For Interlakes Theatre's 15th season, new shows mix with old favorites

MEREDITH — Nancy Barry has been producing “Broadway in the Lakes Region,” in the form of Interlakes Theatre, for 15 years, and if there’s anything she’s learned, it’s that as soon as she thinks she’s figured out her audience’s appetite for theater, it changes.

When people are nervous about taking risks, whether it’s about the economy or a virus, they will justify going to a show if it’s something they haven’t seen before. But if people are angry about politics, they want what she called “comfort food” onstage, meaning shows that provide familiarity.

What does that mean for this year? Barry doesn’t know.

“We may be in a shift, I don’t know what the summer’s going to bring,” she said.

Aside from the comforting versus the novel, there’s another struggle Barry balances with each season. The artist inside of her wants to put on shows that provoke thought and discussion, but the producer, who wants to ensure that bills get paid, wants to schedule titles that will fill seats.

This year, she managed to appease both sides of herself. The season’s schedule starts off with “Fiddler on the Roof,” then “Kinky Boots” and “South Pacific,” and finishes with “Footloose.”

She was consciously trying to schedule shows that would succeed financially, then looked back and realized, “every one of them is so entertaining, so much fun. There’s so much comedy, and yet every one of them has an important message.”

“Fiddler” is a perfect example. It’s a show filled with joy and some of musical theater’s most loved songs, “but it’s so topical,” Barry said. The story is set in the early 1900s, but the plot, involving Russian aggression against a smaller neighbor, is startlingly prescient.

“It’s what is happening to the people in Ukraine,” Barry said.

Next up is an unusual title for the region. “Kinky Boots” is a show that Barry’s frequent collaborator, Argentinian director and choreographer Gustavo Wons, has been asking her to do, but she consistently swatted down the idea. But Barry is a believer in listening to her audience, and when the survey results from last year’s paying customers came back, a certain title rose to the top.

“I said to Gustavo, ‘I guess we’re going to do it,’” Barry said.

As a somewhat unknown title to produce here, Barry didn’t want to ruin the surprise by discussing too much of the plot, other than to say that there’s a shoe factory involved, and that the music was written by Cyndi Lauper.

“It’s huge, it’s a really big show and it’s really fun, and it’s funny,” Barry said.

Unlike “Kinky Boots,” “South Pacific” is one that most theater goers have had a chance — or perhaps several chances — to see already, yet the show continues to draw repeat audiences. The show’s love stories are the focus of the action, but they occur within a context of racial division. Indeed, it’s the rules of society that stand in the way of the romances that would otherwise be free to blossom.

“It’s these two love stories, two people who have a really hard time reconciling the fact that they’re in love with somebody,” Barry said. “It’s really another story about racism.”

The Interlakes season always closes with an abbreviated, one-week run, which Barry likes to save for a show that can put an exclamation point on the summer. She’s run shows such as “Cats!” and “Newsies,” there, and this year the season finale will be “Footloose.” Barry said that her audience is really divided into several sub-audience groups, but this show should draw them all out together.

“I love to have a big, fun ... everyone comes out and has a great show. What we do best is young people singing and dancing, and I thought, it will just be fun. I’m sure we’ll sell it out,” Barry said.

For more show information, visit interlakestheatre.com.

“Every year, I learn something entirely new. I feel like we’re constantly growing and adapting to what’s going on around us. Every year I look at what happened the year before and make changes to do better,” Barry said.

Yet certain challenges endure, and those tend to be securing housing for all of the professional actors she brings in each summer, and storage for all of the props and costumes.

“Finding actors that are talented, that’s easy. Finding great directors, that’s easy. ... Doing the theater is the easy part, it’s trying to keep the other balls up in the air that kills me. If I could solve those problems, I’d be golden.”