How would you describe your style of working with actors? October 16, 2008
From the beginning, I want my actors to know that I have no preconceived vision of how they should interpret their character. I want each actor to go on the journey of discovery free of my interpretation. I explain the basic concept and the world in which all of the characters live, and then we can all start in the same place and hopefully arrive together. This was a tricky thing to handle for my current production of The Marvelous Wonderettes, since the show had already been successful for quite some time outside of the city. The actors and I had to jump around a bit with certain preconceived moments, but I think we all arrived safely in the same world with a minimum of difficulty. In general, I have ideas of how different characters react to events around them, but I really strive to have the actors discover those things within the rehearsal process. If I can help the actor find both the central essence of the character as well as hundreds of variations and nuances during their own process, yet still have it answer to the overall vision of what the play requires, then they own it. They can achieve a kind of character nirvana where external forces are no longer relevant, and you can definitely see that on stage. You know if an actor is really living in the moment of the play or if they’ve been told to walk a certain way to speak with a certain rhythm or cadence. My job is to make sure that the life the actor creates serves the life pulse of the play.
Roger Bean: My Wonderettes World By Roger Bean September 23, 2008
The Marvelous Wonderettes began life 10 years ago at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. I was working in public relations and marketing in New York City at the time at the dearly departed Circle Rep, among other places and directing at regional theaters. While working on My Fair Lady at the Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, I met with the artistic staff at Milwaukee Rep to discuss the possibility of creating something new for their intimate musical stage. I came back to New York, wrote a three-page outline, and the Rep enthusiastically put it into their season. That first show, Don’t Touch That Dial! was quite successful for them, and they asked me to create another musical for the following season. My second show was a one-act version of The Marvelous Wonderettes. I believe I called it The Fabulous Wonderettes in an early draft, but I’ve butched it up a bit since then... But let’s go back even further. When I was growing up, my mother was always singing around the house. Lots of ‘50s and ‘60s girl group stuff. So the popular music from these eras is deep in my consciousness. I also wrote plays and melodramas with my mother for our church. We would rewrite the lyrics to well-known songs and present them as our own completely new work in a highly-illegal-but-who-would-sue-a-young-teenager-and-his-mother-because-we-didn’tknow-any-better-and-besides-it’s-for-our-church kind of way. So I blame and give credit to my mother for everything. Speaking of my mother, she told me years later that she had been a varsity song leader in high school. Huh? And not only that, she had been part of a singing trio. What?! This was all news to me. As I started thinking about the ‘50s and ‘60s, and my mother’s particular circumstances of being “expected” to become a homemaker, I got a little angry. Angry that she hadn’t gotten the chance to go on and do something she had clearly loved: singing. Then came curiosity. What would have happened if she had continued singing? Would she—could she—have become successful? And what about that whole song leader thing—what the hell was a song leader, and how was it different from a cheerleader? These were questions I needed to answer. The place to answer them was, apparently, onstage. This was the perfect creative idea for my second show at Milwaukee Rep. High school song leaders, best friends, singing at the prom for their friends and boyfriends—what would happen to them? How would the songs they sing influence their lives? Could pop songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s actually become book songs just like in a real musical? All great things to explore, and this time I could do it without changing any of the lyrics. That’s how The Marvelous Wonderettes came into being. It has grown through the years from a much simpler one-act to its present fully realized two-act version. Many incredible people along the way lent advice and talent as it developed and gained strength. The show came back to Milwaukee Rep in 2001 for an extended run in one of their larger spaces and once again I was lucky enough to have Bets Malone play Suzy, a part I created for her. The show grew again with productions at Madison Rep and a few other spots around the country. We seemed to be striking a chord with audiences, especially as people were looking back and remembering seemingly simpler times in the aftermath of horrible tragedies. After a few years in which the show sat in a drawer because of legal disputes with some amazingly inept producers, but that’s another essay altogether; buy me a drink and I’ll tell all..., I met the brilliant man who became my producing partner, David Elzer. He was the final piece of the puzzle we needed to create a terrific production in Los Angeles, and then launch us toward New York. I feel blessed to have my show in the beautiful Westside Theatre on 43rd Street. Perhaps it’s all the good karma I send out on Facebook. Who knows? But we fit off-Broadway like a glove, and we couldn’t be happier to be there. My mother never did get to see The Marvelous Wonderettes before she passed away a few years ago. But you can find her song leader photo in the prom program you get at the theater. And I’m sure she couldn’t be happier to be there as well.
