"Tuck Everlasting" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen - Sterling Community Theatre (Sterling, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: The CAST of the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“Don't be afraid of death. Be afraid of unlived life. You don't have to live forever...you just have to live!"
- ("Angus Tuck") / Claudia Shear and Tim Federle
Sterling Community Theatre
Presents the Musical
"TUCK EVERLASTING"
Book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle
Music by Chris Miller
Lyrics by Nathan Tysen
Based on the novel "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbitt
Directed by Abby Waterhouse
Music Director Kris Layton
Choreographer Kaden Scopelliti
Produced by Katie Hebert
Cast Includes: Amelia Cormier as “Winnie Foster,” Elijah Corbin as “Jesse Tuck,” Aidan Hughes as “Miles Tuck,” Alex Wink as “Mae Tuck,” Taylor Lawton as “Angus Tuck,” Chris Quigley as “Man in the Yellow Suit,” Chay Tower-Hughes as “Contstable Joe,” Andy Beshaw as “Hugo,” Beth Wilson as “Mother (Betsy Foster),” Cathy Powers as “Nana.”
Ensemble: Zoe Bodinizzo, Eliza Brown, Hailee Dorval, Lilah Duffy, Gilda Fitzpatrick, Sharon Frechette, Eamon Griffin, Claire Hacket, Caroline Hubbard, Bethany Koch, Jackson Linstruth, Andrew Sallese, Bella Spring, Alex Wilhelm, Brenna Washburn.
Additional Creative Team:
Costumers - Kelley Manson, Joyce Leite; Dance Captain - Caroline Hubbard; Financial Coordinator - Shaun Manson; Lighting Design - Cindy Baer; Set Design - Robert Hill; Sound Design - Patrick Flynn; Stage Crew - Dom Pappagallo, John Harris, Kiley Kruger, Alahnah Paquette, Samantha West.
Performances:
September 11, 2026 through September 19, 2026
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
All shows are performed in the Parish Hall of the First Church in Sterling, 6 Meetinghouse Hill Road, Sterling, MA. 01564
TICKETS:
For all questions regarding tickets please send an email to scttickets@gmail.com
GET TICKETS
"TUCK EVERLASTING" is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review contains spoilers)
As seasons begin to change from summer to autumn, Sterling Community Theatre (SCT) presents a sterling staging of the Broadway musical "TUCK EVERLASTING."
This is a robust production with every moment carefully staged and executed by a company.
The musical adaptation comes from the children's novel "TUCK EVERLASTING" written by Natalie Babbitt.
Featuring music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen and a book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle, the SCT production is proficiently directed by Abby Waterhouse supported by an equally capable creative team.
Combining a cast of adults and young actors, "TUCK EVERLASTING" is a deeply sentimental musical tale of love and life’s choices.
While considered a “family friendly musical” it should be noted that the SCT show also contains some mature themes (and a few moments which may prompt discussions of one especially “problematic” morality question).
The set design is especially impressive for the SCT production, featuring the entire cast involved in almost all of the scene changes, allowing for completely fluid transitions.
There are also some creative choices made in terms of lighting which augment the marvelous backdrops used in the show.
The musical adaptation of "TUCK EVERLASTING" made its debut in Georgia in 2015.
Originally slated to make its world premiere in Boston in 2013, the premiere of "TUCK EVERLASTING" was cancelled because of reported “lack of theatre availability” for its planned subsequent production in New York.
So, instead, the show began Broadway previews and opened a year later during 2016, running for an abysmal 28 previews and 39 performances.
While a box office disappointment….okay, “flop”… the production itself was not overlooked by critics.
In addition to winning three technical awards, the original Georgia musical production ultimately won the 2015 Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding Musical Production.
Subsequently, the original Broadway production would receive a 2016 Tony nomination for Best Costume Design, and it would receive nominations that same year by both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League for Outstanding Production of a Musical.
Since then, it has been gaining traction in regional and community theatre circles around the country, and seems to also be building a loyal fan base.
As the SCT show begins, we are transported to the small community of Treegap, New Hampshire in the vibrant opening number "Live Like This."
Costumes used in the production are colorful and very much in keeping with the story's setting of 1893.
The performers have been adeptly guided through the combined efforts of Waterhouse with musical director Kris Layton and the show’s choreographer Kaden Scopelliti.
Scopelliti, specifically, has given each musical number strategic choreography intended to propel the story forward.
Occasionally, though, the approach seems to get in its own way.
Some of the more “narrative” musical numbers - those that do not really seem to require elaborate choreography when simplified movement would suffice - leaves one to think the SCT show is actually “over-choreographed” at times.
However, this is still one of the best productions I personally have ever seen presented at SCT and much of it is due to the choreography.
In "TUCK EVERLASTING," we are introduced to 11-year-old Winnie Foster (Amelia Cormier).
Cormier is a vocal dynamo, dominating much of the story and completely in tune with the character of Winnie, especially during the number "Good Girl, Winnie Foster."
For almost a year, Winnie has been sheltered at home by her mother, Betsy (Beth Wilson), after the death of Winnie’s father and Betsy’s husband.
(Photo: Elijah Corbin as “Jesse Tuck” with Amelia Cormier as “Winnie Foster” in a scene from the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
There is a traveling fair in the area, led by an unscrupulous barker referred to only as the “Man in the Yellow Suit” (Chris Quigley) who has his own motives for being in the area.
Quigley is simply terrific as the aggressive covert con man, serving as a symbol of human greed.
He is also quite entertaining during the musical number "Join the Parade" leading the show’s talented Ensemble.
Winnie desperately wants to go to the fair, but her mother refuses to let her go.
So, Winnie sneaks out and runs into the Wood after hearing the faint sound of a music box.
Along the way, she comes across a strange tree containing a supernatural spring.
