*Hairspray* photos

Michael Tramontin as Link Larkin and Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad in *Hairspray* (by Mark O'Donnell, Thomas Meehan, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman), directed by Kirk Mouser at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, Aug. 7-21, 2010


Matthew Wade (center, with microphone) as Corny Collins, Michael Tramontin (left) as Link Larkin, Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad (next to Wade) and some of the Corny Collins Dancers in *Hairspray* at NIC's Shuler Performing Arts Center in Boswell Hall


Deidra Grace as Motormouth Maybelle (left), with Gabe Lawson as Seaweed J. Stubbs and Kasey Nusbickel as Penny Pingleton, in Kirk Mouser's production of *Hairspray*



Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad, surrounded by the Dynamites, emerges from Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway

(through Aug. 21 at NIC in Coeur d'Alene)

*Pump Boys and Dinettes* photos

July 22-Aug. 1 at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre
directed by Kasey R.T. Graham
musical direction by Steven Dahlke

with Dane Stokinger as Jim and Jessica Skerritt as Rhetta Cupp
J. Michael Zygo as Jackson and Jillian Zygo as Prudie Cupp
and
Steven Dahlke as L.M.

Summer casting

CdA Summer Theater runs June 12-Aug. 21 this year.
The 29th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (June 12-26) will feature Matt Wade as Leaf Coneybear (the hippie speller) and Reed McColm as Douglas Panch (the vice principal). This production will also venture to Idaho Rep in Moscow (June 28-July 3).

Cinderella (July 3-17) will feature three Travolta sisters (Ellen, Annie and Margaret), along with Ellen's husband, Jack Bannon, as King Maximillian — joined by Tamara Schupman as Queen Constantina, Andrew Ware Lewis as Christopher and Jessica Skerrit in the title role.

Skerrit returns in Pump Boys and Dinettes (July 22-Aug. 1) as Prudie Cupp, joined by Dane Stokinger as Jackson and musical director Steven Dahlke as LM.

The buzzworthy casting choices for Hairspray (Aug. 7-21) are, in the roles played by John Travolta and Christopher Walken in the movie, CdA artistic director Roger Welch as Edna Turnblat and Patrick Treadway as her husband, Wilbur. Schupman and McColm return as the Authority Figures; Matt Wade is Corny Collins; and Lindsey Hedburg plays Tracy Turnblad.

Laura Little named exec director of CdA Summer Theatre

Longtime arts and community supporter Laura Little has been named executive director of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater.

Little has been a subscriber and committee member for several theaters; has been on the board of the Civic; has served on the board of a charitable foundation; has founded a talent agency; and served until recently as executive director of Christian Youth Theater--Spokane.

"My overall focus will be to ensure that the Northwest understands what a treasure in has in CST. Why go to Seattle to enjoy the arts? We have Broadway right here!” Little says.

She'll be concentrating on "promoting the summer camps, booking master classes, starting a volunteer guild, finding housing for the actors, setting up auditions" along with enriching audience development, performing employee evaluations and doing community outreach.

According to her job description, she will also develop and oversee budget guidelines and generally act as the face of CST to the community.

Little adds that "Roger is still in control of the artistic end and Grant will continue running the business side of things."

This year's season runs from June 12-Aug. 21 and includes The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Cinderella, Pump Boys and Dinettes, and Hairspray.

CdA Summer Theater announces 2010 season

The_25th_Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
June 12-26

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella
July 3-17

Pump Boys and Dinettes
July 23-Aug. 1

Hairspray
Aug. 7-21

[ image: from johnhasslertheater.com. Pump Boys and Dinettes — about four guys who work at a gas station in small-town North Carolina and four waitresses at a nearby diner — premiered in 1982.]

Cinderella and Hairspray had been previously announced. So let's see, that means Spelling Bee (after the national tour got snowbound a year ago and never made it to the INB Center) will now be performed  at CdA Summer Theater (June 12-26) — in a production that will then tour to Moscow and the Idaho Rep  (June 28-July 2) — and then again in Jan.-Feb. 2011 at the Civic in Spokane. We sure should know how to spell "weltanschauung" after all that.

*Nuncrackers* photos

Dec. 18-19 at 7:30 pm and Dec. 20 at 2 pm

at NIC's Boswell Hall in CdA

by Dan Goggin

directed and choreographed by Roger Welch

CdA Summer Theater's second-ever midwinter production (after last year's White Christmas)

with Kathie Doyle-Lipe as Sister Mary Regina, the Reverend Mother
Julie Powell as Sister Mary Hubert
Krista Kubicek as Sister Robert Anne
Tamara Schupman as Sister Mary Paul
Andrew Ware Lewis as Father Virgil
Jack Bannon as the Narrator
and four roles for kids, played by Bridget Erb, Aaron Baldwin, Evan Schultz and Kelly Condon