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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When Writer/Director Roger Bean’s The Marvelous Wonderettes opened Sept. 29, 2006, at the intimate El Portal Forum Theatre he didn’t know where the wondrous path of the show would lead. It was theatre publicist David Elzer’s first jump into producing and his expertise steered the show into an extended run that lasted 21 months, culminating in its receiving the 2007 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Musical. Bean was nominated for an Ovation for Best Director of a Musical and the original quartet of actresses gained an Ensemble Performance nomination. That was not the end of the road, however; the show traveled to Laguna Playhouse, then off-Broadway. This September, Wonderettes will reach its one-year anniversary at New York’s Westside Arts Theatre. With many other companies in the works, there is with no end in sight. Now Bean takes another trip back to Springfield, the Wonderettes locale, when he introduces the Crooning Crabcakes, the boy group banned from the high school prom which made it possible for the Wonderettes to perform there. Again, loaded with classic songs from the period, Life Could Be a Dream recalls the era before hard rock dominated the U.S. music scene, opening this Friday at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre. Roger Bean recalls his journey for LA Stage. LAS: Are you from Springfield? Where and how did you start writing and directing? RB: I’m actually from Seattle, with side trips through Utah (don’t ask…) and New York City (love it!). I chose Springfield as the town for the Wonderettes and Life Could Be a Dream because there are more Springfields in different states than just about any other city. It seemed like such a wonderful “any town, anyplace” name. I began directing in college many years ago and the writing came about to give myself more directing work. In the late ‘90s I had a meeting with the artistic staff at Milwaukee Rep and asked how I could direct for them. They suggested I create something for their smaller cabaret space. I wrote a three-page outline and sent it to them; they bought it and put it into their season. It was wildly successful and at the opening night party the artistic director asked me to create something for the following season. The next show was a one-act version of The Marvelous Wonderettes. I’ve done something for Milwaukee Rep just about every year since. They’ve been a great artistic home and helped me create a nice catalogue of work. LAS: In your wildest dreams, did you think you would have a successful show running off-Broadway? RB: In the early ‘90s I was working as a general press rep for Jeffrey Richards in New York City, working on a variety of Broadway and off-Broadway shows. But I didn’t feel very well-fed creatively. I could see how choices were being made commercially in New York. I was right in the thick of it and I wanted to get back to directing. That’s when I had my meeting with Milwaukee Rep. Shortly after that first show at the Rep I moved to Los Angeles. I love the weather here, of course, and really enjoy the theatre community I’ve become a part of. And it’s been so tremendously exciting to go back to New York with a show and its becoming such a hit is the frosting on top. So yes, in my wildest of wild dreams, I had always hoped for a big hit show in New York. I just never thought it would be something I had actually written myself. It’s a real fun kick in the pants. LAS: There are several titles in your repertoire unfamiliar to LA audiences. Have you thought of bringing Route 66, Honky Tonk Laundry or Why Do Fools Fall In Love? here? RB: From your mouth to my producer’s ears. I’ve had such amazing good fortune to have found David Elzer. He’s become a great producing partner and we hope to continue producing together for years to come. We’ve talked about some of these other shows as well as new shows. Who knows what the cards hold? I would love for LA audiences to see Honky Tonk Laundry (which I wrote for Bets Malone and Misty Cotton) and Why Do Fools Fall In Love? The latter being a ‘60s musical, I might need to wait a bit so people don’t think I’m a one-trick-one-era pony. But since many people in LA have also seen The Andrews Brothers, I might be safe. The very first show I wrote is called Don’t Touch That Dial! (continued)
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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and there was talk recently about bringing that into town. It does have some music clearance issues that have to be sorted out but I think it could also be a big hit. LAS: How did you come up with the idea for Dream? RB: I began writing Dream when we were producing The Marvelous Wonderettes for its initial run at the El Portal. I needed to work on something other than the all-girl show to take me away from myself while we were getting Wonderettes ready. Since I was immersed in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I thought that was a good era to stay in to help keep some form of sanity. I’m never really sure where ideas start, when they morph, and how they take shape in my brain. I have two hard drives attached to my computer with just music, so many different genres and styles. I browse through them; listen to bits and pieces of songs, and the ideas for the shows take form. The plot is usually fully formed in my head before anything makes it onto paper. A lot of writing goes on in my head sitting on freeways in the LA area. I write fast and furiously very late in the game. LAS: Besides your shows, there are a number of other “jukebox” musicals. Was Forever Plaid an influence on your creations? RB: I had never seen Forever Plaid until about five or six years ago out at Performance Riverside. It’s really a great piece. Strangely enough, the following year I directed it twice; that’s how the universe works sometimes. Since I’ve seen it and worked on it, it’s influenced me to try to stay away from anything that looks or feels like Plaid. I’m sensitive to copying or capitalizing on other people’s visions; there have been a few rip-offs of my Route 66 show as well as numerous attempts at Wonderettes-type shows. In the short term it bothers me just a bit but it’s also weirdly flattering; in the long run it doesn’t matter at all. I hope my work will stand on its own; we’ll see in the next decade or two if my shows survive the test of time. LAS: What do you plan to do next? RB: I want to go live on an island for a year. But since that’s not allowed (my husband Perry says one week is all I get...), I start Wonderettes in Chicago the end of August, Andrews Brothers at the Welk Resort in September and October (with Nick DeGruccio and Roger Castellano at the helm), a new production of Winter Wonderettes at Laguna Playhouse in November-December, there’s another Andrews Brothers at Cabrillo in February (Nick and Roger again), back to Milwaukee Rep for a new version of Route 66, then Wonderettes at Musical Theatre West in May followed by another one in Albany, NY at Capital Rep. Then a very long nap. It’s an exciting time with these productions so I absolutely can’t complain about any of it. I am looking at Andrews Brothers for a future move to New York, as well as sneaking in a new show for a reading or workshop in the coming spring or summer here. As for my other shows, my licensing company Steele Spring Productions (www.steelespring.com) licenses them out to theatres around the country so that affords me the ability to take brief absences from directing or remounting shows and concentrate on writing (or rather, thinking about writing). LAS: What is the process in directing this type of musical? RB: I do have a very specific way to direct that many people feel is very ‘hands-off.’ Actors are wildly inventive and I want to utilize every bit of energy and talent they bring into a room. I want everyone to explore every possibility in a scene or song. Near the end of the process I’ll rein it in and bring focus to the measured chaos we’ve created. I love watching things take shape that way. If I’m not telling people exactly what to do and they find it on their own, it’s totally owned onstage by the actors and doesn’t look dictated at all. The choreography and musical direction are much more specific. Lee Martino and Michael Paternostro have done amazing work on this show, focusing the movement and sound into a lovely cohesive package. We all get along very well so we hand the ball off to each other. I had to take two quick (continued)
