You’re invited to step back in time…
It’s Christmas Eve 1950, Truman is in the White House, and the Golden Age of television is in full swing…
Meanwhile, local radio station, WDDP Peoria, is going under and that means the WDDP Variety Hour, starring that fabulous foursome, The Whistletones, is going with it. Inspired by the music of The Pied Pipers and classic radio shows of yesteryear, join WDDP as they celebrate the final broadcast of their most beloved show. Amongst slick tunes, classic comedy, and lots of heart, the glow of the radio may never die after all.
FEATURING VINTAGE CLASSICS
Chattanooga Choo Choo • Dream • Little Jack Frost Get Lost
Mele Kalikimaka • I’ll Be Seeing You
Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee
AND MANY MORE!
Selected Sounds
— Key Specs —
Unit Set | 4-piece Band | 90-minute Show
5 Actors
4 male presenting actors and 1 female presenting actor
Holiday & non-holiday versions of show available
Meet the Team
Wade Dooley
Concept/Book Writer
Wade Dooley is a writer/actor living in Montclair, NJ. His play, The Prompter, premiered at Bay Street Theatre in 2019, directed by Scott Schwartz and starring Tovah Feldshuh (Crazy Ex Girlfriend, The Walking Dead). His play, The Honorable Mr. Marigold, received an industry reading this past fall starring Darrell Hammon (SNL) and Roslyn Ruff (Blue Bloods). His new musical, The Night We Called it a Day, with arranger and co-creator Dan Pardo (John Mulaney’s The Sack Lunch Bunch) featuring the music of the Pied Pipers is currently in development with Drama Club Productions. Other writing credits include Broadway Bares: Rock Hard, On Demand, and Strip U with co-writer Hunter Bell, Stars in the Alley for host Tituss Burgess, The Diary of a Dancer (Best Solo Show 2010 DC Fringe Fest). Wade is an alumnus of Running Deer Theatre Lab, Goodspeed’s Writer’s Grove, Finger Lake’s Musical Theatre Festival’s The PiTCH. As an actor, some favorite credits include Film: The Last Five Years. Theatre: NEWSical The Musical, The Awesome 80s Prom, La Cage Aux Folles, The Roar of the Greasepaint-The Smell of the Crowd. Tour: Jersey Boys, The Trip to Bountiful, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Wade currently serves as co-writer on the hit television series ELSBETH on CBS. He is a graduate of Bradley University. @thewadedooley.
Dan Pardo
Music Arranger & Director
Dan Pardo is a NYC-based pianist, music director, arranger, and educator. He made his Broadway debut in 2015 with Amazing Grace at the Nederlander and has worked off-Broadway at St. Clement's, the York, MCC, Lucille Lortel, New Ohio, and St. Luke's, in addition to numerous NYC cabarets, concerts, and workshop productions. Regional favorites include Company (starring Aaron Tveit) at Barrington Stage, Fun Home at the Weston Playhouse, How to Succeed at the 5th Avenue Theatre, and The Fantasticks at the Cape Playhouse. Most recently, he conducted Little Shop of Horrors at Ogunquit, starring Latrice Royale. Dan was on staff for three years at Goodspeed Musicals; also, John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch, for Netflix. In between theatrical projects, he teaches at Harlem School of the Arts, entertains at the top NYC piano bars, and has a weekly residency at the Edison Hotel in Times Square with his wife, Chrissy.
Shannon Morrison
Founding Artistic Director
Shannon is a brave creator and a sought-after collaborator for Fortune 50 executives and theater professionals alike. He is passionate about bringing new musical theater voices to broad audiences as a musical theater “doula” and also creates musicals as an award-winning librettist.
He leads Drama Club as Artistic Director and has worked on Broadway incarnations of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Movin’ Out, Legally Blonde, the Pulitzer and Tony-Award winning musical A Strange Loop, and the off-Broadway hit DRAG: The Musical. Shannon is writing a new musical titled The Ascendants (with Stephen M. Barnett) and leads creative project development at Drama Club, including curating Drama Club Camp. Writing: Little Big Top (NYU Tisch); The Leading Man (Yale); Silence (Yale; John Golden Prize) Johnny Appleseed; The Aylee Inn; Ding-Dong!. He is a graduate of Yale and NYU, and serves as a Trustee for Kents Hill School in Readfield, Maine.
Scott Ihrig
Founding Executive Producer
Scott is a passionate liberal queer entrepreneur and the CEO of IMC, the experience studio he owns with his husband Shannon.
Scott produced The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, founded a non-profit theatre in Iowa, and was an associate at a Minneapolis law firm.
A life-long activist, Scott works to expand human and civil rights, develop opportunities for the disadvantaged, and assist those in need. He served as board chair of TurnOut, a nonprofit that mobilizes volunteer communities to power queer and trans movements.
Scott loves a good spreadsheet, “cooks” with his phone, and travels with too many gadgets. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, he has a BA in political science from Grinnell College and graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School.