[photos for The Inlander by Young Kwak]

partial review: *Miss Saigon*

at CdA Summer Theatre through Aug. 22

... None of this kvetching, however, should deter viewers from taking in Mia Yoshida's transcendent performance in the title role. (She's even better than she was last year at Lewis and Clark High.) In addition, the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre production (through Aug. 22) features Kirk Mouser's directing skill along with some powerful singing voices and strong design elements.
Mouser directs a sleazy-decadent opening scene, set in a Saigon strip joint with plenty of hip thrusts and cigarette smoke. He wisely isolates Yvonne Same in a spotlight, caught amid all the strip club hubbub, for a simply delivered “The Movie in My Mind.” The other Saigon prostitutes and the Engineer — all they want is to escape to America, to the promised land where their idealized "Movie” keeps playing over and over. Kim is the only one who insists on escaping with honor and dignity.
Yoshida shows great acting range in the role: virginal shyness in the opening scenes, followed by dawning passion and maternal protectiveness later on. She wants a better life, but only on her own terms. In the "Sun and Moon" love duet, her voice is tender and yearning. Both in movement and in song, Yoshida portrays Kim’s anguish, wonder and determination. We’re always pulling for her — which, of course, only makes the final tragedy even more somber. (As Chris, Kim’s American lover, Dane Stokinger expressed his character’s tragic dilemma well in the climactic hotel-room confrontation. But Stokinger’s Chris seemed self-focused: less attached to Kim than worried about his own problems.)



Mouser opens Act Two with a simple staging of “Bui-Doi,” the humanitarian plea on behalf of all those Vietnamese children abandoned by American soldiers; the contrast to Chris’s compassion is subtly hinted at. The action scenes bustle with energy; the satiric set-pieces, full of over-the-top glitz, are both amusing and a bit sad. In a heart-tugging show, Mouser’s direction showed restraint in the right places. Still — and despite those ugly American tourists in Bermuda shorts and knee socks — he didn’t tease out all of the show’s humor. ...

... In the thankless role of Ellen, Chris’s American wife, Jessica Skerritt handles extreme emotions with subtlety. Statuesque but not remote, she transformed the hand-wringing of “Now That I’ve Seen Her” into a genuine dilemma.

(For the full review, pick up a copy of the Aug. 16 Inlander.)

(Photos by Young Kwak; second photo: Dane Stokinger as Chris and Mia Yoshida as Kim)

partial review of *Dames at Sea*

at CdA Summer Theater through Sunday, Aug. 2

(This is about one-third of the review to appear in the July 30 Inlander.)

... the show’s plot isn’t worth a plugged nickel. The ingénue wants to be a star. She and the leading man (a sailor-songwriter) meet cute. The jealousy of the leading lady is aroused. Somebody's dismantling the theater (literally). So hey, kids, let's put on a show — on the deck of the sailor's battleship!
Dames at Sea amounts to a variety show: There will be a cutesy love duet, and a plaintive-love solo, and a parody of youthful desire played out by the old wrinkled couple, and some flash-bang tap-dance displays, and that number where the guy in the sailor suit twirls around the floor hugging a mop or his girl's plaid coat because she's tied up at the moment, you see, and the mop or the coat is all he's got to show us just how gosh-darn much in love he is.
Now either the romance and energy of such music-and-dance numbers is something that satisfies you and makes up for the hokeyness of a confection like Dames at Sea, or else it doesn't.
Well, it should. When Darcy Wright sings, when Cameron Lewis dances, and — maybe especially — when Travolta and (as her elder love interest) Jerry Christakos mock themselves, the goofy ways we arrived at such moments seem to fade in significance.

[ photo by Young Kwak: Cameron Lewis as Dick, Ellen Travolta as Mona, and Darcy Wright as Ruby in Roger Welch's production of Dames at Sea, Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, July-August 2009]

*Dames at Sea,* CdA Summer Theatre, July 23-Aug. 2

Dames at Sea
Cameron Lewis, Ellen Travolta and Darcy Wright

dir. Roger Welch

Kids' theater camps in CdA

Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, in association with Jazz Hands Theatre Company and the Kroc Center,
announces two week-long theater camps for kids:

Aug. 8-15, from 10 am-2 pm daily, culminating in two performances of "A Cow, Some Beans, and a Boy Named Jack"
and
Aug. 15-22, same times, with performances on Aug. 22 of "Cindy and Her Fella"

$150 per child per camp. Call (800) 4-CDA-TIX or (208) 769-7780.