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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trips back to NYC during our rehearsals (for Wonderettes business) and these two artists were instrumental in keeping the show on track in my absence. I can’t say enough about them. Now I’ve said enough. LAS: How difficult was it to find the right Dream cast? RB: We actually fell in love with this cast very quickly. Michael Donovan did our casting and he brought these amazing people to the table. They really are a dream cast; they sing, they dance, they do funny. We’ve had a great time putting this together. The day is not complete unless one of the cast or creative staff has everyone rolling on the floor in laughter. This show has been a really happy experience. The Dream Boys The guys who comprise the Crooning Crabcakes quartet are Denny (Daniel Tatar) and Eugene (Jim Holdridge) who decide to form a singing group so they can enter and win a local radio contest to help them make it to the big time. They enlist their best friend Wally (Ryan Castellino) and newcomer Skip (Doug Carpenter) to realize their dream. Trouble comes in the form of Lois (Jessica Keenan Wynn) who broke up with Eugene years ago. Are there new heartaches ahead? Doug Carpenter began his professional musical career in leading roles at Utah Festival Opera and UCLA Opera Guild. He has since appeared at Fullerton CLO as Tony in West Side Story and Curly in Oklahoma! Ryan Castellino was recently seen as The Narrator in Miss Electricity at La Jolla Playhouse. He played Ruben in Mask at Pasadena Playhouse and is a graduate of UCLA’s Ray Bolger Musical Theater program. NYC transplant Jim Holdridge has LA credits that include productions at South Coast Repertory, Zephyr Theatre and Assassins at West Coast Ensemble. He was a longtime member of Stomp in New York, Las Vegas and international tours. Among local credits for Daniel Tatar are Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof at the Rubicon Theatre, Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Havok Theatre and Ahmet Ertegun in Ray Charles Live at Pasadena Playhouse. He originated the role of Man 1 in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in the Chicago and San Francisco companies. LA Stage caught up with the quartet of actors and one actress between rehearsals. LAS: How did you hear about Dream and why did you want to be in it? DC: I heard about the show through Michael Donovan. He teaches an audition seminar at UCLA for seniors in musical theater. I was a Masters in Voice in the music department but he allowed me to audit the class. I wanted to be a part of this because it offered a chance to build a project from the ground up. Not to mention I was excited to get another chance to work opposite the enormously talented Jessica Keenan Wynn with whom I performed in The Last Five Years at UCLA. RC: I heard about Dream from the typical acting websites. I got the phone call from my agent letting me know I was lucky enough to get an audition for the role of Wally which began the initial excitement. After some research and realizing the connection between Dream and Wonderettes I knew I had to get the show somehow. This was one of those projects that just made it hard to forget, if I were to end up not being a part of it. JH: It had been the talk of the town that Roger Bean, the creator of Wonderettes, was doing a doo-wop show. When my agents called me about it I was thrilled for the opportunity to audition. Even more excited was to see that Michael Paternostro and Lee Martino were involved. I had seen these people’s work and knew that anything they were involved in was going to be a top-notch experience. DT: I saw Marvelous Wonderettes during its run here and loved it. It’s the kind of show you leave humming the familiar music but also remembering distinct characters and their quirks. I still smile about it a year later. I thought to be involved with the “sequel” to this hit, and to be in the cast that is creating and shaping these characters and scenes, would be a great opportunity. (continued)
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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LAS: How does this show differ from other musicals you’ve done? DC: For me this is a huge opportunity different from any other in that it’s an original musical. I’ve never had the chance to originate a role or work on a project that had the potential to go so many places like this does. As a side note, it’s my first professional credit that is not fully legit singing. Most of my other experience is in opera or Rodgers & Hammerstein. I’m excited about being able to let loose a little in this show (more than a little actually). RC: This show is different from the other larger shows I’ve been a part of in many ways obviously. What stands out most to me is the response from the audience. You can see audience members bobbing their heads along, having a hard time controlling their laughter, and the general excitement on their faces when we begin to sing a song that they have some kind of personal connection. It truly is a blessing to be able to tell this story. JH: This is my first juke-box musical. I was familiar with some of the songs but it has been very rewarding to take this iconic material and bring my own flavor to it while trying to remain faithful to the era in which it was created. Add the comedy and characters, and it is completely immersive. Doing this show every night is like being shot out of a cannon. DT: This show differs from previous productions I’ve done in that it offers me an opportunity to play in a lighter, comedic production with a lot more dancing than I usually do. A very welcomed experience! Also, I am confident this show will have a great, long run, whereas most shows in LA have a limited run. LAS: What is your favorite song you perform in the show? DC: My favorite number would have to be “Duke of Earl.” It really ties together my character’s whole story. I also love the chance to surprise the audience, not only because they are inches away from me when I sing it but also because I sing all of the lowest harmonies in the show. In this song, I do some of the highest falsetto work. RC: My favorite song to perform is the “Lovin’ Lois Medley.” Without giving too much away it is a medley of four very popular love songs from the time period. When we go from one song to the next you sometimes hear the audience gasping from shock and excitement. It is a gorgeous moment on stage between the vocals, staging and lighting. The applause we get after the eight minute number is completed is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. JH: “Only You” because, ummm, it’s my solo. I’m only half kidding. It comes as part of this dream sequence and every song in this medley is silvery and