Tag Archives: Footlighters

The French Rivera Comes to Newport, KY in the Hilarious Musical Comedy DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

NEWPORT, KY — The Footlighters, Inc., is ecstatic to present the fourth and final show of their 2024–2025 season, a side-splitting comedy based on the 1988 Steve Martin and Michael Caine movie of the same name, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Lawrence Jameson makes his lavish living by charming wealthy women out of their money. Freddy Benson swindles much humbler amounts from sympathetic women with fabricated stories about his grandmother’s failing health. After a chance meeting on a train, the men attempt to work together—only to find that this small French town isn’t big enough for the two of them. They agree on a settlement: The first one to extract $50,000 from heiress Christine Colgate wins, and the other must leave town. But who’s really conning who?

After bringing the house down night after night as UPS delivery man Kyle in last year’s Legally Blonde, longtime community theater stalwart and accomplished performer Rob Workley graces the Footlighters stage once again as French inspector Andre Thibault. After catching the theater bug watching a close friend perform in Chess, Rob made his community theater debut in Cincinnati Music Theatre’s La Cage aux Folles in 2006. He has been an onstage fixture at numerous groups over the last 19 years, including Cincinnati Music Theatre, Mariemont Players, Loveland Stage Company, and Footlighters. Just as capable offstage as onstage, Rob serves on Cincinnati Music Theatre’s Board of Directors as their Aronoff liaison, and he can often be found working behind the scenes—whether running the Aronoff’s fly rail, working as master carpenter to build sets, or serving on various committees. He’ll add another line to his already impressive resume as he puts his design skills to work as set designer and master carpenter of Cincinnati Music Theatre’s fall show, A Christmas Story.

Performances:

  • Thursday – Saturday, May 1 – 3 at 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 p.m.
  • Thursday – Saturday, May 8 – 10 at 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 11 at 2:00 p.m.
  • Thursday – Saturday, May 15 – 17 at 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 18 at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets: $25 each and available online at footlighters.org/tickets or by contacting the box office via text or phone call at (859) 652-3849 or FootlightersTickets@gmail.com.

The Footlighters, Inc., has been producing quality community theater shows in Greater Cincinnati for over 60 years. The group was established in 1963 by a small group of volunteers who wanted to bring theater opportunities to the west side of Cincinnati.

In 1987, the group bought the Salem United Methodist Church in Newport and transformed it into The Stained Glass Theatre. The theater is on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated a Kentucky landmark. In September of 2021, Footlighters completed the third and final phase of their accessibility project by adding ADA-compliant seating in their theater to complement the ADA ramp and elevator installed in 2017 and 2018, allowing access for all patrons with limited mobility.

For more information, please visit footlighters.org or like The Footlighters, Inc., on Facebook.

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2025-2026 Season Announced by Footlighters, Inc.

Footlighters, Inc. is proud to announce our 2025-2026 season

THE WIZARD OF OZ
Directed by Zac Holman
September 4-21, 2025

THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Directed by Aubrey E. Wilson
November 6-23, 2025

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Directed by Jerry Wiesenhahn
January 29-February 15, 2026

GUYS AND DOLLS
Directed by Jennifer Day
April 16-May 3, 2026

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ALTAR BOYZ Runs Feb. 13-March 2

ALTAR BOYZ
Footlighters, Inc.
Feb. 13-March 2
Stained Glass Theatre [Newport]

Directed by Bunny Arszman
Vocal Direction by Libby Beiting-Lipps
Music Direction by George Drewyor
Choreography by JV Katz

Cast: Alex Devore as Matthew, Michael Richart as Mark, Christopher Ball as Luke, Ray Garcia as Juan & Jacob Gildenblatt as Abraham

Get ready for a foot-stomping, rafter-raising musical comedy about a fictitious Christian boy band on the last night of their national “Raise the Praise” tour. The Boyz are five all-singing, all-dancing heartthrobs from Ohio: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham. With tight harmonies and spectacular choreography, the Altar Boyz delight their audiences with a message of unity: “there is no star as bright as its constellation, no harmony in a single voice.”

  • Thu-Sat, Feb. 13-15 at 7:30pm
  • Sun, Feb. 16 at 2pm (cancelled due to snow)
  • Thu-Sat, Feb. 20-22 at 7:30pm
  • Sun, Feb. 23 at 2pm and 5pm (added for cancelled 2/16 performance)
  • Thu-Sat, Feb. 27-March 1 at 7:30pm
  • Sun, March 2 at 2pm

Official page

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The Passing of Robert Weidle

12/17 – Robert’s obituary with Visitation & Funeral Service information.

From the GoFundMe set up to help his family with funeral expenses…

Robert Weidle, Everyone’s Santa (1962-2024)

It is with broken hearts that we announce the sudden passing of one of our longtime family members, the wonderful Robert Weidle. Anyone who met him loved Robert. With his distinctive laugh and gentle demeanor, he had an inherent way of connecting with people instantly. Robert wore many hats at in local theatre: He was a gifted performer, director, producer, board member, and box office manager with Newport’s Footlighters Inc, and he shared his talents with countless other groups in the area, such as Cincinnati Music Theatre, Mariemont Players, The Drama Workshop, Brieabi Productions, and Beechmont Players—just to name a few. He was actively involved with ACT Cincinnati as an adjudicator and ACT representative, as well as OCTA as a board member, regional rep, and OCTAFest chairperson. He performed professionally at La Comedia in such iconic musicals as Cats and Sound of Music. And, of course, with his big infectious smile and jovial disposition, he was known to the entire Tri-State area as Cincinnati’s Santa Claus. In fact, he was THE Santa Claus for an entire generation of boys and girls, many of whom brought their own children to visit with him at the zoo. But his favorite roles were that of partner to David, father to Rob and Cassidy, and grandfather to Mia and Keito. His unexpected passing leaves a hole in our organization as big as his generous and kind heart. We will miss him terribly.

With Robert’s unexpected passing, there are many financial costs that his children will have to cover. We are using this Go Fund Me to help them defray the cost of his funeral and burial. Thank you for your support for a man who gave us so much joy over the years!

We will announce funeral service information as soon as it is available.

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Cast Announced for DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS at Footlighters, Inc.

FLI_logoThe cast includes:

  • Wayne Wright as Lawrence Jameson,
  • Robert Breslin as Freddy Benson,
  • Rebecca Wall as Christine Colgate,
  • Robert Workley as Andre Thibault,
  • Jen Drake as Muriel Eubanks &
  • Laura Petracco as Jolene Oakes
  • Ensemble: Joey Domhoff, Kyle Fisher, Sarah Gidley, Matthew O’Brien, Jonathan White, Alexis Pinto, Kevin Rutkowski, Josh Stothfang, Caitlyn Thiel, Aimée Ward & Anna Wesselman

Directed and Choreographed by Jerry Wiesenhahn
Music Direction by Charlie Wilhelm
Co-Produced by George Fee and Kristen Vincenty

Lawrence Jameson makes his lavish living by charming wealthy women out of their money. Freddy Benson swindles much humbler amounts from sympathetic women with fabricated stories about his grandmother’s failing health. After a chance meeting on a train, they attempt to work together—only to find that this small French town isn’t big enough for the two of them. They agree on a settlement: The first one to extract $50,000 from heiress Christine Colgate wins, and the other must leave town. But who’s really conning who?

Performances run May 1-18.

For more information visit www.footlighters.org.

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