Directed by Roger Welch, Christopher Moll and Steven Dahlke of CdA Summer Theater

[photo: Roger Welch, from the NIC Sentinel]

review of *The Producers*

Hotsy-Totsy Nazis

Accountants in green eyeshades lean over ledgers, chanting wearily that they're "unhappy, unhappy ... very very very unhappy." Soon they're joined by one of their own, a man with a briefcase named Leopold Bloom, bullied by his boss and resigned to a dull bookkeeping life. His dream is to be a Broadway producer — the glitz! the showgirls! — but he lacks nerve.
In one of the highlights of the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater production of The Producers, Matt Wade makes Leo the kind of guy who stumbles into a room, then yelps at the sight of the door he just closed behind himself. But soon, security blanket and all, Leo gets himself ensnared in enough fraud to make himself fabulously rich: He gets to act bossy, he gets to produce a play, he gets the girl.
And that’s why The Producers resonates with audiences. Despite the Borscht Belt one-liners, the hackneyed situations, the stereotypes, Mel Brooks’ gay fantasia on anti-Nazi themes is still about a couple of guys who just want to realize their dreams. (Well, more than a couple of guys, some of whom have their Fuhrer-worshipping quirks.)
The fun is in the outrageousness: Who wouldn’t like to dupe some oddballs, make a killing and toddle off to Rio?
In the CdA version (through July 18), director and choreographer Tralen Doler knows how to “Keep It Gay” and “Flaunt It” while convincing everyone concerned that “We Can Do It.” For example, Doler supervises a busy "King of Broadway" number, lead producer Max Bialystock's lament for the clout he once had. By the end, a swirling crowd of winos, nuns and hookers are all bowing down to a little guy preening on a pretzel cart. Doler makes clever use of side-stage projections, keeps the crowd scenes bustling, and even designs dance duets that go up, across and over a casting couch — keeping the energy flowing with dances and jokes that cover scene changes. (Directors enamored of momentum-killing blackouts, take note.)
Jennifer Davis's odd Swedish ululations as Ulla only worsened the lack of clarity in the Shuler sound system — a lot of her one-liners were garbled. Davis fills Ulla’s dance requirements, though: She’s one flexible bombshell.
As Franz Liebkind, the Nazi nutcase who has written a musical tribute to Adolf Elizabeth Hitler — a sure-fire flop on Broadway — Patrick Treadway sports some hot-pants lederhosen, his knobby knees protruding above Nazi knee socks. Treadway could afford to go even more over the top while “In Old Bavaria,” but his rapid-fire hand-claps in “Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop” were hilarious.
Jerry Christakos steals scenes as the self-aggrandizing and very swish director chosen by Max and Leo to shepherd their flop. Whether he’s in silver-lamé drag or military khakis, watch Christakos’ mannerisms: fluttering hands of indecision, facial tics gauging how much the audience adores him, arms draped in L-shapes of self-hugging. He tap-dances with Stalin, goose-steps in the chorus line, and generally follows Charlie Chaplin’s technique (in The Great Dictator) of making fascists look foolish.
As the director’s gofer, Steven Dahlke executes an effete hip-swiveling sashay that’s exaggerated and therefore funny. (Subtlety’s not valued in this show. What’s valued is finding new ways to make caricatures even more outlandish.)
Max Mendez’s 17-piece orchestra was especially impressive in show-off passages like the first-act finale and, of course, that Las Vegas-style tribute to the world’s greatest entertainer, “Springtime for Hitler.”
That number provides one way to hack Hitler down to size. But then The Producers makes fun of everybody, not excluding Jews and little old ladies. And the satire is scattershot for a reason: In Mel Brooks Land, you might as well chase your dreams, because everybody else is too crazy to chase after theirs.

[ photo by Young Kwak for The Inlander: Eric Hadley as Max Bialystock, Jennifer Davis as Ulla, and Matt Wade as Leo Bloom in Tralen Doler's production of Mel Brooks' The Producers at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, July 2009 ]


** Deleted passages (like the extras on a DVD, only less entertaining):

Wade and Davis waltz right up and over the casting couch, leading to suggestions of nookie punctuated by a delightful pop-up-head routine.

Wade displays here the best physical comedy that he has offered in two seasons at CdA: tongue out, chin lowered, security blanket nestled up against his cheek, his arm, his forehead. He doesn’t speak, he neighs — and when he gets over-excited, he’s a regular hoppy-floppy Energizer Bunny.
He invents unexpected and cutesy ways of cuddling up wif his little blankie (so he’s got “childlike” covered) and he’s got out-of-control happy feet when Ulla says says she’ll shack up with him (so he’s got “horny” covered too). When the two of them return from Rio, Wade parties in an ice cream suit, cavorting with Mardi Gras gyrations that are matched only by Davis’s hyper-speed shoulder-and-bosom shimmies.

A couple of numbers early in Act Two seem old-fashioned and tame in the context of Brooks’ frenzy. “That Face,” the boys’ tribute to Ulla’s hotsy-totsy-ness, seems like a simple love song, and the “’Break a leg,’ not ‘Good luck’” bit feels like a segment Brooks had to add in between the auditions and the big-number extravaganza of “Springtime for Hitler.”

As Max, Eric Hadley projects bulldog humor. Sometimes the huffing and puffing — or the Nathan Lane mannerisms — show through, but Hadley’s a likeable weasel. His Bialystock whines a lot, but from motives of desperation, not swindling. A jaw-dropping highlight of this show arrives late in Act Two, when Hadley, isolated in a jail cell, performs the rapid-fire plot summarizing in “Betrayed” so well and so precisely that it’s funny/awesome at all once.

The old-ladies-with-walkers drill team was less extensive and precise than in other productions, but compensation arrived in the first-act finale, which had everyone expressing their desires with sonic flair.