languid and like sucking on taffy. I...love...it. DT: If I had to choose one, I’d say “Who Put the Bomp.” That song is at the beginning of the show, with two guys playing around in the basement. It reminds me of when I was about eight years old and my cousin would come over. We spent hours in the basement: he would operate the “spotlight” and I would stand on the couch and dance and sing to Michael Jackson. Seriously. We would perform for the babysitter. “Who Put the Bomp” conjures all that up for me and I have a great time with Jim in that number. LAS: Now be totally honest. What is David Elzer really like as a producer and would you ever work for him again? DC: I have never met a producer so involved in the entire process from helping fit us for costumes to bringing cupcakes during rehearsal. He creates a system of trust around him that can only come from someone who loves the theater more than anything else. In short David’s a great guy to work for and he will bring you snacks...so I hope I get to work for him again. RC: David Elzer holds an important place in my heart. Initially I wasn’t cast in the role and he brought me in with two weeks to learn the 24 songs, choreography and dialogue before we moved into tech. He took a huge risk on me and for that I am forever grateful. He knows what he is doing and has a reputation for being the best in Los Angeles. Getting to know him has proved that what has been said about him is true. Besides, he told me if I didn’t mess up he’d pay my rent for the rest of the year. (continued)
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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JH: David Elzer is fantastic. He is completely committed to making this show a great experience for all of us and our audience. His enthusiasm is spectacular. And he promised me a new car if I said that. Right, David? DT: I would love to answer this but you’ll have to read my unauthorized novel about my experience with David, coming out in paperback this fall. Dream Girl Jessica Keenan Wynn, a recent graduate from UCLA’s Ray Bolger Musical Theatre program, hopes to carry on the legacy of her grand and great-grandparents, Keenan and Ed Wynn. Among her roles in college were Eva Peron in Evita, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Mabel in Mack and Mabel and the woman in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. LAS: Well, you certainly have an impressive legacy in your ancestry. Did you always want to be in show business? JKW: My mother was always a huge advocate of my desire to perform, primarily on stage. I started doing commercials and print ads when I was six months old. It was around that time I filmed a Golden Girls episode that my parents decided to pull me from the industry and let me discover my passion and interests without their insistence. I participated in summer theatre camps for almost 10 years and was hooked to the incredible rush I got when performing and singing on stage. Around the age of 13 I knew I wanted to sing and perform for an audience. Musical theatre was an area that hadn’t been filled within the legacy of my show biz family. LAS: Will you tell us about your mother? JKW: Her name is Edwyna Wynn (notably named by her grandfather Ed Wynn), but she goes by Wynnie Wynn. She was the second and middle child of Sharley and Keenan. She had a close relationship to her father and often traveled with him as a teenager/young adult on film productions. In honor of her father and to pass on the legacy of the name, she gave me the middle name Keenan. She avoided the entertainment industry her entire life but somehow managed to find her own way of being in it. She has made a long career of helping musicians recover from drug and alcohol abuse with MAP (Musicians’ Assistance Program), which has since merged with The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences—MusiCares. She has devoted copious amounts of energy, time, support and love to this organization and the people that come through it. She is an amazing rock star mother who came from Hollywood royalty and gave me the gift to keep the honored lineage intact and alive once again. LAS: What inspiration have Ed and Keenan Wynn given you? JKW: Ed Wynn and Keenan Wynn are not names I could throw at my friends and have them recognize without referrals to their work in Disney films. It is my mother’s and grandmother’s generations who have had nothing but the nicest, most generous things to say about their contribution to the entertainment industry. The talent those two possessed is undeniable, inspirational and frightening at times to know what I am up against. Their ability to convey honesty in forms of comedy, drama and farce has propelled me to do the same when I sing and act in front of an audience. If anything, I want to draw them into my heart and mind at that very moment and be able to have them feel the emotional ride I took them on when it is all over. The loveable characters that were my grandfather and great grandfather have surpassed decades of modification in the film, TV and radio industries yet they continue to be beloved, honest and talented performers that I strive to be every time I step onto the stage. LAS: What would you like to do in the near future, after Dream finishes its run? JKW: Life Could Be a Dream is my first professional show out of college and I am so grateful that the “dream team” gave me a chance to show all the training I have learned and passion I have gathered for my craft. I see great things for this show and hope in whatever way, shape or form, I end up in New York so I can surround myself with the invigorating energy that Broadway emits to its seekers. (continued)
Roger Bean’s Dream comes true By Lee Melville August 6, 2009
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LAS: You must have a strong singing voice to have played Reno in Anything Goes. Do you have a chance to show off your voice in this show? JKW: Anything Goes was an incredible show for me to belt my best Merman every night. This show allows my voice to explore all its registers and levels through great contrasting material. I can engage my soprano in a sweet, touching version of “I Only Have Eyes for You” then belt and travel through exciting intervals in “Lonely Teardrops.” The music in this show has made me a better singer by understanding and finding the ability to convey emotion and sentiment in my voice, by coloring it to fit each song the best it can.
Rules for success from Life Could Be a Dream
The creators of the doo-wop musical capitalize on their Marvelous Wonderettes experience. By Charlotte Stoudt May 2, 2010
Derek Keeling is nervous. His girlfriend, actress Brandi Burkhardt, will be in the audience for tonight’s performance of Life Could Be a Dream, Roger Bean’s long-running doo-wop musical. He wouldn’t let her come to his opening night—but that was months ago. This is the 157th performance of Dream. With their four-part harmonies, sharp choreography and prescription strength nostalgia, Dream and its sister show, The Marvelous Wonderettes, make for a genuine L.A. theater phenomenon: a homegrown hit franchise, created in a 99-seat space with Equity actors, at a time when most theaters are just trying to keep their doors open. Extended again at the Hudson Theatre through May 23, Dream has also been announced as part of Laguna Playhouse’s upcoming season, opening July 10; if the Hollywood venue continues to sell, there will be two productions running simultaneously. All this after the show won LA Weekly’s musical of the year, Backstage Garland’s production of the year, and swept the LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for production, ensemble, lighting and musical direction. Still, Keeling, who plays Skip, a grease monkey from the wrong side of town, is interested in only one particular critic as the stage manager calls places. The house darkens, and the lights come up on a campy 1950s basement where goof-off
