April 22-May 10, 2026
COACHELLA VALLEY REPERTORY presents the WEST COAST PREMIERE of one of the most inventive and endearing shows to come along in years: ERNEST SHAKELTON LOVES ME, April 22-May 10. It’s an imaginative musical romance that charms audiences with its original score and delightful wit. BRENDAN MILBURN composed the music for this award-winning show with his lyricist wife VALARIE VIGODA. The book is by JOE PIETRO (CVRep’s Nice Work If You Can Get It). In this clever adventure, Kat is a sleep-deprived single mom in the 21st century who makes her living as a video game music composer. She is contacted by Ernest Shakelton, the early 1900s polar explorer who is stranded on an iceberg, via a crossed connection on her cellphone. Inspired by Kat’s music, the famed true-life adventurer shares his epic journey that has life-changing implications for both. ERNEST SHAKELTON LOVES ME won the 2017 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical and was nominated for two Lortel Awards: Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Projection Design. CRAIG WELLS (CVRep The Fantastiks: A Love Story Reimagined, Hand to God) will direct and STEPHEN HULSEY (CVRep Guys & Dolls, Jesus Christ Superstar, Dear Evan Hansen, The Light In The Piazza, and others) will be music director.
“… you will leave the theater with a tremendous smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart. Who can ask for anything more from your entertainment? You will also want to let your friends know about the wonder of the show and the knowledge you gained from it.” lan Bresloff in Around the Town Chicago.
Single tickets for ERNEST SHAKELTON LOVES ME are $60-$110 and are on sale now. Performances are Wednesdays through Sundays, April 22-May 10. Sneak Preview performances are Wednesdays, April 22 at 2p.m. and 7 p.m. Free post-performance Talk Backs follow the Thursday, March 30 and April 7 performances. These are special behind-the-scenes discussions with the cast, director and creative team. The Friday, May 7 performance will be sign-language interpreted. Tickets can be purchased with ease online at www.cvrep.org, by calling (760) 296-2966, ext. 101, or at the CVRep box office located at 68510 East Palm Canyon Dr., Cathedral City. Box Office hours are Wednesday-Saturday, noon – 4 p.m. and one hour prior to performances. Student Rush seats are $30 and available 30 minutes prior to performances. Students must have current, valid student identification. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more; please contact the Box Office for details. To better serve audiences, patrons requesting accessibility assistance are encouraged to contact the Box Office at least 24 hours prior to their ticketed performance. Artists, show titles and dates are subject to change.
Set design is by Jimmy Cuomo, costumes by Barbara Matis, wig and makeup design are by Lynda Shaeps, prop design by Ryan Marquant, lighting design/technical direction by Moira Wilkie Whitaker, sound design by Joshua Adams. Stage manager is John M. Galo* and assistant stage manager is Melina Ginn.
ERNEST SHAKELTON – 1874-1922
“It is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown.”
CREATIVE TEAM
BRENDAN MILBURN – Music
VALERIE VAGODA – Lyrics
Brenden Milburn and Val Vagoda are a dynamic, creative musical team. Milburn is a songwriter, teacher, music and gear geek, and a mostly-stay-at-home dad. Milburn first collaborated with Val to form the band Groovelily. He plays keyboard and does the vocals for the band. They toured throughout the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Milburn co-wrote songs, recorded, and produced eight albums and several EPS’. The band moved towards musical theatre, eventually leading to the success of the Off-Broadway run of Striking 12: The Groovelily Holiday Show.