This time around, I admired Brooks’ ingenuity with the ol’ rule about how a show’s second song needs to be an “I Want” song. “King of Broadway” establishes that Max was up, now down, and wants to be back up again in the pecking order of Broadway producers. But then we get the light bulb/temptation scene (Leo makes a random observation, Max gets his Big Idea, then recruits a reluctant Leo into his scheme) — followed by Leo’s second thoughts, necessitating a second “I Want” song, with Leo realizing that he’s willing to risk living in jail because he’s already living in the jail of the accounting firm.

*The Producers* at CdA, July 3-18

Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks

with Eric Hadley as Max Bialystock and Matt Wade as Leo Bloom
also with Jerry Christakos as Roger, Patrick Treadway as Franz, and Steven Dahlke as Carmen Ghia

IBDb entry here.

Whatever Ulla wants, Ulla gets ...

The Producers
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Max Bialystock (Eric James Hadley), left, Ulla (Jennifer Elise Davis) and Leo Bloom (Matt Wade) in Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's production of Mel Brooks' "The Producers,* directed and choreographed by Tralen Doler

*Nuncrackers* at Shuler Auditorium, Dec. 18-20

Following the success of *White Christmas* back when it was snowing around here, CdA Summer Theater is putting on its second Yuletide fund-raiser at NIC for two nights and a matinee. Visit cdasummertheatre.com.
Dan Goggin's musical makes "Nunsense" of Christmas. (Ha! Humor!) It's the third of five sequels to the original, which appeared in 1985. The Little Sisters of Hoboken decide to fund-raise by putting on a musical for their local public-access channel, leading to a spoof of Tchaikovsky's *Nutcracker* and to songs like "Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn."

[photo: Dan Goggin, from theaterbayarea.org]

review of *Joseph/Dreamcoat* at CdA

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a pop-rock-country-disco-doo-wop-reggae hodgepodge. For no reason at all, Joseph's brothers pop up sometimes in cowboy hats, sometimes in berets. And sometimes they walk like an Egyptian.
But that's the childlike fun of a show illuminating the Genesis story of a son with a mystical air who is assumed to have been killed until he takes on the sins of his brothers, rises from the dead and is reunited with his father.
You’ve heard that story before? The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater production (through June 27) reinvigorates it with a fresh staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music. Because of engaging performances by Krystle Armstrong as the Narrator and Steven Booth in the title role — along with some find-the-comedy-wherever-he-can direction by Roger Welch, and backed by strong creative elements — the CdA Joseph is kicky good fun.
Two particular strengths are Michael Wasileksi's choreography and John Gallegos' lighting design.
Dancers tap and twirl and angle their elbows in vectors toward the sky. They change hands and do-si-do in a square dance. They form a wedding gantlet, do the Frug, and lift the lascivious Mrs. Potiphar right over Joseph’s cowering torso.
Meanwhile, disco bulbs flash and shafts of light enclose Joseph in a jail cell. There’s even a strobe effect for a goat sacrifice.
Welch’s direction seeks out the goofy bits in an already goofy musical. Snake puppets join Joseph when he’s thrown in a well, then make an unexpected appearance elsewhere onstage. A goat rolls out on wheels. Camels (one hump, two legs) skitter and sing.
It all helps speed along a brisk 40-minute first act. Best of all, Welch has borrowed 55 kids from the recent Christian Youth Theater-Spokane production of Joseph, seating them in bleachers flanking the action. So what if, at the top of Act Two, the kids in the choir couldn’t synchronize their cutesy knee-dips? They looked like happy little prairie dogs, and it only added to the fun.
So did Armstrong as the Narrator — engaging the kids in the Prologue, performing comic bits with sunglasses, mai-tais and a Bugs Bunny carrot. At a couple of junctures, Welch just isolates Armstrong in a spotlight and lets her voice reach out and caress the audience. Her warm, clear tone was worth showcasing.
For his part, Booth sells the goody-goody tactlessness of Joseph, who’s blind to the possibility that his brothers might not be his biggest fans. Booth appears earnest, almost all-American, while running around in what he calls his “little Egyptian skirt.” He can even look forbidding. And any doubts about his vocal range are dispersed at the end of “Close Every Door” when he belts out “For we have been promised / A land of our own.” It’s an engaging performance.



