Book and Lyrics by Fred Alley
Music by James Kaplan
Story by Fred Alley and James Kaplan
Lumberjacks in Love returns to the AFT stage for the first time since 2005 after overwhelming requests from AFT fans. Four burly lumberjacks live in a state of manly bliss at the Haywire Lumber Camp in Northern Wisconsin – until an encounter with a plucky mail order bride interrupts life as they know it. The result is big belly laughs and beautiful music. Lumberjacks is one of AFT’s all-time box office hits and celebrates a world where bath time is once a month and the blast of a dinner bell brings the boys running. Lumberjacks in Love is a must-see for any AFT fan! Go to SUMMER SCHEDULE
Tuesdays and Fridays at 8PM,
and Wednesdays
at 6PM
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REVIEW
Gotta love those ‘Lumberjacks’
Ed Huyck, Door County Advocate
June 28, 2005
...AFT’s revival of “Lumberjacks in Love” is a sparkling romp in the woods, with a set of memorable characters, catchy tunes and clever lyrics. It also serves as a reminder of the late Fred Alley’s brilliance, as he wove plenty of thought-provoking issues within this romp of burly lumberjacks cavorting in the woods.
“Lumberjacks in Love” opens on a cabin in the early part of the 20th century. Four lumbermen share the space – Slim, Muskrat, Moonlight and the self-explanatory Dirty Bob. A series of calamities is about to shake up their simple existence of chopping down trees, however.
Muskrat is one day short of his 50th birthday and feeling the effects of his mortality. Moonlight is having feelings about a fellow lumberjack, the Kid, that confuse him (the Kid is a young woman in disguise). And to top it off, Dirty Bob has inadvertently sent off for a mail-order bride for Slim, who wants nothing to do at all with women. And the madness only increases as the mail-order bride – a writer doing research for a book and not interested in a relationship at all – arrives.
Great silliness, of course, but all propelled by Alley’s clever script and the more than a dozen songs crafted by Alley and James Kaplan. They range from the laugh-out-loud “Buncha Naked Lumberjacks” and “I Think I’m in Love With the Kid” to the moving “Winds of Morning” to “It Would Be Enough For Me,” which is both in one song.
With most of the cast returning from the show’s 2001 revival, Fred “Doc” Heide, Jeffrey Herbst and the irrepressible Doug Mancheski (back as another round as scene stealer Dirty Bob) bring their “A” game to the proceedings. Jon Andrew Hegge has the unenviable task of stepping into Alley’s shoes with grace as love-confused Moonlight. He doesn’t replace the memories of Alley in the role, but still makes Moonlight his own.
Those seeing “Lumberjacks in Love” for the first time will find a joyful romp through the crazy adventures and even crazier minds of a bunch of lumberjacks as they try to negotiate love, mortality and a desperate need to bathe. Longtime fans will find the same thing – but also have something of a bittersweet taste, as they think about what’s missing. Whatever the reason, “Lumberjacks in Love” is one trip to the woods that shouldn’t be missed.
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