games for the Brownwood Lions, and being the Technical Director for the Brownwood Lyric Theatre, Mathis also directs shows at the theater a couple times a year, as ha has done since it re-opened in 2014. This coming year, however, will see a first for Mathis at the Lyric: directing two shows, at the same time.
Mathis is in the final stages of casting for Gilligan’s Island the Musical, and The Odd Couple. Gilligan’s Island will premiere in February, with The Odd Couple hot on its tail in early April. After the new year, “it is gonna be Lyric, Lyric, Lyric!”
It’s unique, but in high school theatre, you’re always going from one thing to the next, or do two things simultaneously. So it’s not something that I am particularly unaccustomed to doing, but it will be uniquely different. I think because of the quality of the people involved in both shows they help make it so much easier.”
Former BHS Theatre director Larry Mathis addressing the Brownwood High School International Thespian Society Members at their induction ceremony last spring.
Starting with Gilligan’s Island the musical, it’s very interesting! Of course, the characters are the same, but there are a couple twists and turns that are a little different.”
When asked if this show would be reminiscent of the episodes where Batman or The Harlem Globetrotters would visit the island, Mathis says “Yeah, but it’s gonna be great family fun, the whole family is going to love this show. It’s akin to The Beverly Hillbillies, which was a great success for the theatre.”
Mathis says when you are casting characters that are so familiar, “People know what the Skipper should look like, what Gilligan should look like. (Gilligan was originally played by Brownwood High School graduate Bob Denver) it’s always a real challenge, particularly when you’re a small community like we are and have a small handful of people to choose from when casting.”
Another highly recognizable casting challenge is filling the roles of Oscar and Felix from The Odd Couple, which was both a movie as well as a TV show, starting on the stage prior to those versions.
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon starred as the movies titular characters, as did Jack Klugman and Tony Curtis in the series. Mathis says that while the play is geared for a more mature audience, “you can certainly bring older, junior high or high school age kids to the show and they’ll enjoy it immensely.”
Mathis says the reason he would bring the older kids is not entirely due to subject matter, though. “It is just probably one adults are more familiar with. It is just hysterical, though. It is such a funny script. Audiences will have a great time with this show as well.”
Two birds with one stone may be tough, but two shows for one director seems to be business as usual for this seasoned veteran.
Tickets for both shows can be purchased on the Lyric’s Website.