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Denny (Jeff Leatherwood) and geek Eugene (Michael J. Willett) listen to a radio announcement about a talent contest. The two break into “ShBoom (Life Could Be a Dream)” less than 60 seconds into the show. It’s sweet and incredibly precise, a little like the rules Bean and his producers, David Elzer and Peter Schneider, have followed to extend their doo-wop brand. Story matters—in the music, that is Most jukebox musicals celebrate a particular group or songwriters (Jersey Boys, Smokey Joe’s Café, Dinah Was), but Dream’s playlist samples an era’s overall style: “I Only Have Eyes for You,” “Earth Angel,” “The Great Pretender,” “Who Put the Bomp?,” “Tears on My Pillow.” Bean calls these ‘50s hits “little one-acts in themselves. They tell a story. Current pop music is more about production or sampling. That can be enjoyable, but it’s not the same.” Bean’s approach is to take all these song-stories and weave a larger one around them; the dialogue can be compressed so that the audience never has to wait long for the next musical number. Produce a similar hit show first… Bean and producer David Elzer’s previous collaboration, The Marvelous Wonderettes, was about a late ‘50s female song leader squad; the show ran for almost two years at the El Portal before moving to
off-Broadway. From Wonderettes, Elzer says, he acquired “the skillset one needs for a long-running show.” Actors cycle in and out of the show constantly. “There was one performance of Wonderettes—my stomach churns just thinking about it—when we had four understudies go on,” he says with a groan. “Somebody had to get on stage and say, ‘At tonight’s performance, all four roles…’” Keeping up with the current “Wonderettes” is like an exercise in air traffic control. The show reopened two weeks ago at Musical Theatre West for a three-week run in the 1,100-seat space (with three of the original cast members). After that it moves to Orange County and then to San Jose Rep. There are other scheduled productions in Chicago and half a dozen other cities. …but be ruthless about your new product “If a song didn’t move the story along,” says Elzer, “we cut it.” Bean gives notes regularly and is still tinkering with the script. “It’s hard to see the show because I always want to fix something,” he says with a sigh. Make difficult material look easy Dream couldn’t be simpler: a talent contest plot meets the starcrossed love story of strapping Skip (Keeling) and his boss’ daughter Lois, played by the porcelainskinned Jessica Keenan Wynn. But (continued)
Rules for success from Life Could Be a Dream
The creators of the doo-wop musical capitalize on their Marvelous Wonderettes experience. By Charlotte Stoudt May 2, 2010
the evening’s real star is the intricate harmonic pleasures of doo-wop, which by design doesn’t privilege one singer over another. (Bean credits musical director Michael Paternostro for creating the show’s distinctive sound.) “Roger writes ensemble shows,” says Bets Malone, an original Wonderette. “Everyone’s passing a basketball all night. The focus is constantly switching. Sometimes you’ll come up with a new bit; then Roger comes in and says, ‘That’s brilliant, but I’m looking at you when I should be looking at her. So take it out.’” Malone calls the singing in Wonderettes “more difficult than Evita. We had some amazing singers audition, but they couldn’t hold harmony parts. If it’s all going well, the actors are functioning as musical instruments.” Cast opposites who attract Keeling grew up in the hills of West Virginia; Wynn is from Hollywood royalty. He’s starred on Broadway and network television, she just graduated from UCLA. He was an athlete in high school who took dance lessons in secret, while Wynn’s showbiz debut came at age 6 months, when she played a baby abandoned at a party on Golden Girls. “I still get residuals,” she says with a laugh. After that, her family (including grandfather Keenan Wynn, who appeared in scores of films from Kiss Me, Kate to Point Blank) decided it
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was a bit too soon to put her on the acting treadmill, and Wynn came back to the business through singing at summer camp. She applied to UCLA’s Musical Theatre Program three times before she got in. Keeling got his Broadway break from appearing in NBC’s reality talent contest Grease: You’re the One That I Want!, calling it “the best and worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. For five months I was stuck in a house with six other guys who wanted to play Danny Zuko. The camera’s in your face 24 hours a day. The pressure is crazy. You’ll cry over anything. I remember bursting into tears when someone broke one of my CDs.” Sell small as a positive Elzer hasn’t been in a hurry to move Dream to a bigger venue. His reasoning, typically, is both aesthetic and commercial. “My greatest L.A. theater experiences have been in 99seat spaces,” he says. “I love that an audience walks into a smaller space and is amazed at the quality of what they’re seeing. And I’d rather sell a 99-seat space for a year than a 300seat venue for two or three months. Regional theaters start to notice. New York notices. Every time you announce an extension, a producer from another city shows up.” Ask your mentor for help After a successful run as a marketing executive at Columbia and Trimark, Elzer felt his love for theater creeping back in. “For
some reason, Jonathan Larson’s [the creator of Rent] death really struck me. I thought, ‘What do I want my life to be about?’” What started as a single publicity gig to promote The Lion King in L.A. has now grown into a thriving business (Demand PR) and a burgeoning producing career (Elzer also produced Jewtopia and last season’s deliciously overripe Dracula at NoHo Arts Center). On King, he met Peter Schneider, then president of animation and theatricals at Disney. Years later, when Elzer saw an early version of Wonderettes at Hermosa Beach Playhouse, he thought of Schneider. “Instinctively, I felt this could be the next Forever Plaid franchise. I went to Peter and asked if he might be interested. He said, ‘David, if you think you can sell it, I’m in.’ I said, ‘Don’t you want to read it?’ He said, ‘No, I trust you.’” Follow your dream Keeling’s real ambition was outed at a high school baseball game back in West Virginia. “I was in the outfield and started practicing dance steps without thinking. My dad was in the stands with his racing buddies. He was like, ‘What is that boy doing?’ After that I had to come clean.” Keeling came to L.A. with Burkhardt for film and television work and took persuading to come back to the stage, especially to do a period piece. After all, he’s played Danny Zuko more than 1,000 times. (continued)
Rules for success from Life Could Be a Dream
The creators of the doo-wop musical capitalize on their Marvelous Wonderettes experience. By Charlotte Stoudt May 2, 2010
But he’s fallen back in love with theater. “This is my dad’s music,” he says. “We listened to it on the way to drag races. I grew up with it. So that really makes it a pleasure to sing.” Wynn sounds like Lois when she enthuses about life after graduation. “I never imagined this would happen to me. Nine months out of school and I’m hosting the LA Weekly Awards?” She’s also been workshopping a Disney Villains project with [title of show] creators Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen.
