Stoneham’s WWII musical plays up heroism

"Nothing says singing and dancing like a Pulitzer Prize-winning book of oral histories of war. Right?

“I would definitely say this is a pretty dark piece of theater,’’ says Bobby Cronin, who directs Stoneham Theatre’s production of “Studs Terkel’s The Good War: A Musical Collage of WWII,’’ running through Oct. 4.

“It is a serious piece, but I wanted to give the audience a feeling that what these people did was heroic, they had a sense of pride that sometimes doesn’t exist anymore, and that it was a wonderful time for our country in terms of having a goal for the country,’’ Cronin says. “One of the songs in the show is called ‘This Is Worth Fighting For.’ That is the overall theme I’m going for.’’

Terkel won a Pulitzer for the 1984 book, which collects the accounts of soldiers and civilians who lived through the conflict on all sides. A few years ago, David H. Bell and Craig Carnelia adapted it for the stage, focusing more on soldiers in a show combining musical numbers with long readings from the text. There have been less than a handful of productions, Cronin says, and he felt he had to get creative in staging it."

Stoneham Theatre’s WWII musical plays up the heroism - The Boston Globe