Musical set in Lewiston during Ali-Liston fight to debut at Franco Center

LEWISTON — “Come Out Swingin’!,” a new musical set in Lewiston during the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston heavyweight championship boxing match, will be presented at the Gendron Franco Center the weekend of Nov. 22 to 24.
It’s the spring of 1965, two weeks before Ali — then still widely known as Cassius Clay — is scheduled to defend his heavyweight title in a rematch against the notorious Liston. Controversy surrounding Liston and some licensing problems in Massachusetts have forced the promoters to quickly find another venue for the fight. They choose St. Dom’s Arena (now the Androscoggin Bank Colisée) in Lewiston, just about the unlikeliest venue ever for a heavyweight championship bout.
A co-production of the Franco Center and the L-A Community Little Theatre, the show is about a lot more than boxing.
“It’s a musical comedy with lots of laughs, and it’s set against the tectonic shifts happening in America in the 1960s,” says Brian Daly, who wrote the show, “but beneath the fun on the surface, it invites the audience to recognize our common humanity.”
“It’s more a story of the people of Lewiston and their reaction to that historic event. It’s really a story about Lewiston,” notes Richard Martin, who is directing the show. He points out that the full title of the show is “Come Out Swingin’!: A Lewiston Story,” because the real focus is on how Lewiston residents coped with all the excitement and associated media scrutiny, as well as how visitors perceived the city and its residents.
The show features City Hall staffer Mickey St. Pierre (played by Zachariah Stearns), who thinks the fight could really put Lewiston on the map. Local choir director Connie (Emma Jones) is set to accompany Robert Goulet on the organ when he sings the national anthem, and exotic dancer Boom Boom Vavoom (Erin Marenghi) hopes to move up in show business by parading around the ring as the round-card girl.
Other characters include local know-it-all “Teddy One Thing” (Bill McCue); bookish young reporter Marcel (Jacob Sutherland); excitable Jeannette (Lynn O’Donnell) and her poker-faced daughter Cathy (Olivia Deschenes); and Bates Mill worker Germaine (Bre Allard), who insists that big shots who are coming to town will laugh at locals like her and her fiddle-playing husband Phil (Ernie Gagne).
There is also Sarge (Dan Crawford) of the Lewiston Police Department, who feels honored to be put in charge of security for the fight until café owner Rita (Lucy Poland) tells him he’s being set up to take the fall in case something bad happens.
The show features 20 original songs written by Daly, a published author who has written other screenplays and stage productions, including the screenplay adaptation of his book “Big and Hairy” for a Showtime feature of the same title starring Richard Thomas.
Daly and Martin emphasize that the show maintains its unique Lewiston flavor. “The Gendron Franco Center for Heritage, Culture and the Performing Arts is rooted in the traditions of Maine’s French-speaking ancestors,” Martin says. “It’s the perfect venue for this show. There are even a couple of scenes set in St. Mary’s Church, which is now the Franco Center!”
Performances will be 7:30 on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22 and 23, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. Tickets are available online at www.francocenter.org/events/come-out-swingin-2/. For more information, call the box office at 207-689-2000.