About Us

Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston's mission is to present the highest quality of musical theatre productions by combining talented regional performers with professional performers and technicians, thus providing an unusual learning experience for its regular members and more enjoyable experiences for its audiences. Reagle Music Theatre is committed to using the skills of its company to strengthen and enhance teaching and learning in the Waltham Public Schools by educating youth to the joys of theatre, and by using theatre techniques to enhance learning in other curriculum areas.

Our offerings include musicals, concerts, revues, educational programming, New York theatergoing trips, and more.

History

What To Do With An Empty School Theatre?

Following a successful Spring 1969 production of The Music Man, a group of Waltham High School students and alumni began planning a summer theatre under the leadership of Robert J. Eagle. This was not only an opportunity for students to learn and grow, but it was, as Superintendent James FitzGerald put it, "an excellent use of an empty school theater." With support from Mayor Richard F. Dacey and the Waltham City Council, the company's first production - Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel - opened to great acclaim, and the "Reagle Players" (renamed the Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston in 2010) were established.

The connection to the former Waltham High School has remained through the past 50 years. In return, Reagle has provided financial support for the school, including a $1.2 million dollar renovation and addition to the Fine Arts Wing (including a dance studio, costume and prop workshops, and an improved rigging system), a professional stage floor, and state-of-the-art lighting equipment. The National Endowment for the Arts has yet to find another professional theatre company connected so closely to a public school system.

Bringing Broadway To Greater Boston

Even before Reagle Music Theatre became a professional theatre, it valued excellence in production quality, casting, and design. Broadway choreography is recreated for many shows, and large orchestras are always employed. Reagle Music Theatre also owns costumes and sets from several Broadway and touring productions. Reagle's productions are facilitated by numerous employees (including a year-round staff of a half dozen), creative professionals, members of theatrical unions, and volunteers.

Reagle employed its first professional actor in 1984: Robert Fitch, who reprised his original Broadway role of Rooster Hannigan in Annie. Since then, Reagle has employed countless members of Actors' Equity Association (the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States) and aspiring professionals who have gone on to become members of Actors' Equity. Reagle has been a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre since 1991.

Past summer productions have featured performances by world-class theatre artists such as Shirley Jones (Cousin Nettie in Carousel), Sally Struthers (Annie), Lee Meriwether (Mame), John Davidson (The Sound of Music), Lorenzo Lamas (A Chorus Line), Jo Anne Worley (Hello, Dolly!), Donna McKechnie (No, No, Nanette), Kirby and Beverly Ward (numerous shows, including Crazy For You), Sarah Pfisterer and Rick Hilsabeck (numerous shows, including My Fair Lady), Rachel York (several shows, including 42nd Street), Brent Barrett (Guys and Dolls), Anita Gillette (Bye Bye Birdie), Andrea McArdle (Annie Get Your Gun), Stephen Bogardus (Damn Yankees), Patrick Cassidy (The Sound of Music), Michel Bell (Show Boat), Robert Fitch (Annie), and Lara Teeter (On Your Toes).

Over the past 50 years, Reagle Music Theatre has won six Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Best Musical, three dozen individual IRNE Awards, three Moss Hart Memorial Awards, and special citations from the Boston Theatre Critics Association and the IRNE Awards.

Concerts, Revues, and More

In addition to summer musicals, Reagle Music Theatre also offers original musical revues (including the long-running Remembering the 40’s, A Little Bit of Ireland, Irving Berlin's Say It With Music, and ChristmasTime) and a year-round concert series.

The concert series has welcomed performers and musical groups such as Robert Goulet, Debbie Reynolds, Ann-Margret, Patti LuPone, Tommy Tune, Mitzi Gaynor, Patti Page, Lucie Arnaz, Herb Reed and the Platters, Vicki Lawrence, the Manhattan Rhythm Kings with Shirley Jones, and the Lettermen.

Training The Next Generation

We offer four-day educational programs each February and April school vacations, and a four-week workshop each July, to help encourage the next generation of theatre practitioners and theatre aficionados. All of our educational programs offer master classes with noted theatre professionals, and the sessions end with a showcase. Students enrolled in our July workshop receive complimentary tickets to a Reagle Music Theatre production, and need-based scholarships are available for our educational programs.