There are other highlights — the accompaniment of Steven Dahlke’s 11-piece orchestra, particularly during the French café mood of “Those Canaan Days,” and the way the jiggly hips of James Lane as Pharaoh Elvis seemed to do his thinking for him. But this Joseph isn’t flawless. As good as Gallegos’ lighting scheme usually is, at times actors strolled into dead spots. For some of Tim Rice’s rapid-fire lyrics, diction — and the sound system — faltered. Unlike the other-musical-genre songs, which got visual set-ups to prepare the transition, the reggae number (“Benjamin Calypso”) seemed to come out of nowhere.
But soon after, the automated disco lights swirl out over us, and we too become part of the mega-mix. When every door seems closed and all you’re hoping for is a better life, “Any Dream” indeed will do. Along with varying its musical genres, Coeur d’Alene’s Joseph presents a mishmash of moods from serious to silly. It’s Lord Webber’s cornucopia full o’ fun.

an interview with Steve Booth

(by phone from Dallas, 3 June 09; headshot from broadwayworld.com)

Steve Booth attended Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene and then went to UNLV on a theater scholarship. He’ll be playing the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (at CdA Summer Theater, June 13-27).
Booth has been on the road for the past six months with the musical version of Happy Days. As a result, he’s missing the first week of rehearsal in CdA.
You read that right: The actor singing the title role in CdA’s first show is flying in on Sunday and joining the rest of the cast on Monday morning, June 8 — just 130 hours before the curtain goes up on opening night.
Yikes. At least it’ll be a fun homecoming for Booth, who has lots of family and friends in the area.

In the summers of 2002-04 at Coeur d’Alene, Booth appeared in Anything Goes, West Side Story and Oklahoma!; Smokey Joe’s Café and Fiddler on the Roof; and Cats and Little Shop of Horrors.
He performed in the Las Vegas version of Avenue Q (he played Princeton and Rod), then returned to CdA three summers ago to play the title role in Pippin.
This is his first summer back since.

on Avenue Q:
Steve Booth: We had 10 shows a week, but two casts. So we did five shows a week — we covered for one another within the company, then were on standby for four of the other cast’s five shows every week.
Bobo: But God, living near the Strip … I hate that town.
Steve Booth: I know what you mean. But having gone to school there and doing Avenue Q — I kind of have a soft spot for Las Vegas.

Bobo: So what happened with *Glory Days*?
[from a phone interview on 5/2/08 with Bill Booth, Steve's father:]
Roger [Welch] came to see it in New York. Steve did an off-Broadway show called "Journey to the West," and five or six shows at the Paper Mill.
Glory Days was done at Circle in the Square, which seats about 700.
Steve plays Will, who opens and closes the show. All four characters have been away to college, but Will is the one who wants them to stick together. It's the night before the football alumni game; none of them made the team. He wants it to be the same among them, but it can't be. At the end, Will isn't sure what to do with his life.
One character has a big secret; Skip is the cynic, who's jaded and cynically aware; Andy is passionate, cocky, has a strong sense of self, but also a softer side
But it closed after 17 previews and just one night on Broadway [5/7/08].

[ IBDb.com entry here.
Glory Days: book by James Gardiner, music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire ]

Steve Booth reflects on his *Glory Days,* a year later:
Unfortunately, some bad decisions were made by higher-ups. We rushed moving the show from D.C. to Broadway. In D.C., it had gotten rave reviews and sold out.
It was a tiny little show, just four characters, so we went into it with small expectations and were pleasantly surprised.
Circle in the Square was a perfect size for this show -- a 3/4 thrust stage, so it was an easy transplant.
It opened up, and we made the move real fast.
But all of us actors -- who's gonna say not to go to Broadway? It was our dream. We were sort of flying by the seat of our pants.
The smarter move would have been to take some time, workshop it regionally a bit more. It's not a perfect show, but it's a good one.
But everything moved so fast. I think the producers didn't raise enough money so that, if it wasn't an immediate hit, they'd be able to keep it afloat until word of mouth helped it out.
As it was, they were banking on it coming to Broadway and getting rave reviews.
It could have gained a following; it could have earned some creative nods -- you know, some nominations or something.
But the kids that wrote it -- it was harder for them [for the show to close on opening night]. It was very hard for all of us, but it was harder on them. They'd been writing that thing for a couple of years.
Nick Blaemire was also appearing in *Cry Baby* at the same time.
It was a learning experience for them.
You know, I got my Broadway credit, but when it closed that fast, my first thought was: "Darn, we didn't get to record a cast album." So that's why I'm excited: right after Joseph, I'm going to New York and we're going to record it for Chickaboom Records. [sh-k-boom Records; sh-k-boom.com]
So it's not dead -- it was sold to NPI, and it's being done a lot in Japan. This Japanese boy-group, kind of like the Japanese version of N Sync, they're doing it a lot.
And Glory Days will be done in high schools -- it's an easy, cheap show, with just four guys and good stories.
We should have gone off-Broadway after we were done with D.C.

[photo: cast of Glory Days, with Steven Booth as Will, on right; from jessepjohnson.com]

on preparing for Joseph:
Bobo: Did you watch Donny Osmond in the film, or are you one of those actors who studiously avoids watching previous performances of the same role?
Steve Booth: To tell you the truth, I wasn't that familiar with the show. I've never seen it onstage.
I've seen some clips of the movie. It's great as a reference point.
But I don't expect that Roger is just going to copy that thing. He'll have his own ideas.
I am not Donny Osmond. But I have listened to the music. I'm learning it on my own without watching the movie.

