Posted by John Steils
I think
Swingtime Canteen is going to be a GREAT show, and the rehearsals have been fascinating to watch. The marketing office at Theatre IV is connected to the tech booth of the Little Theatre. Nosy marketing interns (who, me?) can watch what’s going on in the Little without disrupting anything. And with
Swingtime Canteen rehearsing on the Little stage, a LOT’s been going on.
Steve Liebman, who smiles in real life a lot more than he’s smiling in this internet photo, came down from New York to vocal direct the production. Steve is much beloved in Richmond, I’m told, for his work at TheatreVirginia, where he played Pseudolus in
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the radio D J in
A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. Liebman fans should know that he’s just as warm and hilarious as a music director as he is as the star of a show.
For a week and a half he led Vilma Gil, Jan Guarino, Audra Honaker, Katrinah Lewis and Debra Wagoner through their vocal paces. They’re an amazing, hard-working cast, and the three, four and five-part harmonies in
Swingtime make the most of their talents. That's Audra in the photo to the left, appearing as Little Red Riding Hood in last summer's
Into the Woods, opposite Russell Rowland.
Weeks before Steve arrived, Bruce Miller (director of the show, pictured below and to the right) began hunting for a
pianist to play the run. The usual suspects were all booked. So the net was expanded and a parade of previously unknown pianists (at least unknown to Bruce) began arriving one by one.
The biggest challenge, it seemed, was the loosey-goosey nature of
Swingtime’s printed score. Pianist after pianist would come in, look at the hand-written and photocopied sheet music, struggle to decipher the musical penmanship of the arranger, and ultimately throw his or her hands up into the air.
Sam French, if you’re reading this, the musicians in Richmond all agree that it’s time to upgrade the
Swingtime orchestra materials to something more complete and more readable!
Finally Bruce connected with Ryan Corbitt, a professional jazz pianist who has taken this lemon of a printed score and made lemonade. (Ryan is the tuxedoed young man in the photo to the left with jazz great James Moody.) In Ryan's talented hands, the improvised sections soar and the authentic 40s flavor of the vintage arrangements is beginning to emerge.
After the week and a half of singing, Bruce and Jan Guarino (choreographer, pictured to the right) spent a week staging the 30+ numbers. Bruce and Jan make an excellent team, and apparently have worked together on lots of previous hit musicals, including
Annie Get Your Gun and
Anything Goes. The staging of the Andrews Sisters Medley is 90% Jan and 10% Bruce. The rest of the movement is probably 70 / 30. Maybe even 60 / 40.
Bruce calls himself the “anti-choreographer,” and one look at him trying to demonstrate a move that he wants the women to do justifies his terminology. With all due respect, Bruce dances like a gorilla impersonating Homer Simpson. But he comes up with some really fun staging ideas, and then Jan “translates” his moves into something that can actually be replicated by a human. They have a lot of give and take, and obviously a lot of respect for each other’s talents.
All five women in the cast are terrific dancers and phenomenal singers. And they all seem custom-made for their characters. I can’t imagine a more talented or “perfect” cast, anywhere. That's Katrinah Lewis to the right, performing with Hannah Zold in last summer's
Into the Woods.Vilma Gil, the strongest dancer in this troupe of strong dancers, is still recovering from the major knee surgery she had just a few months ago. During a dance mishap at another theatre, Vilma did some serious damage to her knee joint, and wound up having her left knee replaced with bones from a cadaver. That’s right folks. “Cadaver knee” jokes have been flying left and right as decisions were made regarding which knee to pivot on, etc.
This week, Bruce and stage manager Joseph Papa are beginning to add props to the show, and they include everything from a vintage Roy Rogers double holster (complete with dye-cast cap guns) to authentic Zippo lighters to Hollywood Canteen aprons to two air cannons that will fire, over the sixteen week run, a thousand dollars worth of red white and blue streamers over the heads of the audience.
Interestingly, the cap guns were among the hardest things to find. After careful searches through Toys-R-Us, KayBee Toys, Wal-Mart, Target, Party City and several variations of the Dollar Store, no holstered cap guns were to be found in Greater Richmond. Eventually the perfect set was purchased on line.
If the performances of
Swingtime are half as much fun as the rehearsals, we’re in for a great run. That's Debra Wagoner in the photo to the right, and she sings her heart out in
Swingtime Canteen. The show opens Nov 16 at Hanover Tavern, and has already been extended to run through March 2. Thankfully, tickets are going fast. Call for yours today!
--John Steils
Readers of this blog know that we’ve just said goodbye to our Volunteer Fall Marketing Intern, John Steils, pictured to the right. After fulfilling his three month internship, John has returned home to Walnut Grove, Missouri. We thank him for his positive attitude, his hard work, and his eleven (count ‘em, folks) blog entries. John did a great job for us, and we’ll miss him.
Now we need to find our next great Volunteer Marketing Intern to take John's place during the winter and spring of 2008, and maybe longer. We’re looking for someone who has a passion for theatre and writing, but no extensive experience or coursework is required. The perfect applicant(s) will be between the ages of 16 and 106 and able to spend between two to four hours per week—on their own schedule—researching and writing for the Barksdale Blog.
Our blog staff will discuss article ideas with the new Intern in advance, and the Intern will be encouraged to come up with ideas on his or her own. The Intern will have interview access to various theatre artists and administrators working on Barksdale productions. Blog posts will be written at home and emailed to a blog staffer, who will then edit the post to be in keeping with our blog stylebook and guidelines.
The Intern will receive byline credit on each blog post that he or she writes and we publish. The Intern can use his or her own name or a nom de plume, whichever he or she prefers. The Intern will also earn one free Barksdale and/or Theatre IV ticket to the show of his or her choice, pending availability, for each article that is submitted and published.
If you are interested in starting off the New Year with a bang, then please consider becoming a contributor to the Barksdale Blog. Applying is easy. Just send an email to … John Steils. He’s actually agreed to this one last assignment—helping us find his replacement. John can be reached at steilsparade@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
