Musical pirate tale mixes action, romance
Billed as family entertainment, musical will travel to Fla. venues
The Tri-Town News
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

The magical phrase “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you” is a familiar one for Long Branch native Michael Attardi.

“I am a huge fan of Walt Disney,” Attardi said just three days before his first original musical play premiered. “[Disney] would take a story and make it come alive through his characters.

“I want that to happen in my show.”

Attardi’s musical, “Twin Treasures: In Search of the Pirate Coin,” opened April 1 at the Strand Theater in Lakewood and will run through April 9.

The historic theater is the first of five venues that will host the show, which will tour August through September at venues in Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville.

“Twin Treasures” is set in the 1850s on the sailing ships of three pirate brothers, who are roaming the seas in search of their father’s hidden treasure.

Each brother has a piece of a magical coin that was split in thirds. When put back together, the coin will show the brothers where the treasure is hidden.

A classic tale of good vs. evil is told when Captain Stubs, one of the brothers, becomes greedy and decides to steal the two pieces of the coin from his brothers, Castaway Kelly and Captain Cally, and find the treasure himself.

Captain Stubs’ plan backfires, leaving one of his brothers stranded on a desert island and the other brother roaming the seas on his pirate ship searching for him.

A twist in the story arises when Captain Stubs’ plan results in an explosion that separates the twin daughters of one of the ship’s captains.

One twin, Bonny, ends up on the deserted island with Castaway Kelly, and the other twin, Fanny, winds up on the pirate ship with Captain Cally.

Captain Stubs, who doesn’t know the whereabouts of his brothers, spends the next 16 years in search of them and the other two pieces of the coin. Meanwhile, his brothers remain separated and spend the years raising the twins.

Attardi’s play is an action adventure with a love story along the way that, like most fairy tales, ends with a twist that most people will not see coming, he said.

“I like to write like Walt Disney did,” he said. “There are a lot of lessons that can be learned throughout the play and people will leave happy.”

But this fairy tale did not just come together overnight.

In September 1998, Attardi was standing in line waiting to board the Snow White ride at Walt Disney World in Orlando. He turned to his wife and said, “This is how it all started. [Snow White] was the first movie [Walt Disney] made that defined who he was. I have ideas and I am going to start writing them down.”

For three years, Attardi wrote down his ideas.

The script for “Twin Treasures” was one of those and he wrote the screenplay in just two weeks.

Composing the music took another six months, arranging the music, an additional seven months, but the longest part, according to Attardi, was the five years it took to raise the financing for the $130,000 production.

Before writing “Twin Treasures,” Attardi had completed two musical animations, “Once Upon a Time” and “Zandorra,” but he said he has not been able to find funding for the screenplays yet.

When he looked back at the screenplays he had written, “Twin Treasures” stood out as his best family-oriented show that would appeal to both children and adult audiences, he explained.

“[Twin Treasures] has a ‘Shrek’ kind of humor that goes over kids’ heads, but adults get it,” he said. “When I was growing up, there was nothing like this, but today family entertainment has taken a great turn.”

Attardi wrote “Twin Treasures” as an animated film, but said an animated version would have cost between $15 million-$18 million, so he decided to turn it into a musical.

He wrote the script, composed the music and is producing the play.

“There is no sense of family values in society today,” he said. “I am bringing back family entertainment.

“I am not inventing the wheel, I am just putting different spokes on it.”

Today, Attardi, 38, resides in Middletown with his wife and 2-year- old son, and says the play is a dream come true.

According to Attardi, his interest in theater came out of his effort to overcome an obstacle.

Attardi’s childhood was dominated by a speech impediment that doctors said was not a physical or mental disorder, just a result of his thoughts outpacing his words.

He became involved in theater during his freshman year in high school in order to challenge himself and found that he could communicate fluently in front of a crowd.

To date, he has acted in 24 shows and directed two shows.

But in 1990, Attardi put theater on the back burner and chose sports over the arts when he signed with the Los Angeles Raiders for three years. He retired in 1993 after he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.

Attardi beat cancer and has since dedicated his time to writing children’s animation stories, but has not completely dismissed his love for sports.

In 1995, Attardi started Jersey Sports News, a sports paper that covers Monmouth County high school sports.

He sees “Twin Treasures” as a way to give back to the community for all that it has given him.

“This is something I can share,” he said. “It is my imagination.”

REVIEW
Unhidden "Treasure" at Lakewood's Strand Theater
Published in the Asbury Park Press 04/7/05
By MICHAEL KAABE
CORRESPONDENT

TWIN TREASURES: IN SEARCH OF THE PIRATE COIN
Music and lyrics by Michael Attardi

— The Strand Theater — 400 Clifton Ave., Lakewood — 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday — (732) 367-7789

Once upon a time, Long Branch native Michael Attardi got a whale of an idea for a stage musical that would cater to kids of nearly all ages and still serve as worthy entertainment for adults. He created it in the tradition of such memorable and enduring Disney titles as "Cinderella," "Peter Pan," "The Parent Trap" and "Mary Poppins."

Attardi's "Twin Treasures: In Search of the Pirate Coin," a well-rounded, full-blown musical with outstanding arrangements by Dani Donadi, had its world premiere last weekend at the Strand Theater in Lakewood. With just a few technical and dramatic speed bumps keeping the proceedings from having first-class appeal, the result is a large, tuneful and splashy costume extravaganza that at times is too big for its own good.

The aforementioned Disney classics usually followed or worked toward stating a basic theme, such as belief in one's self is half the battle or, with appropriate devotion, a wish can come true. This pirate tale seeks to state something akin to the above: It's the journey — getting to your goal is more than half the fun.

The story is right in line with pirate-ship folklore: A pirate queen with three sons gives them each one-third of a coin that, when reassembled, points to a place of hidden treasure.

The boys all go their separate ways. Two of them grow up to become Capt. Cally and Capt. Kelly, and they always get along. But the youngest brother, Capt. Stubbs, is a bad guy who wants all the treasure for himself. Twin girls who are separated at birth and who are found and raised separately (due to a sea catastrophe) are now two beauties: the tomboyish Franie (who becomes a pirate) and Bonnie (who is raised by the gentle Capt. Kelly and is a sweet, romantic woman).

With the onset of various sea battles, the captains search for the coins, and amid confused identities and melodious songs, the proceedings come to an exciting climax.

This is a whale-sized show, sporting nifty costumes by Paul K. Solen and a fabulous lighting design by Roz Fulton.

The choreography, by Denise Cerrachio and Andrea Kron, is crafty and imaginative, giving an entertaining edge to the vaudevillianlike production numbers.

The entire cast is magnificent, especially Bob McDonald as Michael Martin (but who turns out to be someone else; sorry, I'm not telling).

The whole production is presented in the spirit of wishing upon a star to make dreams come true. With a bit of polish and more experience in front of an audience, this show could become a first-class dream.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Call Twin Treasures at 732-495-7974 or e-mail michael@twintreasures.net

 

 

Pictures Credit: The Strand Theater Website