Roger is letting me come to rehearsals a week late. And I'm a little scared about missing the first week of rehearsal.
I mean, it's one of the leads, along with the Narrator. But the staging and the choreography -- it's not that hard, as long as I know my music.
Joseph is in his little skirt and he just sort of walks around -- there's not too much dancing for him.
I'm confident that in a week, I'll be able to get it.

On Sunday [June 7], we have two shows here in Dallas, then I'm getting on an 11 o'clock flight, and by Monday at 10:00, I'll get started on Joseph.
It's gonna be hard, but I have my book and my iPod, and I'm going through the script and highlighting everything.
I might make little notations where I might have ideas, where we might a little twist in the score, but I can't make a lot of choices. Mostly, I just need to be put into the show.
Roger has done this show before. It's not a new show to him. It'll be easy to work with him and with everyone who I know [in CdA]. It'd be a lot harder not knowing anyone. But then I would not have gotten the role if I did not already have relationships with people there. I have the confidence to pull it off.
I told Roger, anytime, I will come back. My whole family is there, so I get to see my family.

on the *Happy Days* tour:
We're in our second week in Dallas now. We started in October in L.A. We did it there to the end of November, then were on hiatus for a bit. So we've actually only been on tour since January, in Milwaukee.
This is my first tour. Some people like living out of a suitcase, but I like to be more settled.

[photo: Steven Booth, on left, as Richie in the musical version of *Happy Days,* with the Fonz and Ralph]



Bobo: Upcoming projects?
Steve Booth: Nothing for sure. I've been invited back to UNLV to do Company.
They bring in conservatory guest contracts to put past graduates on the main stage. I've never done any Sondheim, so I'm excited.
Then, at the end of August, I'm not sure, but I'm going back to New York. My plan is to go back to the city and do albums, get into classes. I'm all about bettering my work and saving money on tour.

Bobo: When did Roger offer you the part of Joseph?
Steve Booth: I think in late February, he brought it up and then in April he told me I was in.
Without the first week of rehearsal, I'm nervous.
Idaho was my home, but now New York is. I'm eager to get back to auditioning, but this worked out perfectly -- things are kinda slow now.
I'm 28 now, and it feels good to get back to my family.
I'm happy where I am in my career, even though I was late getting into theater.

I love to do it, and it paid for my college. But it wasn't until later that I thought I could make a living at it.
It's hard to feel like I'm an adult, even now, because I'm so passionate about it, and then, in the next second, I've got nothing.

I look at my dad, who is a businessman, has a regular 9-to-5 job. And he provided for us. I don't know that I'll ever have that. But I always know that I love to perform.

In high school, I just didn't know. In fact, the first show I was ever in, my girlfriend at the time was in it, so I auditioned.

My senior year at UNLV, I did a couple of musicals -- The Last Five Years in our black box and Floyd Collins on our medium-size stage -- both at the same time, and I was overwhelmed, but I do remember how much I loved it.

I wasn't just a theater kid -- I did sports and band and tried a lot of things. And I'm still learning -- I want to take classes. It has not stopped being exciting.

Bobo: And in New York, have you had to wait tables?
Steve Booth: I got lucky -- I haven't. Out of UNLV, I went to an open call for Avenue Q -- it wasn't an Equity call. And I got called back, and then the day after, I flew to New York, and then spent three months staying on people's couches, trying to make it as a non-Equity actor.
And then they flew me back to Vegas with full creative, and I worked as a caddy on golf courses, just put all my chips into making it -- it was a long, year-long, arduous auditioning process for *Avenue Q.*
But by flying to New York twice, that allowed me to go out and look for agents. So I got an agent out of it, and I saved a lot of money, so I was able to move to New York, where I've been lucky, getting little gigs, enough to keep me afloat.

Bobo: But now you're performing in front of the home crowd.
Steve Booth: "That's the funnest part, to do it for an audience, and my family gets to see me and have a fun time. To have my family there."

on touring with Happy Days:
“Being out on the road lately — people just aren’t coming. It’s a bit depressing to be giving 100 percent of yourself to a show, and the people aren’t there."

on CdA Summer Theater:
"Roger always hires great people. It's always fun -- I have not had a bad experience there. It's not a job where you make tons of money, but it's fun."

on what opening night for Joseph might be like, after just six days’ rehearsal:
“Come Saturday night, I may be a like a deer in the headlights, but they can push me around — if I’m in the wrong spot onstage, they can just push me into the right spot.”