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“A gentleman came up to me after a show the other day and told me he used to ride motorcycles with my grandfather,” says Wynn. “To have a stranger come up and share part of the family history I didn’t know tells me I’m doing the right thing. I really want to carry on their name.” The show ends, and the audience buzzes around the theater’s cafe. Keeling looks for Burkhardt. He first saw her onstage in Reprise’s Li’l Abner in 2008 but was too
intimidated to talk to her. They met about a year later while both working on Broadway. Burkhardt’s verdict? “Derek has a natural way with music and styles of the ‘50s, which makes him just look effortless. I love what he does with ‘The Great Pretender’ and ‘Runaround Sue,’ though my favorite part is when he rips his shirt off.” Another satisfied customer. Roger Bean’s doo-wop empire rolls on.
OC Register Interviews Winter Wonderettes director, Roger Bean By Paul Hodgins November 25, 2009
Over the last few years, Roger Bean’s life has been pretty much taken over by four modestly talented female singers who call themselves the Wonderettes. Bean, a playwright and director, admits that he spends more time than he ever imagined dealing with his fictional creations, who hail from Springfield (Bean chose that hometown because it’s the most common name for an American city—he wants the Wonderettes to be from nowhere and everywhere). “In the last couple of years, my life has mostly been taken up with Wonderettes-related stuff,” said Bean, who has spent several weeks preparing Winter Wonderettes for a production at the Laguna Playhouse, where it opens Nov. 28. “Recently there have been Wonderette shows in New York and Chicago and Florida and Hawaii.” Last year, local audiences got their first taste of the winsome foursome when the original incarnation of the show, The Marvelous Wonderettes, played at the Laguna Playhouse. The Wonderettes are catty, vindictive, backbiting and blithely egotistical. They’re also the best of friends who have been performing as close harmony singers since high school. The group consists of Missy, the prim, level-headed one, easily the quartet’s most talented singer; Cindy Lou, a statuesque beauty with
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a sultry delivery and that annoying sense of entitlement beautiful people exude; excitable Betty Jean, whose got some creative differences with Cindy Lou; and Suzy, a gumchewing, lovable bimbo who has a budding romance going with Richie, the guy who runs the show’s lights and isn’t afraid of demonstrating his luminous love from the tech booth. Winter Wonderettes is a sequel of sorts to The Marvelous Wonderettes, which begins in 1958 when the four girls are still in high school and ends 10 years later, when life has started to deliver its tribulations and rewards. “Winter Wonderettes takes place about six months after the first play ends,” Bean said. “There’s a little bit of movement that’s happened. You find out that Missy, who got proposed to onstage, has been married. Ritchie is married to Suzy. She’s had twins and she’s pregnant again. She’s turning into a baby factory.” The story is set in Harper’s Hardware, where Betty Jean has worked since high school. The Wonderettes have transformed the drab place into a Yuletidethemed wonderland. Mr. Harper is due to appear at the end of the evening as Santa Claus, as he does every year to hand out everyone’s eagerly anticipated Christmas bonus envelope. But this year, Harper is a noshow. Betty Jean runs off to find him but comes back with the envelopes
instead. Everyone opens them to discover not cash but pink slips. Harper’s Hardware is closing its doors forever. “I think everyone will really identify with that part of the show this year,” said Bean, who penned Winter Wonderettes back in 2003 when unemployment was far less of an issue than it is today. Bean is quick to reassure us that things aren’t as dire as they appear. It was never his intention to delve into heavy issues with the Wonderettes franchise. “I wanted to steer clear of the weightier things happening at the time. Getting into the Vietnam War, for example, would have been too rough for this little jukebox world I created.” One hallmark of Bean’s shows is his use of period music, both popular and obscure, to define the Wonderettes’ style and help tell their stories. Winter Wonderettes contains traditional Christmas carols, midcentury pop songs that everyone knows and a few not-sofamiliar tunes as well: “The Man With the Bag,” “Run, Rudolph, Run,” “Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day” and “Suzy Snowflake.” “I go through a lot of songs when I put these shows together,” Bean said. “I listen to them over and over, and stories begin to take shape. I think, ‘I’d love to have this song in the show. Whose story does it fit into?’ After many listenings (continued)
OC Register Interviews Winter Wonderettes director, Roger Bean By Paul Hodgins November 25, 2009
the solution will come to me about how the songs could be part of somebody’s story line.” Bean once thought that the success of the Wonderettes would give him a certain amount of free time. No such luck. “I run my own licensing company now, which looks after the Wonderettes as well as three other shows that are my own. Every once in a while I find a short period to write something new. But the more success I have the busier I get. I used to think, ‘When I get to a certain level of success I’ll be able to do whatever I want.’ But once you create something like this, you spend a lot of your time maintaining it.”
