Blake McIver Ewing, Marcia Mitzman Gaven Lead The Boy From Oz in Rochester

Blake McIver Ewing (Full House) and Marcia Mitzman Gaven (The Who’s Tommy) will star in The Boy From Oz September 12-29 at the OFC Creations Theatre Center in Rochester, New York.

Ewing, who plays Peter Allen, and Gaven, who plays Judy Garland, costarred together 30 years ago in the 1997 American premiere production of Ragtime. Gaven was Mother and Ewing was Edgar, her son.

Directed by Eric Vaughan Johnson, the musical also stars Channing Weir as Liza Minnelli, Laura Jean Diekmann as Marion Woolnough, Tripp Hanson as Dee Anthony, Jack Saleeby as Greg Connell Jacob Anspach as Chris Bell, Brett Cole Young as Mark Herron, Cameron Korzinski as Young Peter, Jack Hartman as the Young Peter understudy, and Nellie Cotrupe, Sam Guida,  Qawiyya Haqq, Claire Kennard, Julia Polisoto, and Rico Velasquez.

Written by Martin Sherman and Nick Enright, with classic songs by Peter Allen including “I Honestly Love You” and “Best That You Can Do,” the bio-musical follows Allen’s rise to international stardom, friendship with Judy Garland and marriage to her daughter Liza, and eventual death at the height of the AIDS crisis.

According to production notes, this is the first time The Boy From Oz is being performed in New York State since the original 2003 Broadway production, which was famously led by Hugh Jackman.

As a child performer, McIver is best known for playing Michelle Tanner’s friend Derek in Full House and Waldo in 1994’s film The Little Rascals. Gaven, a longtime Broadway vet seen in Chess and Zorba, also voiced the roles of Maude Flanders, Miss Hoover, and many others in the early seasons of The Simpsons.