CdA Summer Theater cast lists

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (June 13-27, 2009)
Director: Roger Welch (in 14 previous seasons as artistic director of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, has directed 28 shows; appeared here last summer as Thenardier in Les Miz)
Choreographer: Michael Wasileski (in 13 previous seasons at CdA, has choreographed 10 shows and directed three -- Footloose, A Chorus Line and Cats)

Joseph: Steven Booth (UNLV grad who played Pippin here three years ago)
Narrator: Krystle Armstrong (in two previous years at CdA, has played Millie and Cosette; also appeared as Natalie in All Shook Up and in Putting It Together)
Jacob: Jack Bannon (15 shows at CdA, and yes, he was Donovan on Lou Grant)
Pharaoh: James Lane (a graduate of Sam Houston State who has been in three previous productions of *Joseph*)

Brothers: Robby French (in three seasons at CdA: supporting roles in Les Miz, Once Upon a Mattress, The Full Monty, Some Enchanted Evening, Footloose, and Guys and Dolls; leading roles at Spokane Civic Theatre in The Last Five Years and as Jesus in Godspell); Jeffrey Johns (has performed on international tours and also in such roles as Linus, Motel, A-Rab, Peter Pan and Pippin); James Lane; Cameron Lewis (has performed at Bigfork, Interplayers and at the Civic as Will Parker in Oklahoma! and Billy Early in No, No, Nanette; his second season at CdA); Christopher Moll (in recent seasons at CdA, played Will Parker, Orin the Dentist, Munkustrap and Billy Lawlor (in 42nd Street)); Anthony Ong (at CdA in '06, played Ching Ho in Thoroughly Modern Millie; a Fordham grad who has performed in West Side Story and Hairspray in Manila); Justin Ramsey (extensive work in Seattle-area theaters); William Shindler (has also worked at Seattle Musical Theater); Michael Tramontin (graduate of AMDA and Univ. of New Orleans; survivor of Hurricane Katrina); Luke Vroman (a UW grad who has worked at both the 5th Street and Village theaters in Seattle); Josh Wingerter (with multiple credits at Seattle-area theaters, especially the Village Theater in Issaquah)

Wives: Lauren Cluett (in one year at CdA: appeared in All Shook Up and La Cage); Candace Hanson (in three seasons at CdA: Thoroughly Modern Millie, The King and I, A Chorus Line, Beauty and the Beast, and Footloose); Bonni Kealy (eight shows in three previous seasons at CdA; a grad student in math at WSU); Jessi Little (a CdA High grad who's on her way to TCU; three previous CdA productions); Amanda Wertz (Oklahoma City Univ. grad)




THE PRODUCERS (July 3-18)
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks
Director and choreographer: Tralen Doler (directed La Cage here and everywhere else last year; at Spokane's defunct Actors Rep Theater, acted in two shows and directed four; extensive musical theater credits)
Conductor: Max Mendez (music director at Spokane's Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral; choir director at NIC; conducted three CdA shows last season and appeared in Les Miz)
Lights by Joel Williamson
Sound by John Gallegos

Max Bialystok: Eric James Hadley (Portland actor with 14 years' experience on cruise lines)
Leo Bloom: Matthew Wade (in one season at CdA: Dennis in All Shook Up, Jean-Michel in La Cage, and Marius in Les Miz; has also toured nationally as Leo Bloom)
Ulla: Jennifer Elise Davis (tours of The Pajama Game and La Cage aux Folles; in one season at CdA, appeared in All Shook Up and La Cage)
Roger: Jerry Christakos (played Albin/"Zaza" in La Cage aux Folles at CdA last summer)
Carmen Ghia: Steven Dahlke (since 1996, has been rehearsal pianist, music director or actor in 50 shows at CdA; teaches in Orange County)
Franz: Patrick Treadway (trained at ACT; has performed at several Spokane-area theaters; previous CdA shows include The Will Rogers Follies, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Beauty and the Beast; Kiss Me, Kate; and White Christmas (in concert))
Ensemble: Molly Allen (the morning show at The Zoo and several shows at CdA); Lauren Cluett; Robby French; James Lane; Cameron Lewis; Christopher Moll; Anthony Ong; Michael Tramontin; Janie Wallace (an Illinois Wesleyan grad who has toured nationally with Gypsy and Joseph); Amanda Wertz




DAMES AT SEA (July 23-Aug. 2)

Book by George Heimsohn and Robin Miller
Music by Jim Wise
Director: Roger Welch
Choreographed by Tralen Doler
Musical direction by Steven Dahlke
Lights by Michael McGiveney
Sound by John Gallegos

Ruby: Darcy Wright (a CdA native who played Eponine in Les Miz and Bianca in Kiss Me, Kate here last year)
Dick: Nick Wheat (Cal State Fullerton grad who has appeared in three previous seasons at CdA — in '99, as Joseph and in The Pajama Game; in 2000, as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly! and as part of the quartet in The Music Man; and in 2002, in Anything Goes)
Mona: Ellen Travolta (John's eldest sister; toured in Gypsy with Ethel Merman; well known for Welcome Back, Kotter; Happy Days; Joanie Loves Chachi; and Charles in Charge; previous roles at CdA include Mame, Dolly, Mama Rose and Miss Hannigan, along with Joanne in Company, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Berthe in Pippin and Jeannette in The Full Monty)
Lucky: Christopher Moll
Joan: Jennifer Elise Davis
Captain/Hennessey: Jerry Christakos




MISS SAIGON (Aug. 8-22)