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Bean’s Milwaukee Originals Go Places By Heather Leszczewicz November 9, 2006
Roger Bean is no stranger to Milwaukee premieres; in fact, all of his original shows have premiered on The Milwaukee Rep stage. He’s had the honor of creating new musical productions season after season for The Rep since his debut with Don’t Touch That Dial! in 1997-‘98. “The first show I wrote, besides the little musicals I wrote with my mom on my living room floor growing up, was right here at Milwaukee Rep,” he says. “Audiences and The Rep really enjoyed the show, and I’ve had the honor of creating a new show here every year since.” Bean says that creating shows in Milwaukee and for The Rep is satisfying. “The Rep is very kind to its artists, and I end up having a lot of leeway with how I go about creating the work,” he says. “And I think the sensibilities of the audiences here have helped me tune and tone the work for a larger audience. My plays seem to be ready to play just about anywhere after I’ve worked out the kinks here in Milwaukee.” His original shows have gone places since closing in Milwaukee and have done well. “I license my shows to other theaters through my own company (Steele Spring) out of Los Angeles, and four of them have gone on to many additional productions,” Bean says. “I counted a while back, and it looks like there have been over 125
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productions of my plays throughout the country. Kinda cool. I had no idea this was going to happen when I started. I was just trying to create work for myself.” When it comes to selling his shows after they close in Milwaukee, Bean says he doesn’t really try to think about where the production could go. “This business is very up and down, and the highs and lows can be pretty extreme. I’ve had some great highs and some real low moments. I try now to stay in this moment,” he says. “So the creation of the new piece is really about what’s happening right now, on that stage, and are we being true to the story at hand.” Bean’s newest venture, Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, debuts Friday Nov. 10 in The Rep’s Stackner Caberet. He says that this show really wrote itself, but he found inspiration in the 1960s. “For some reason, I really love the ‘60s. Like, I really, really love the ‘60s. I grew up in the ‘60s, and my mother always sang these songs around the house,” Bean says. “I think this music just sank in and stuck. And I seem to write very well for the female voice; I guess my feminine side comes out and shines brightly.” Bean says he has a fascination surrounding “gaggles of girls.” He finds the interactions, friendships and rivalries interesting because he
never experienced such a thing. “In our American society today, men don’t get to have gaggles that act and react the same way. Generally speaking, and I know this is a huge generalization, when men gather, they talk about sports, electronics, work,” Bean says. “They don’t really dig into the stuff that theatrical songs are written about. So many of these great songs of the sixties are about love and relationships. They really scream to be dramatized. When the screaming stops, I put ‘em onstage.” And there have been many songs that have been screaming at Bean, and he thanks his iTunes library for making his life easier. “I’ve already done two shows about girl groups, utilizing girl group-type songs. For this show I could open it up and choose songs of the era sung by solo singers, male singers (and) other groups,” Bean says. “I shuffle songs around in iTunes and storylines begin to take shape. As I’m writing, I do decidedly make an effort to include both famous songs as well as unknown gems. I love hearing an audience ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ in recognition when a song they know begins. But I really love watching an audience get into a song they never heard before. Some of my favorite songs in this show are the ones you’ve never heard before. They’re really terrific, and the songs never got their fair share of airtime when they were first (continued)
Bean’s Milwaukee Originals Go Places By Heather Leszczewicz November 9, 2006
released. They’re hidden gems, I tell you. Gems.” Why Do Fools Fall In Love? has another one of Bean’s gaggle of girls throwing a bachelorette party in the ‘60s to talk, eat, drink and sing the night away, which he hopes audiences will be able to relate to. “We’ve had some pretty great and silly times in Why Do Fools Fall In Love? and I do think it comes out onstage,” Bean says. “It certainly has some serious moments—but just hang out for a second or two. The rollercoaster of emotions will switch back to fun and merriment before you know it.” As for his next show, Bean says he’ll be taking a few months off and wait for the writing bug to hit him once again. “I’ve done two ‘60s shows back to back. I think my next show will venture elsewhere, but I’m sure I’ll be coming back to the ‘60s again. I can’t help it,” he says. “And I have so much damn ‘60s music on my computer—I’ve got to use it all up. I’m not sure where the next show will come from.” Bean is currently working on producing past Rep shows, The Andrews Brothers and The Wonderettes, for the Los Angeles and off-Broadway stages, whether it’s prior to the end of the year or for next spring. “My plate is full, but I certainly can’t complain,” he says.
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Wandering wonder of stage By Sam Thielman June 26, 2009
Seems like you can’t walk into a regional theater these days without tripping over a Wonderette. Roger Bean, co-producer/ writer/director behind doo-wop tuner The Marvelous Wonderettes, has turned his Los Angeles and off Broadway hit into a mini-franchise, spawning a Christmas-themed sequel (Winter Wonderettes) and a spin off slated for a Los Angeles commercial run. Those are just three of the six shows—all crafted around existing songs with a high nostalgia factor— that Bean licenses out to regional theaters around the country with an innovative do-it-yourself rights management kit. Meanwhile, The Marvelous Wonderettes continue to chirp Bean’s carefully selected golden oldies at Gotham’s Westside Theater, where they’ve been singing in four-part harmony since last September for an audience that includes the boomers that grew up listening to the tunes, as well as their kids and grandkids. The show frequently does gangbusters biz at the TKTS booth and shows no signs of slowing down. The musical follows a foursome of girls at their 1958 prom, where the male vocal quartet that was scheduled to perform (the Crooning Crabcakes) can’t make it, forcing the gals to go on and sing 1950s hits such as “Mr. Sandman,” “Lollipop” and “Dream Lover.” In the second act (set 10 years later), they burst
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into “Son of a Preacher Man” and “It’s My Party” to explain the troubles in their lives—all of which seems to suit audiences hungry for a lively lineup of pop standards just fine. The upcoming tuner Life Could Be a Dream features the hard-luck Crabcakes in their very own show, in which they try to win a radio contest that just may earn them their lucky break. “It’s like Tolkien,” Bean jokes about the interconnected musicals. “Theater nerds can have endless discussions about what characters show up where, and why.” While the shows themselves are somewhat simpler than Lord of the Rings, the rights around them are not. Winter Wonderettes, a popular licensee, features 24 songs, almost all written by different artists and owned by different companies. To navigate the rights waters, Bean collaborated with Edward Starnes, a colleague who runs a freelance music clearance company called Rubicon II in Burbank, Calif. As a rule, rights holders want a percentage, so Bean and Starnes created one of the few regional theater contracts that work on a percentage basis rather than a flat fee. For recession-struck theaters, this is good news. “A lot of the theaters come back for a second and third time because they’re not being charged an outrageous flat fee,” says Bean.
