Maine State Music Theatre’s “An Enchanted Evening” Aug. 19 at Ocean Gateway – the Brunswick-based nonprofit’s first dinner gala in Portland – featured musical performances by cast members of the musical “Beautiful” and “American Idol” contestant Julia Gagnon.

The gala capped off the 2024 season, which began with “South Pacific” (the inspiration for the “Enchanted Evening” theme) and concluded with “Beautiful, the Carole King Musical” (which was in its final week). Cast members Kyra Kennedy (“Carole King”), Mikayla White (“Little Eva”), and Randy Cain and Seth Eliser (“Righteous Brothers”) took turns at the mic, accompanied by the band Every Other Sunday.

“To have this quality of live theater in Brunswick, Maine, is extraordinary,” said board member Elena Vandervoort of Bath, who was at opening night in 1959 of what was originally called Brunswick Music Theatre. “It keeps getting better and better, and it’s such an economic boost for the Midcoast.”

Fans credit the quality of the productions to Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark. Superfans mention that Clark’s husband, Marc Robin, runs Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and they co-produce some shows, as was the case with “South Pacific.”

“They’re able to share between the two theaters,” said board member Pamela White, a former U.S. ambassador. “And that makes everything we do at Maine State Music Theatre better.”

The nonprofit stages four Broadway-style musicals, three concerts, and three family musicals each summer at Bowdoin College’s Pickard Theatre.

Board President Brandon Mazer, whose law firm Perkins Thompson sponsored the gala, started going to MSMT shows in the mid-1990s when he was a kid. “Now I see each show twice,” he said.

If there were a competition for superfan, he would have to watch out for Jane Olfene of Scarborough. She has been to every single mainstage musical since her then new mother-in-law put tickets in her Christmas stocking in 1979. That’s an estimated 173 shows. “And each performance is as good if not better than the last,” she said.

Producing Broadway-like shows of that caliber comes with a heavy price tag. But the good news is that the gala raised nearly $150,000 – more than double last year’s total – which will help even out a budget shortfall from when three 2024 performances had to be canceled during power outages.

After paying $175 per ticket, guests bid generously on unique experiences – like the chance to be in the room for 2025 audition callbacks in New York City, host a backyard Broadway-style concert or claim a private parking spot for the 2025 summer theatre season. And then they raised their paddles again to make financial pledges.

Seats at Maine State Music Theatre’s next fundraiser, a Sept. 20 fashion show called Curtain Call Couture, have already been snapped up.

Season subscriptions for 2025 are on sale now. Individual tickets for 2025 mainstage productions – “Anastasia,” “Tootsie,” “Footloose” and “West Side Story” – will be available in December and, apparently, make excellent stocking stuffers (msmt.org/mainstage/).

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be reached at amyparadysz@gmail.com.