scnpf 2025: merlin returns, starring piff the magic dragon
the south carolina new play festival was in its fourth year here in greenville, and like all good theatre ghosts who love a good show, i couldn’t bear the thought of missing a single one. so i went ahead and donated to this year’s SCNPF (at the “standing room” level, because, hi, while i’m an avid supporter of the arts, i’m also an artist and therefore not quite yet at the point in my career where i can quite be a “front row” VIP.)
like the public theater’s shakespeare in the park (see my summer adventure bucket list item checked off here!) mantra of free theatre. for all. forever., the south carolina new play festival is built with the intent to make theatre accessible.
for all.
which means all the shows are free.
AND, as they’re all new plays (and musicals!), the creators are getting “free” test audiences.
they can workshop their shows.
then test them out.
live.
with real actors.
pros who have rehearsed for all of two or three days before the live audience arrives.
which is terrifying.
and probably also thrilling.
the three-minutes-to-curtain crowd at the gunter theatre, downtown greenville, sc, 8/7/2025.
the first show of the 2025 festival?
MERLIN RETURNS: STARRING PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON.
live and in-person at the gunter theatre on thursday evening.*
*(yes, that’s thursday, august the 7th, 2025. thank you for journeying back in time with me. i took good notes. so here we are in november re-living the memories. savvy?) :)
i’d gotten out of work early so i could make it downtown on time for the first show of the festival.
and lo & behold: when i left work… my car* wouldn’t start.
*(bessie is doing much better now, thank you for asking.)
like all good theatre kids, i packed a nutritious dinner since i wouldn’t have time after work and before the show. there’s a 100% chance i still didn’t eat said “dinner” (above) until 11pm.
mom & dad (only child here, and yes, they retired here in my city. & yes, i don’t mind in these instances) rescued me, and after dad got the ignition to kick in (miracle? early piff magic?), they followed me to the garage where we dropped bessie’s key in the overnight box (gotta love an envelope system), and i dropped them off at their house and i got to borrow “myrtle the turtle” (dad’s 207K mile-strong honda element) to get to the show.
i parked.
i city-walked.
i made it with three minutes to spare to my seat.
whew!*
*(this was all a LOT for a theatre ghost introvert, mind you. once The Plans go awry i’m more than likely to skip the whole production and hide under my covers with the lights off than risk being on time or *gasp* late to a happening.)
anyhow, with those three WHole (gah!) minutes to spare, guess who was seated in the row in front of me?!
joe serafini from high school musical: the musical: the series!*
*(i’m obsessed with this disney+ show; have used it as a comp for my own middle grade novel currently out on submission with my literary agent; and am currently in my 4th or 5th re-watch while introducing it to my writing-actor-goddess-pal R.)
i was just jittery and awkward enough to step over the couple who’d entered the row to my left and tap joe on the shoulder and ask for an autograph in my notebook.
i babbled something incoherent, and like all kind celebrities, he smiled and nodded and asked me questions and behold—
the proof of my meeting:
^ aaand the awkward pap shot i got to text to said friend R* before i met him, shaking like i’m not twenty years older than he is.
*(who when i’d sent her the show announcement with joe’s face on it hadn’t quite connected that he was going to be HERE in greenville performing! — he appears later in this blog at the second-to-last show i saw: MY FAVORITE SOCIOPATH— which i saw on sunday afternoon at the warehouse theatre.)
so, once the audience was seated, MERLIN RETURNS: STARRING PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON* began.
*(okay, i didn’t know who this was ahead of the show, but he won AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, is currently in residence in at the flamingo in vegas (!), aaaaand is the star of an episode of the new season of QUEER EYE on netflix (season 9; episode 3!)
the cast board in the lobby, PIFF (and mr. piffles) top right. have i mentioned how much i LOVE the vibe of scnpf? non-pretentious even if there are lanyard-wearing donors in the crowd. (teehee, me too! although you won’t peg me for one of the millionaires in the front row laughing at the production fund-raising jokes included in the show.) ;)
the show began with a video message from (the!) nathan lane, talking about the magician doug henning, who (along with his magic) “starred” in the 1983’s broadway musical, MERLIN.
as nathan lane said (“two margaritas, i’ll tell you anything”), “[doug] was a triple threat: he couldn’t sing, act, or dance.”
nor could he do an english accent.
i suppose i was too young to know it at the time, but WOW, the early 80’s were wild if this photo of magician/broadway “actor”/british politician doug henning is any indication.
MERLIN ran ten months.
nathan lane (who played the womanizer, prince fergus, obviously) said:
“it was the longest preview in history. when we opened, people thought it was a revival.”
after such an introduction, i honestly forget now how the cast made me laugh so hard for the next two hours.*
*(i heard friday night’s peformance was shorter on account of the performance going more smoothly. but smooth is boring in comedy, no?) ;)
if i recall semi-accurately, i think the premise might have been that piff wanted to revive doug henning’s “merlin,” couldn’t get the rights, and was putting together a “new” magic show for broadway: MERLIN RETURNS.
so the audience came along for testing the plot of the show, testing the cast, and… some audience participation in some magic tricks along the way.
the narrator let us know that the opening number? written two days ago.
there were, indeed, v. impressive magic tricks.*
*(even with a video camera on stage showing us close-ups on the large stage-screen of piff at work, if it’s “slight of hand,” and not magic, it was undetectable.)
there was a whole lot of improv. [the fact of which i only found out from one of the actors (who played “jimmy” as the young “christian slater” in this show) at a workshop on saturday.]
and, perhaps the snl-effect:
the show is even funnier when things went wrong.
ex: “mr. piffles has found your card, and he’s changed it.”
alas, i thought the “mistakes” were part of the show.
some of the jokes were very greenville-donor specific (the director and the book’s co-writter is the SCNPF president, west hyler!), but of course those lines were catering to the current audience—and can be changed as/when/if the show goes on tour or lands itself, as i imagine is the goal, on broadway.
here are some lines from the show (out of context, and whether they were scripted or improvized, i suppose i’ll never know) that still make me laugh:
“it’s not david copperfield, it’s a magic chihuahua.”
“look here, it even says here—‘these lines are stupid.’”
“that’s entirely too much yellow.”
“just describing it for the people in the back.”
(i promise: missed cues are funnier live.)
“having lost excalibur—and the plot a little bit…”
and the repeated classic (from a highly-untrained but good-sport of an audience participant):
“because i’m nathan lane.”
by the end of the show, we learned what happened to the real douglas henning after his broadway debut (“a flop on broadway is still a show on broadway, right?”):
he moved to england. (despite the lack of english accent), and got involved in british politics.
he started the “natural law party,” and his platform was that transcendental meditation would fix the world.
no, but really.
you can see the full video on youtube here: https://youtu.be/rfEekpBWrcI?si=du9ecGxmYvmQqM_T
you’re welcome.
and one more MERLIN RETURNS quote to end on:
“now you’ll just have to wait for broadway for that.”
oooooh, indeed. i WOULD love to see this on broadway.
even if it was chaotic as this as-presented music-stand musical and not a fully-staged production.
honestly, i don’t even need the special effects they (said/joked) didn’t have the budget for this round.
real people making real art and making real people laugh.
in real time.
don’t you think mr. piffles would totally agree with me?
it’s probably what’s gonna heal the world—it at least might give us a better chance than hopping on our knees to a better future.
coming up next: the world’s funniest, most inappropriate break-up musical of all time: THE BREAK.
stay tuned. i’m realllly sorry if you missed this one!!