Photo by By Skip Hooper
"Bye Bye Birdie" at Theatre Memphis.
When your neighborhood high school drama teacher thumbs through the catalog of shows that most parents would deem acceptable for their innocent babes, "Bye Bye Birdie" is at the top of the list, and not just because it starts with a "B."
Some of its appeal: The 1960 musical is technically easy to stage. The set can be highly stylized (a.k.a. low budget.) The costumes are reusable in a later production of "Grease."
But most importantly, "Bye Bye Birdie" falls in line with the teaching philosophy of high school theater: "Just be yourself."
For a teenager, that's harder than it sounds. There you are, cross-examining your every move so that you don't make a fool of yourself in the cafeteria. And then you get cast in an old musical about spazzoid 1950s kids who've gone completely lady gaga over a popular rock star named Conrad Birdie. His own advice to kids looking to be popular sounds a lot like what the drama teacher keeps saying: "Be sincere!"
In fact, this musical is a veritable pep talk for gloomy teens. "Spread sunshine all over the place... Just put on a happy face!" are the lyrics to its most famous melody.
Sincerity and sunshine are the hallmarks of a satisfying high school production of "Bye Bye Birdie." It's hard not to feel uplifted when a stage full of teens sing "Life is a ball, if only you know it, and it's all just waiting for you/ You're alive, so come on and show it/ We've got a lotta livin' to do!"
Fortunately, Theatre Memphis captures some of that optimism in its first-time production of "Bye Bye Birdie." The young chorus members have pizzazz to spare, even after the 11 o'clock number turns into the 11:05 curtain call.
The gifted Olivia Wingate delivers a confidant vocal performance as Kim, the girl chosen to give Conrad Birdie (a charming Brennan Villines, channeling a saucy Val Kilmer) a farewell kiss before he is inducted into the Army.
Natural comic chops are shared by Logan Greenwell as Kim's steady, Hugo; Lizz Kellicut as the nails-on-chalkboard Birdie fan Ursula Merkle, and Sam Shankman as Harvey Johnson, the nerdy kid with a huge boycrush on the rock star.
The excitement that director Cecelia Wingate draws out of her young cast members -- who enjoy being themselves to the Nth degree -- doesn't quite carry over to the grown-up ensemble who deliver professional poise without that youthful magic.
Serious chemistry is lacking in the romance of record company exec Albert (Robert Hanford) and his secretary Rosie (Amy Polumbo) who drive the plot with their star-kissing scheme.
As hilarious as Gregory Krosnes (as Kim's grumbling father) and Randi Sluder (as Albert's meddling mother, a role that will surely earn her an Ostrander nomination next year) are, their monologues tend to drag down the energy that the kids bring to the stage.
One ill-conceived number has Rosie "entertaining" a secret meeting of Shriners. Maybe the director and choreographer Christi Hall were trying to give the superfluous second-act dance routine an R-rated edge, but it ends up demeaning the character of Rosie so much that she loses our sympathy. The slightest suggestion of lewd acts under a table would never pass the high school principal's taste test, and it certainly doesn't fit the earnest tone of "Bye Bye Birdie."
This is one musical that asks young performers to be decent, optimistic and sincere. The same should apply to any version that includes grown-ups.
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"Bye Bye Birdie"
The show runs 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 11 at Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Ext. Also Wednesdays Aug. 31 and Sept. 7. Tickets are $28 adults, $15 students and $10 children. Call 682-8323.
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Comments » 3
VocalNoodles writes:
Agree that the "Shriner's ballet" should have been cut; it was even eliminated in the recent Broadway revival. Disagree that Albert and Rosie lacked chemistry. And the monologues executed by Mr. McAffee and Mae are long due to a poorly written script; not the actors dragging them out.
rakoch#662506 writes:
Why TM is insistent on turning a good wholesome show into something crude and tasteless is beyond me. It's not funny nor appreciated by the audience. Keep your sexual innuendos and "potty" humor off the stage when it's not in the script. It's immature and unprofessional.
dpnewsome writes:
Funny, I was just watching "Chita Rivera - The Shriner Ballet" online. It was a video of the original choreography and nothing in Theatre Memphis' Shriner Ballet was less wholesome than that video. As an audience member, I appreciated (and looked forward to) seeing the show in its entirety… in an environment that didn’t necessitate the protective censorship of High School. It should be remembered that Bye Bye Birdie was created as a Broadway play (pre-Disney) and not the High School play or cleaned-up screenplay we know it as today.
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