Book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil
Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg
Director: Kirk Mouser (on national tours and Broadway, has played Marius and Raoul, along with other roles; directed Les Miz here last summer; artistic director of Portland's Stumptown Stages)
Conductor: Chris Thompson (asst. prof. of voice at UI; last summer at CdA, conducted All Shook Up and played Georges in La Cage and Enjolras in Les Miz; will music-direct two shows at Idaho Rep this summer and will conduct Anything Goes at Lyric Opera San Diego)
Choreographer: Michael Wasileski
Musical direction by Chris Thompson
PSM: Dawn Taylor Reinhardt
Lights by Joel Williamson
Sound by John Gallegos

Kim: Mia Yoshida (WSU freshman who played Kim last year at Lewis and Clark High School)
Chris: Dane Stokinger (in two previous seasons at CdA: Jerry in The Full Monty, Man No. 2 in Putting It Together, Paul in Kiss Me, Kate, Chad in All Shook Up, Sir Harry in Once Upon a Mattress, and ensemble in Les Miz; also played Chris on a national tour)
The Engineer: Brian Jose (in one season at CdA: Bun Foo in Thoroughly Modern Millie; a SAG and Equity actor who has played the Engineer or Thuy in seven previous productions of Miss Saigon)
John: Matthew Wade
Thuy: Eymard Meneses Cabling (a Carnegie Mellon grad who has played both Thuy and, on tour, The Engineer)
Ellen: Jessica Skerritt (Seattle actor making her CdA debut)

Ensemble: Cody Bray (NIC student); Kimanh Nguyen Conway (Opera CdA); Matt Frasier (first season at CdA); Robby French; Lorna Hamilton (director and choreographer, veteran of several Spokane-area productions, including Mama Drama at the Civic); Loresa Lanceta (has worked off-Broadway and regionally); Whitney Lee (Northwestern and NYU grad who has also worked off-Broadway and regionally); Glen Llanes (has toured in Asia with The King and I; this is his CdA debut); Cameron Lewis; Andrew Ware Lewis (in one season at CdA, appeared in Kiss Me, Kate; has played leading roles at Spokane Civic Theatre in Singin' in the Rain, Hello, Dolly! and Assassins; teaches at Northwest Christian); Carl Man (born and raised in the UK; has played Aladdin at Disneyland and Joseph, Prince Charming and Tony (in West Side Story) on Royal Caribbean cruises); Christopher Moll; Tsubasa Ogawa (born in Japan, she attended the New School in New York); Anthony Ong; Jay Paranada (PLU grad and Seattle native who has worked in New York theaters; this is his CdA debut); Yvonne Same (a UC Irvine grad who has toured with Miss Saigon and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and who has played Yum-Yum, Peter Pan, Medea and Kim (in Miss Saigon) regionally); Allison Standley (UW grad who has worked with Seattle Shakespeare Company and will appear in "The Grind Show" (which she co-wrote) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; this is her fourth season at CdA); Tiara Yong (Hawaii native, now lives in New York)

Costume designer for all shows: Judith McGiveney (costumer for seven years on Murphy Brown; has worked extensively at Lake City Playhouse and NIC; here at CdA, has designed 39 productions)
Scenic designer for all shows: Michael McGiveney (before designing for the last eight years at CdA, worked with Walt Disney Imagineering for seven years)

Visit cdasummertheatre.com

CdA Summer Theater auditions

... will be in CdA on April 18, but in New York and Seattle before that — all in preparation for their June-August season of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Producers, Dames at Sea and Miss Saigon.

NYC auditions:
Saturday, March 14, from 10 am-5 pm
Shetler Studios
244 W. 54th St., 12th floor

Seattle auditions:
Saturday, April 11, from 10 am-5 pm
Theatre Puget Sound at the Seattle Center, Room G

Coeur d’Alene auditions:
Saturday, April 18, from 10 am-5 pm
North Idaho College, Boswell Hall, Room 102
1000 W. Garden Ave.

Contact:
Roger Welch, Producing Artistic Director
Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre
PO Box 1119
Coeur d'Alene ID 83816

rogerwelch67@msn.com
www.cdasummertheatre.org
(208) 769-7780
fax:
(208) 769-7856

colorful-musical-notes-thumb809477
Originally uploaded by ceciliawong718

CdA Summer Theater's 2009 season

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
and
The Producers
Dames at Sea
Miss Saigon

Max is singin' backup in the Big Apple

As Jim Kershner reported in today's Spokesman-Review, p. D5, Max Kumangai-McGee has made the jump from North Central High, the Civic, and CdA Summer Theatre to off-Broadway. A Nov. 9 Playbill article places Max as one of the backup singers in a spoof musical entitled "What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling." David Pittu (*Is He Dead?*) plays a musical composer who's not nearly as good as he thinks he is -- and who's inflicting all the songs that never made it into any of his musicals upon us -- and David Bartlett (The Drowsy Chaperone) plays his biggest fan. Kumangai and two other singers get to perform these "memorable" nuggets of song.

The musical's Website is here.
Read the letter (and sample lyrics) under "Jacob Sterling Fan Club" -- they're a hoot.
[photo: Max Kumangai in Big River at the Univ. of Michigan, Oct. 2007)
SEE ALSO (added Dec. 3): this article with photos.