“It’s tough times for these theaters, and they don’t have to pay a huge fee if they can’t get the people into the theater.” That doesn’t appear to be a serious problem for Bean’s clients. The shows do well, particularly Winter Wonderettes, which capitalizes on community theater’s love of holiday shows and a general affection for the tuner’s yuletide standards, like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Sleigh Ride.” Starnes says the shows had the good fortune to get in on the ground floor of the jukebox musical craze in 2000, suggesting that it might be harder to write a similar contract now that everybody from Elvis to Patty Griffin has a tuner. The music publishers leasing their songs for Bean’s shows split up 4% of the theater’s adjusted B.O., so everybody gets an even slice per song used. Legally speaking, it’s an easy formula, and no one appears to be complaining about their earnings. The formula changes based on where the show is taking place: A Broadway or West End production might make Wonderettes significantly more expensive and also harder to mount. Starnes says a Gotham production of another Bean show was scuttled because one song’s publisher didn’t want to compete with himself—there was already a tuner featuring his client’s back catalog in the works. While the mainstream exposure (continued)
Wandering wonder of stage By Sam Thielman June 26, 2009
of such tuners as Jersey Boys and Rock of Ages may have helped legitimize the genre to some extent, Bean acknowledges that his shows don’t always get the respect accorded to, say, a new Adam Guettel musical. But that doesn’t bother him. “For some people, it’s not the kind of art they want to do in their theater, and they sort of wrinkle their noses at a jukebox musical,” he admits. But that hasn’t deterred Bean— in between Wonderettes episodes, he’s written The Andrews Brothers, Route 66 and Why Do Fools Fall in Love?, dedicated to various top 40 hits from musical periods that interest him (mostly the 1960s). “It’s a different art than creating these pieces from scratch,” Bean says. “Mostly, I try to write things that I think my parents would enjoy.”
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Madison Rep goes back in time with The Marvelous Wonderettes By Nadine Goff July 26, 2002
Roger Bean was born three years after the Day the Music Died and two years before the ShangriLas sent “Leader of the Pack” roaring to the top of the music charts. But arriving near the tail end of the baby boom didn’t stop Bean, who recently turned 40, from falling in love with the music of the Fabulous Fifties and the early years of the Swingin’ Sixties. “That music had great melodies, lyrics and stories,” he says. “And because it’s the roots of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s the basis for a lot of today’s music.” Lately, the original golden oldies from the 1950s and 1960s have been disappearing from the airwaves faster than you can say “45 RPM.” Radio advertisers are losing interest in aging baby boomers, so the “oldies” are becoming younger. Bean, however, is forging a successful theater career by creating light-hearted musicals featuring some of the greatest hits (as well as an occasional obscure flip side) from the era of duck tails, coonskin caps and poodle skirts. This weekend, his musical celebrating the music of girl group from the 1950s and 1960s, The Marvelous Wonderettes, opens at the Madison Repertory Theatre. Stuart Ross, who created Forever Plaid, the hit musical about a 1950s guy group, which the Rep presented in 1995, may have been an early leader in molding oldies hits (and misses) into musicals, but
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in this specialized field, Bean, who also created the musicals Route 66 and Beach Blanket Bash, has certainly become a contender for the title of Leader of the Pack. The Marvelous Wonderettes made its debut at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in March 1999, less than two years after Bean’s first musical, Don’t Touch That Dial! a game show musical featuring theme songs from television’s best (and worst) programs, debuted there. Since then, The Marvelous Wonderettes has been produced by theaters across the nation—from Kennebunkport, Maine, to Moscow, Idaho. Bean is directing the Rep’s production of Wonderettes, a job that has required he spend the last several weeks surrounded by four lovely young women he thinks are absolutely marvelous. They’re the cast members portraying the Wonderettes: Pamela Sue Fox (Suzy), Lucia Spina (Betty Jean), Whitney Sneed (Missy) and Jennifer Peterson-Hind (Cindy Lou) . The Rep’s production of The Marvelous Wonderettes will be the last professional production of the musical at a nonprofit theater. Bean has signed a commercial option in Los Angeles and hopes to eventually send professional, for profit productions of the musical all over the country, plus record its music on a compact disc. Right now, his mother, Lois
Bean, has the only recording of the show. “It’s a bootleg tape,’’ she says. A Seattle resident, Lois Bean, 65, says she saw Route 66 in Oregon, but has never seen The Marvelous Wonderettes because it hasn’t yet played close enough to home. Roger Bean likes to credit his mother with his musical talent (and his dad for his sense of humor). He also credits his mother with inspiring his love of girl group music. But when pressed, he admits what he remembers her singing around the house when he was growing up was a lot of Mama Cass, not Connie Francis. Lois Bean, who graduated from high school in 1955, says she was definitely a “California girl” and sang a lot in high school and at church, but never professionally. “High school gives you a lot of opportunity to show off,” she says. Her son was always talented, says his mother. “When Roger was 8, I took him to drama school and I think that’s where the theater grabbed him. I think he knew deep down since he was little what he wanted to do.” Roger Bean, however, doesn’t have particularly fond memories of his high school days. He says: “I always tell people I disliked high school because kids are cruel. At that point we haven’t learned enough about other people’s feelings to temper ourselves.” Some people remain forever (continued)
Madison Rep goes back in time with The Marvelous Wonderettes By Nadine Goff July 26, 2002
stuck in high school—forever a cheerleader, a jock, a dork or a class clown, no matter how old they become. For Roger Bean, there was definitely life after high school. “I was an introverted class clown, very overweight,” he says. “I’m a completely different person now.” It’s this belief in transformation, this belief that there is life after high school, that makes Wonderettes Bean’s most character-based musical. The four girls we meet in the first half of the show are attending their high school prom in 1958. In the second half of the show,
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they’re back in the same gymnasium for their 10-year class reunion and they’ve all changed. “I wanted the show to be about girls and friendship and love and what happens to friendships over time,” says Bean. Then he pauses and adds. “Here I am talking like it’s Chekhov. I don’t want to make it sound like the show is serious. It’s light and fluffy and no one is going to be bored.” And no, he insists, this is not just a show for aging Baby Boomers. “It appeals to such a wide range because everyone knows these girls.
There’s always a flirty one, always a class clown.” In addition to his cast, Bean has high praise for choreographer Pam Kriger. Kriger is one member of this production’s artistic team who probably has some reallife, first-hand knowledge of the lives and times of Bean’s fictional characters. In 1966-67, she spent a year teaching English at Madison’s Central-University High School, formerly located Downtown on Wisconsin Avenue.