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Two-act comedy to run July 24th, 25th, 31st and Aug. 1st
Crowds are flooding to Asbury Park's boardwalk this summer, but its redevelopment saga has been anything but a day at the beach for this music city.
Former WYGG 88.1FM radio host Maureen Nevin follows many of AP's plot lines in her two-act comedy "Ocean Mile", which is billed as a tale about a "Strangely familiar shore town."
"Like many other fragile economies, Asbury Park has had its share of bubbles and boom times," said Nevin, who writes for NewJerseyNewsroom.com. Vini Lopez's recording of "Whatever happened to Asbury Park" — the show's opening number — chronicles the highs and lows in music.
"And like most plays," Nevin said, "Ocean Mile has a few themes running through it, not the least of which is what can happen when too much land is changing hands too fast and hungry people are hearing what they've longed to hear."
Nevin said she hopes that through Ocean Mile's belly laughs she can help restore some of the relationships splintered during the nearly decade-long process.
"While many moments may ring true of Asbury Park, developer-driven renewal has played havoc throughout our country," she said.
The Black Box of Asbury Park staged a reading of Ocean Mile in 2006 in the upstairs lounge of the newly-sold Paramount Theater, which featured two actors actually playing parts about themselves, developer Henry Vacarro and city historian Werner Baumgartner, to the delight of 100 locals, who left standing room only. Since then Baumgartner has made headlines for being jailed three times for zoning code violations. His part will be played by award winning actor Paul Nixon.
Nevin wrote and will co-direct play, which is being produced in affiliation with the Black Box and the Monmouth County Arts Council with Katheryn White of Ocean Grove, a playwright and theater professor at St. Peters College.
Ocean Mile stars Rae Tutella and Nixon, of Bradley Beach, with Dunbar actress Lorraine Stone and rapper poet Tylik "Tigga" Railey, playing himself.
The play runs Saturdays and Sundays: July 24th, 25th, 31st and Aug. 1st, at 3 p.m., at Asbury Park's new hot music spot, Chico's House of Jazz, at 631 Lake Avenue, just a few yards west of Moonstruck restaurant.
— NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