Before she can take a drink, Winnie encounters the unusual members of the Tuck Family, beginning with 17-year-old son, Jesse (Elijah Corbin), who takes an instant liking to Winnie…before kidnapping her at the behest of his older brother, Miles (Aidan Hughes).
When the boys bring Winnie to their parent’s house, Winnie is introduced to the boys’ mother, Mae (Alexandra Wink) and father, Angus (Taylor Lawton).
Winnie learns the secret of the spring which is that it has made the Tuck Family members immortal, eternally remaining at the age they are now, with Angus noting how he well knew Winnie’s great grandfather.
(Photo: Chris Quigley as the “Man in the Yellow Suit” in a scene from the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
The versatile performances by the actors portraying the Tucks showcases the various needs of each family member.
As Mae, Wink conveys how the matriarch hates being separated from her sons (necessitated so as to not draw attention to the passage of time).
Mae is also feeling distant from her husband, as she elegantly expresses her enduring melancholy in the wistful song “My Most Beautiful Day.”
Mae is the maternal anchor and fierce protector of her family, embodying unconditional love.
Jesse takes in the familiar sights of Treegap and have fun at the fair after bonding with Winnie (presumably his “Wendy”), evidenced in the somewhat disconcerting number “Seventeen.”
As the “Peter Pan-like” Jesse, Elijah Corbin perfectly expresses how the eternal teenager is the joyful symbol of eternal youth and the primary romantic temptation for pre-teen Winnie Foster (I told you it was “problematic”).
(Photo: Aidan Hughes as “Miles Tuck” in the foreground while Taylor Lawton as “Angus Tuck" has an emotional exchange with Alex Wink as “Mae Tuck” along the back during a moment from the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
Aidan Hughes delivers an outstanding performance having been given probably the most layered character in the entire story, that of Mae’s other son, Miles.
Miles is not only a son but a father who has been long separated from his son and wife (who never “benefitted” from the mystical wellspring).
Unlike his family, who have accepted their fate, Miles wants to be free, “unstuck” in time, which he explains to Winnie in the simply gorgeous song, “Time.”
Miles not only illustrates the deep, painful emotional toll of immortality, he equally proves the necessity of the life-and-death cycle.
Back at the Foster home, Betsy has called on Constable Joe (Chay Tower-Hughes) and his son Hugo (Andy Beshaw) to search for Winnie.
Tower-Hughes and Beshaw have terrific chemistry together in what appears to be an homage to the old “Andy Taylor/Barney Fife” relationship from “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Together they sing the fun, upbeat song “You Can’t Trust a Man” after meeting the unscrupulous Man in the Yellow Suit.
(Photo: Alex Wink as “Mae Tuck” from the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
Instead of being terrified at being “kidnapped,” Winnie finds being with the Tuck family fun and sees herself briefly staying with them as a kind of adventure, which has been too long missing from her life.
Soon, Jesse and Winnie find trouble in the form of the Man in Yellow and most of Act Two attempts to resolve many of the issues brought forth.
Taylor Lawton, as Angus, the Tuck patriarch, brings inert and genteel nature to Miles and Jesse’s father, not recognizing how complacent he has become, thus causing a rift between himself and Mae.
After learning of Jesse’s plan to have Winnie drink the water so they can remain together, Angus takes Winnie fishing and attempts to convince her to live her destined “mortal life” instead of living in their unintended purgatory in the cleverly staged song, "The Wheel.”
(Photo: The CAST of the musical "TUCK EVERLASTING" by Claudia Shear, Tim Federle, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, now playing at Sterling Community Theatre in Sterling, MA. through September 19, 2026. Photo Credit: Robert Mattson)
In another standout moment for Cormier in the show, Winnie is faced with a choice of either drinking the water or live her life as a mortal.
This is emotionally conveyed in the song "Everlasting” which is followed by a long but very emotionally charged ballet sequence, once again exquisitely staged by Scopelliti.
The musical version of the "TUCK EVERLASTING" story was criticized for not being “dark enough” but those moments are replaced with plenty of poignant and emotionally charged moments, well executed by this fine SCT cast.
While there were some volume issues during the September 11th performance with microphones turned up a bit too loud, most of those issues were resolved by the show's second act.
Before time runs out on this production, make sure to get over to see Sterling Community Theatre's wonderful staging of "TUCK EVERLASTING" which concludes September 19th.
For all questions regarding tickets please send an email to scttickets@gmail.com
GET TICKETS
Approximately two hours with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
"TUCK EVERLASTING" is based on the novel of the same name by Natalie Babbitt, telling the story of a family who drink water from a magical spring and become immortal.
When they encounter a young girl who lives in their rural New England town, she becomes friends with one of the sons, who soon offers her the secret to everlasting life.
She then has to decide if she wants to join her new friends in immortality, or if she will live out her normal life.
"TUCK EVERLASTING" premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2015 and began playing on Broadway in 2016.
It received positive reviews, especially praising the “dazzling ballet” in the second act.
A timeless story of family, loss, friendship, and love, "TUCK EVERLASTING" is sure to become a classic favorite.(STAGEAGENT)
ABOUT STERLING COMMUNITY THEATRE
STERLING COMMUNITY THEATRE (SCT) strives to provide an outreach of fellowship and cultural enrichment, centered on family and community, by facilitating high quality theatre arts experiences within the greater Sterling community. SCT seeks to cultivate an appreciation of the performing arts by offering live performances, educating through experience, participating in community activities, and through cooperation with other local performing arts groups and The First Church of Sterling. SCT strives to offer a range of challenging, creative opportunities that inspire and allow people of all ages and backgrounds to participate in productions, whether on stage or behind the scenes. Every year SCT aims to experience growth by expanding participation, encouraging volunteering, and increasing their audience and involvement within the community.
