photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Juan Deras (Jamal), left, and Mario Bonilla (ensemble) rehearse for Theatre Lawrence's "Escape to Margaritaville."

Theatre Lawrence is ending its season with what Mary Doveton calls a perfect beginning to summer: “Escape to Margaritaville.”

It’s a jukebox musical — directed by Doveton — featuring the biggest hits of the late tropical troubador Jimmy Buffett, including “Margaritaville,” of course, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” and other tipsy takes on life and how best to live it.

The 2017 show, written by Greg Garcia and Mike O’Malley, features a character named Tully (played by Dave Glauner), a singer at a run-down hotel in the Caribbean. When Rachel, a scientist, (Maggie Shermoen) and her friend Tammy (Shelby Easum) visit ahead of Tammy’s wedding, Rachel turns Tully’s head. The inevitable culture clash and vacation epiphanies ensue, and three separate love stories unfold in the shadow of a rumbling volcano.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Dave Glauner (Tully) and Maggie Shermoen (Rachel) rehearse for Theatre Lawrence’s “Escape to Margaritaville.”

The plot, entirely concocted from Buffett lyrics, is first and foremost a vehicle for Buffett’s music, and the show’s musical director, Susan Hires, is hoping audiences won’t be shy about singing along — “if you know the words,” that is.

Hires found that some of the younger folks associated with the production, while obviously familiar with a cheeseburger, were wholly unacquainted with a “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” Buffett’s 1978 hit about “Heaven on earth with an onion slice.”

“There’s definitely a line between those of us that grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett on the radio and those that are not sure what a radio is,” Hires said of the show’s 20-member cast, which ranges from Gen Z to Boomers. “For a lot of them, this is just not music that they’re used to hearing.”

One of Hires’ favorite tunes is Buffett’s achy love song “Come Monday,” a half-century old now, and she was a bit taken aback when a young cast member was having difficulties with it.

“He was really having trouble with that rhythm, and I kept looking at him like he had two heads, and finally he just looked at me and said, ‘Susan, I’ve never heard the song before.’ And I’m like oh my God. OK, honey.”

Hires, a full-time voice teacher whose background is in opera and German Lieder, took the actor out to the theater’s hallway for a tutorial on the song’s rhythm.

“I clapped it and sang it for him and made him clap it back and sing it with me about 14 times. And now he’s got it,” she said. “He’s nailing it now. He’s phenomenal.”

It’s this attention to exactitude that has Doveton singing Hires’ praises.

“The person who has really done a fabulous job is Susan,” Doveton said. “She has really had an epic job putting all this together because it’s not like a regular big musical where you have all the notes written out. A lot of this was written for guitar and until you get the entire band there, it’s hard to get a sense of how the music is really going to sound.”

As Hires puts it, “Mary (Doveton) has a vision of the way she wants things to look, and I have a vision of the way I want things to sound.”

One of Hires’ many jobs as musical director is assembling a top-notch group of instrumentalists — pianists, guitarists, drummers, horn players — who, for this production, will appear on stage with the actors.

But she also was involved in auditions, “to hear what voices are going to blend well on particular songs,” she said, “so that we put the right people together.”

“Then the next thing I need do is teach all the music to everybody,” in the matter of a few weeks. It’s a hard slog, she admits, but there’s always that satisfying moment when she can look at the director and choreographer and say, “Hey, I think we have a show.”

Hires is pleased that the show’s writers included some of Buffett’s lesser known songs — though Parrotheads, the hard-core Buffett aficionados, will know them all front to back.

“If we just scratch the surface, we think that it’s all drinking, laid back, surf kind of stuff,” she said, stuff that’s “peppy,” like “Cheeseburger.”

“You cannot do this show without ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise,” she said, noting that a big plot point involves eating, “but they’ve also used some of the beautiful, beautiful ballads like ‘A Pirate Looks at Forty’ and ‘Son of a Son of a Sailor,'” which she described as gorgeous and heart-felt.

“Escape to Margaritaville” opens Friday at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, and will have multiple performances through June 22.

As Theatre Lawrence regulars know, each show features a tie-in cocktail, and this show’s poison will obviously be the margarita — “that frozen concoction that helps you hang on.”

On June 20, a special pre-show presentation at 6 p.m. will feature tips on how to make a margarita and its many variations. For information about tickets, call 785-843-SHOW (7469) or go online at theatrelawrence.com.

Theatre Lawrence’s 2025-26 season will begin in September with the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning rock musical “Next to Normal.”

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Joshua Cuffe (Brick) and Shelby Easum (Tammy) rehearse for Theatre Lawrence’s “Escape to Margaritaville.”