#b/c what would blackmailing be in this context. i'll kill you? your reputation hinges on your life never having been saved?

[unproduciblesmackdown]

more summer stock review quotes from ones i looked up b/c the goodspeed instagram posted excerpts (though there's some secret middletown press one that i guess was/is print only). emphasis added by me for the queer agenda which is the whole focus of my excerptions, but the whole review is informative & fun

Jane’s principal suitor, Orville Wingate II, turns out to be a talented musician who is ostensibly gay, and his father, a banker, has been transformed into his mother, a penny-pinching land hoarder. [...] Gloria and Jane are played by Arianna Rosario and Danielle Wade, respectively. The two share resemblance and physical possibilities, but their characters are so very different that the plot begins to make sense when Gloria quits as the lead and later re-emerges as a show producer. We are shown that she has the same sort of initiative as Jane has about the farm. I think this is a brilliant stroke of invention by Steinkellner. [...] Jane’s first-grade sweetheart, Orville Wingate II (Eddie Bracken in the movie), is played by Will Roland, who delivers an interesting performance as the overwhelmed son of a tyrannical mother who ultimately shows his mettle and makes a move on the show’s composer and arranger, Phil Filmore (Phil Silvers in the movie), played by Gilbert L. Bailey II. The two men are delicious together, singing and dancing duets as their friendship grows first into a professional arrangement and then turns into who-knows-what. The production allows them to discover that “This is their Lucky Day.” A third romantic relationship comes about when Orville’s hideous mother, divinely played by Veanne Cox, reveals a secret passion for a Shakespearean actor who has been blackmailed into taking the lead in Joe Ross’s musical extravaganza.

[source]

and some bonus fun quotes here lol

Love, of course, ensues between the central characters as the question of will the show go on pulsates throughout the troupe.  Catastrophe is averted at the last moment as sorted couplings work themselves out to produce…ta da…the requisite happy ending. [...] Will Roland, the archetype of teenage angst in the original Broadway productions of Dear Evan Hansen and Be More Chill, is a joy as Margaret’s coddled, frumpy, and good-hearted son Orville.

[source]

(also via that first review i'm presuming i was one song off with This guess, and that the piano number between orville & phil is "lucky day" as is suggested. time to listen to it. right then so instead of the song abt banger music and dancing to it with your little sweetie, it's the song all about how lucky you are b/c you're so happy b/c Then Of Course You Happened Along, not framed around anything else lol. hell yeah)