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‘Cheers Live On Stage’ Gives Audience Members The Opportunity To Appear On Stage

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:35 PST, Jun 22, 2016

Cheers Live on Stage is an upcoming production based the iconic TV sitcom Cheers, which ran from 1982 to 1993. Prior to the stage adaptation, Cheers managed to spawn a spin-off with the show Frasier.

According to People, Cheers Live on Stage will be a two-act comedy based on the fictional patrons of one Boston’s most famous bars.

Fans of the show will finally get a chance to revisit their beloved show once again. The Cheers Live on Stage production will be drawing inspiration from the first season of the show, which aired in 1982, and will feature 14 actors with an estimated running time of two hours.

Erik Forrest Jackson, the show writer, spoke on the main focus of Cheers Live on Stage.

“I took season 1 of Cheers and put it all into a big pot and cooked it up and boiled it down. The main through-line is the relationship between Sam and Diane but done in a way so it feels fresh.”

None of the original stars, including Ted Danson and John Ratzenberger, will be appearing in the touring production. But to make up for it, a select few lucky fans will get the chance to share the spotlight with the stage actors. The director, Matt Lenz, said that Cheers Live on Stage will feature at least 10 pre-selected audience members who will take to the stage each night to portray bar patrons. They’ll be outfitted in appropriate outfits that fit the theme of the show. The set for Cheers Live on Stage will be heavily modeled after the TV show, and the original theme music will be used as well.

Erik Forrest Jackson spoke on the nostalgia that the show will trigger.

“It will ring bells and feel familiar when Carla talks about her crazy offspring, and Norm moans about not being able to get a job, and Cliff drops another one of his little known ‘facts’.”

Fans who are eager to see the Cheers Live on Stage production will have until the show debuts in September. According to TV Series Finale, the first performance of Cheers Live on Stage will symbolically take place in the original setting of the show itself: Boston.

Cheers Live on Stage plays at the Shubert Theater in Boston from September 9-18. As mentioned, none of the original cast, which included Rhea Perlman as Carla, Shelley Long as Diane, and George Wendt as Norm, are scheduled to appear.

Announcements on the potential cast are still yet to be made. But what is known is that, being based on the first season, Cheers Live on Stage will not feature any of the characters that made appearances in later seasons of the show, such as Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) and Frasier Crane, who was portrayed by Kelsey Grammer in the show and in his own spin-off, Frasier.

Ultimately, the writer of Cheers Live on Stage hope that the stage production will do justice to the legacy of the original Cheers show, which won 28 Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards during its run.

Erik Forrest Jackson spoke on making Cheers Live on Stage hold up to the legacy of the show.

“This is almost like a sacred text. I can infuse it with new life and energy, but I have to be respectful of the original.”

The original Cheers ran for 11 seasons, and the show is as popular now as it has ever been, as it still lives on in DVD sets and TV reruns.

[Photo by Gabe Palacio/ImageDirect/Getty Images]

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