If Coming to America isn’t the biggest production mounted by Kalliope Stage in the three seasons it’s been around, it’s certainly the busiest. More than 60 songs — by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and other songwriting giants — are packed into the two-hour show about Ellis Island immigrants. The vaudeville-style musical — created by New York-based award-winners James Hindman and Ray Roderick — makes its world premiere at Kalliope. “It’s like a 1910 Saturday Night Live,” says executive director John Paul Boukis. “But it’s a great reminder of why people come here. There are so many stories, but by the end of it, they’re everybody’s story. You’re like, ‘Yeah, this is who we are.'”
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: Feb. 9. Continues through March 12
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2006.