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NEW BEDFORD — George Charbonneau remembers his actors, some barefoot, running under the Zeiterion stage, at the time an unfinished passageway covered in wet newspapers and tracked-in dirt. It was the summer of 1983, and a cast of high schoolers was putting on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
It was toasty backstage, as the air conditioning was busted. But they made do, propping open the doors on Spring Street to let cooler air draft in.
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◉ Follow us @newbedfordlight on social media with the hashtag #zeiterionreopens for live coverage of the Jan. 17 grand re-opening.
The show was a hit, and it marked the beginning of a formal relationship between Charbonneau, his life and professional partner Armand Marchand — and The Zeiterion.
The New Bedford High School teachers, who ran the school’s drama club, started a theatrical summer program at the Z, serving as co-directors. But by 1990 — to the pair’s surprise — the Z changed its programming, deciding to stop producing the summer musicals. But Charbonneau and Marchand wanted their work to continue. The result was the debut of the New Bedford Festival Theatre.
The Festival Theatre has put on more than 40 plays and musicals since, using local talent and students mixed with actors from New York and across the country. Some shows have won awards, and several actors have gone on to Broadway.
After two years of small-stage productions at the Steeple Playhouse while the Z underwent renovations, the Festival Theatre will return in full this summer with Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville, a 2017 jukebox musical set in the Caribbean.
“We want all our patrons to feel like they’re walking into a big summer celebration, because that’s how we feel about going back to the Z,” said Elizabeth Bettencourt, the Festival Theatre’s producing artistic director. “Joyous and celebratory.”
Festival Theatre’s history
The Festival Theatre’s formal run at the Z started in 1990 with “La Cage aux Folles,” followed by classics like “Hello, Dolly!,” “Evita,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “West Side Story,” “Annie,” “Chicago,” “Cabaret,” “Les Miserables” and “Cats.”
Charbonneau, now 81, carries many memories as the decades-long artistic director.
For “Singing in the Rain,” he remembers the crew testing the overhead pipes that would make the artificial rain fall on Don Lockwood during his iconic scene. Charbonneau was sitting in the house section when water sprayed out (they repaired the leak in the system for opening night — precluding a more sensory production).
They had another water snafu during “Les Miserables.” One night, a “horrendous” rain storm hit, Charbonneau recalls. Water poured down Spring Street and filled the catch basins, forcing water to gush through the Z’s toilets and into the dressing rooms. The cast scrambled to move the costumes to safety.
For “Cats,” in 2006, they had the entire set transported from a production in California. Charbonneau says Marchand was determined to get it for one reason: it came with a hydraulic lift tire, on which Grizabella sings “Memory” before walking up a hanging staircase to cat heaven.
Charbonneau at times also stood on the Z’s stage, playing the club’s emcee in “Cabaret” in 1987, a role that earned him a cover on The Standard-Times’ Sunday edition; and Major-General Stanley in “The Pirates of Penzance,” a comic opera that premiered in the late 1800s.
For that run in 1995, he remembers the raucous applause he received when he entered stage right — not just on the first night, but the following two shows as well.
“I’m not patting myself on the back,” Charbonneau said. “But it stopped the show. The place went crazy.”
That play was Bettencourt’s introduction with the Festival Theatre. Then, only 16 years old and an apprentice, she played one of the Major-General’s daughters alongside professional actors.
She’d go on to play Charbonneau’s daughter in another production, and decades later, assume the artistic director role he held until his retirement in 2023, though it has evolved into the producing artistic director.
“It’s truly a place where a lot of local professionals have gotten their start,” she said. “It shaped the rest of my life.”
The New Z
The new theater will honor its longstanding relationship with the Festival Theatre, including its founders.
Before Marchand, who served as producer for more than 30 years, could see the restored Z, he died tragically last summer in New York City. It was a place the couple, who married in 2004 (though they got together in the 1960s), frequented for both business and pleasure — catching as many Broadway shows as they could between hosting auditions.
But Marchand’s legacy is present.
It is felt throughout the historic home he shared with Charbonneau for more than 30 years. Pictures of the two from parties, shows and their travels across the world cover most surfaces. On the wall at the entrance — so visitors will be hard-pressed to miss them — hang their lifelong achievement awards and honorary doctorates, side by side.
Charbonneau and Marchand remain a pair there, and they’ll remain one at the Z, where their names will be etched into the walls as the Armand Marchand & George Charbonneau Box Office.
“I’m so excited about that,” Charbonneau said, tossing his head back. He wears two gold wedding bands; one was Marchand’s. “It’s so sweet of them to do that, especially for Armand, because he was always checking the box office.”
As the Z prepares to re-open its doors, it will start another evolution in its relationship with the Festival Theatre. In addition to the honors at the box office, the Festival Theatre will have a new rehearsal space at the theater. Historically, they’ve used local churches.
The cast can rehearse there for the summer musical, for which auditions close on Jan. 23. But before they prepare to celebrate the island-rock music of Buffett, they must fine-tune their performances for the grand re-opening on Jan. 17.
Members of the Festival Theatre, sporting suits and sequined gowns, will share a stage with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and together celebrate the “golden age of musicals,” Bettencourt said. Numbers include “Climb Every Mountain” from “The Sound of Music,” “Memory” from “Cats,” and “A Little Priest” from “Sweeney Todd.”
They’ve also added some modern hits to the program, like Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” she said.
“I hope with the money that’s been spent, the talent that’s been put into it, that the people will come and truly appreciate a real gem of downtown,” said Charbonneau. “We love what we do. And we hope the audience loves what we do.”
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
I love the theatre ,I remember went Hank Williams Jr.was there and The Wizard of Oz.And plenty of more.This is a great place.Thanks you again for bring it back.
Regarding the first production of SUPERSTAR; David Benoit and I were added to the cast. David BRILLIANTLY played the part of King Herod and I played Simon Zelalot. I was honored to be a part of that maiden production and several subsequent NBFT Productions at the Z!