All I knew about Tovarich when I auditioned for this summer stock tour was that the original Broadway cast starred Vivian Leigh. I don’t remember anything about the audition however, after I was told that I got the role of George Davis and that the tour would star Ginger Rogers, I had to pinch myself knowing that I would be doing the Charleston with her. We rehearsed in Dallas for two weeks, opened the tour at The Dallas State Fair Music Hall and then travelled on to play theaters in Atlanta, Kansas City (8000-seat outdoor Starlight Theater) and the Pittsburgh Civic Arena with it’s retractable roof dome which was opened during the intermission to reveal a usually beautiful starlit sky (and create a wind turbulence that would blow down any prop that was not attached to the set). I can still hear the voice over that accompanied the dome opening, “And now ladies and gentlemen the Civic Light Opera takes great pleasure in opening our roof top dome.” And all of the performers on stage would say under their breaths “And, hang on to your hats.” It all sounds horrendous but it did give us a lot laughs during the second act when we’d see a piece of furniture moving by it’s own volition. Ginger was a real “trooper,” we hit it off right from the beginning. She was a pro, never missed a cue, worked hard on our dance number and was a joy to dance with. We had staged one encore to our Charleston number (Wilkes-Barre, PA. ) and when the audience would keep applauding while we were in the wings, Ginger would say “come on, lets do another.” By the end of the tour we were doing five encores. Brings to mind a line from the title song in the show Applause, “What is it that we’re living for, Applause, Applause.” Isabelle Farrell a terrific actor/dancer with a quirky little voice played my sister. We also hit it off from the beginning of rehearsals, and really connected and had fun doing both of our numbers (Stuck With Each Other & Uh Oh!). Louise Kirkland (from the original Broadway cast) played our mother and John Vivyan (TV’s Mr. Lucky) was Ginger’s co-star. Ginger’s mother Lela traveled with her and made sure Ginger had whatever she needed and that everything was taken care of. As a closing night gift she gave me a self-published book of poetry that she wrote. One of the poems of course, is titled GINGER.
