Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville IS COMING TO WALTON ARTS CENTER STAGE

Tour director Amy Anders Corcoran gives up the behind-the-scenes scoop on the National Tour in Celebrate’s September Article.

ARTICLE BY MARISA LYTLE OF CELEBRATE ARKANSAS

Want a vacation but can’t quite make it to the beach this year? Walton Arts Center may have just the thing for you when it brings the Broadway musical Escape to Margaritaville to the stage in October. Fayetteville will be the fifth stop on the national tour, just before the show travels to Springfield, Mo., and Little Rock, Ark., making Northwest Arkansas audiences the first in the region to see the show.

“It’s a fun party,” says Amy Corcoran, tour director for Escape to Margaritaville. “It’s like you’re going to the beach, and there’s a party, and everyone’s invited. There’s so much joy and so much laughter, and we could all use that these days. There’s great stuff in there — great music, great crowd scenes, a great story, a really fun cast — a 2.5-hour party.”

Escape to Margaritaville is a musical comedy featuring both original songs and the most beloved Jimmy Buffett classics, such as “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Volcano,” “Fins,” and many more. Margaritaville is the place that people go to get away from it all — and stay to find something they never expected — in this musical with a book by Emmy Award® winner Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl, Raising Hope) and Emmy Award nominee Mike O’Malley (Survivors Remorse, Shameless). Entertainment Weekly enthuses, “It will knock your flipflops off!” while USA Today tags it, “A little slick of paradise!”

Audiences can sit back and enjoy both tunes they recognize and new tunes that will grab their attention. Corcoran herself says that although she was unfamiliar with many Jimmy Buffett songs before becoming involved in the project, she is now obsessed with his music. “You don’t have to be a Jimmy Buffett fan going into the show already,” she attests. “It’s a big Broadway, splashy musical with all the things you expect — great orchestrations and good choreography, and costumes, and really good performers. You’ll come in and have a great time.”

Corcoran started working with Escape to Margaritaville as the associate director of the show when it opened on Broadway in 2018. Having just wrapped up a job directing a mini-tour of Disney’s Freaky Friday, Corcoran joined Margaritaville for its pre-Broadway tour and then for its 5-month stint on Broadway. The process, she says, was a lot of fun because Buffett himself was around, the writers were there and both very funny, and the whole team was respectful of the process and supported the philosophy that “the best idea wins,” no matter where it comes from.

Transitioning the show from a Broadway stage in New York City to heading out on the national tour is quite a feat, considering that the set had to be redesigned for traveling, to go quickly up and quickly down, and an all-new cast has to meet and learn to work together. “When you walk into rehearsal the first day, the cast is usually nervous; they don’t really know what they’re going to get into,” Corcoran says. “Those first few days you’re trying to crack the nut of who are these people and what do they want; that part of the process is always really special to me.”

From the initial rehearsal to the previews of the national tour before it launches from Providence, R.I., in late September, the entire development period will take only about five weeks. Then, cast and crew will head out on the road together for at least a year, becoming much like a family in the process. “I’m really excited about the cast we have,” Corcoran says. “I love what we do so much. I love collaborating, and everyone’s always ready to work. Everybody’s on their game.”

Specializing in new works, Corcoran is the US Creative Associate for London’s Aria Entertainment, and she helps cultivate the festival From Page to Stage in London every year. Amy received the SDC Noel Coward Fellowship for Comedic Direction and holds a BA in Psychology with Honors from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Directing from Penn State University.

Escape to Margaritaville

Oct. 22–27

Tickets start at $32

Ticketholders can add on tickets to a Tropical Garden Party for just $15 Oct. 26 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm in the Rose Garden. Tickets include live music, and proceeds go to support Serve NWA New Beginnings Community.