Thanks to reviews — media and personal — I was invited to recreate my concept for THE DESERT SONG (originally SD&C’d for Village Light Opera Group, NYC) with Music Theatre of Wichita, KS — and also offered to choreograph FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. I happily accepted!
I arrived in Wichita to discover my apartment had no air conditioner in a low-hundreds heat wave! Thus, by invitation, I spent several nights along with techies and some cast sleeping in the air conditioned fabulous scene shop. PS—it was there I was introduced to the delights of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” —complete with groupies!
THE DESERT SONG I directed and choreographed with Ron Raines, Sara Ann Noll and Robert Lydiard, along with a great cast and crew with the exotic scenery of the brilliant designer John Scheffler (now world-acclaimed and a lifelong friend since college.) Romberg’s music and Hammerstein’s excellent book & lyrics provide a feast to work with — and we had one!
During rehearsals, I learned that Bobby had been the voice of Pha (a dolphin) in “Day Of The Dolphins” (which I loved cause I love animals!) so he would try to friendly-manipulate me as director sometimes by pulling out his dolphin voice “Pha loves Pa” (a line in the film)!
LITTLE ME came next and an actor couldn’t make it so I happily accepted the on-spot offer to play Benny Buchsbaum, a Hollywood producer, who is the twin brother of Bernie (played hilariously by Bobby Lydiard) — Bobby is around 5’6” and I was 6’ at that time so we had matching makeup, costumes and bald pates but were forerunners of Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito in the film TWINS! Some days Bobby & I would walk into rehearsal and the great director Johnny Sharp would hold up his hands at us “Okay, you two —no more new bits!” It was a really fun production for all!
One joy of this job was getting to lead some classes with the eager, budding apprentices. It’s always fun to pass it forward!
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF—always an incredible show to choreograph—and, as usual, most answered question to audience members: “Yes, the dancers were really balancing the bottles on their hats!” Luckily, the director asked me to be the Fiddler and used me a lot as Tevye’s shadow—and the first violinist, when he found out I played contrabass with the Hempstead High School Orchestra, taught me all the correct fingering so most people thought I was really emanating fiddle sounds from my fishing-wire-stringed violin (which is still one of my favorite souvenirs.)
A summer of delightful shows and people!