The New York Times review said, “This modest show is more artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals coming our way these days.” He graduated from Pomona College with a concentration in musical theatre writing and NYU’s MFA program. He has co-written material with Val Vigoda for Disney, including Toy Story: The Musical and songs for four Tinker Bell animated films. Milburn teaches musical theatre, how to sing rock music loudly and in tune without hurting the voice, keyboard, ukelele, guitar, bass, drums, mandolin, and music production with Logic, Ableton Live, and other software. Valerie “Val” Vigoda is an American electric violinist, singer-songwriter, and music educator. She is best known for writing and starring in musicals, including Striking 12 and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, touring internationally with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and for her one-woman concert Just Getting Good which has toured nationally. In addition to her work for Disney with Branden Milburn, Vigoda has co-written the scores for ten stage musicals, including Ernest Shakelton Loves Me (in which she also starred), Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Long Story Short, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She won the Jonathan Larson Award, the LA Ovation Award for Best Musical, and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award. She also received the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. Vigoda is an artist mentor with the “Electrify Your Strings” program, a musical education experience created to introduce and encourage young string musicians and choral singers to perform rock ‘n’ roll. She was an honors graduate of Princeton University and an Army lieutenant. She has taught at Stanford University, Emerson College, and the Berklee College of Music.
JOE PIETRO – Book
Joe DiPietro is a playwright, lyricist, and author. This is DiPietro’s second work at CVRep, preceded by Nice Work If You Can Get It in April 2024. He has won two Tony Awards®, a Drama Desk Award and two Outer Critics Circle Awards. Broadway: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Tony nominations – Best Book, Best Musical), Memphis (Tony winner – Best Book, Best Score, Best Musical.) All Shook Up and Living on Love. Off-Broadway: Clever Little Lies, The Toxic Avenger, The Thing About Men, Over the River and Through the Woods, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. His most recent play, Hollywood, debuted at La Jolla Playhouse. Other works include The Second Mrs. Wilson, Chasing the Song, The Last Romance, Creating Claire, Diana, What’s New Pussycat, Babbit, and 3 Summers of Lincoln. He sits on the board of Only Make Believe, a charity dedicated to bringing interactive, therapeutic theatre to chronically ill children. DiPietro graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University.
CRAIG WELLS – Director
In 2023, Craig directed two productions for CV Rep—the West Coast premiere of The Fantasticks Reimagined and Hand to God. Most recently, Craig directed the West Coast premiere of the one-person play Destroying David for Dezart Performs in Palm Springs. In 2024, he directed two critically acclaimed productions for Dezart Performs: Hillary and Clinton and What the Constitution Means to Me, a Desert Theatre League award-winner for best play and best actress. Prior to moving to the Coachella Valley in 2020, Craig was on faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Vermont. He taught classes in acting, improvisation, and musical theatre performance. In Vermont he directed Shakespeare in Love, Hand to God, Stupid F#@king Bird, and A Grand Night for Singing.
Craig’s Broadway acting credits include the musicals Chess and Les Misérables. Off-Broadway credits include, Forbidden Broadway (original cast recording Forbidden Broadway Vol. 3), Closer Than Ever, Colette Collage, and Balancing Act (original cast recording). www.cewellsdirector.com
STEPHEN HULSEY – Music Director
CVRep: Stephen Hulsey is the resident music director for CVRep’s musicals 2025-2026 Season. His previous CVRep productions include Love is Dead, Cabaret (Assistant MD), Julia & Janna Cardia’s Twinspiration, Christianne Noll’s cabaret performance, The Light In The Piazza, Next to Normal, Jesus Christ Superstar and, most recently, Dear Evan Hansen, Guys and Dolls.
Regional: Music director/conductor/pianist for West Side Story & Falsettos (Dezarts Performs), Sweeney Todd, Ragtime, Titanic, Into The Woods, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love & Murder, Assassins, A Little Night Music, Chess, Tommy, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q, A Chorus Line, Les Misérables, The Producers, Forever Plaid, Songs For A New World, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Urinetown, Carrie, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Toxic Avenger, Evil Dead: The Musical, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, The Secret Garden, Rent, among others.
Sat – 2 & 7 p.m.
Sun – 2 p.m. To purchase: Online – www.cvrep.org
Phone – (760)296-2966, ext. 101
Box office – 68510 East Palm Canyon Dr.
Cathedral City, CA
