The 50's decade was a little before I was a twinkle in my parents' eyes (and now seven kids later...) but the music of that era is so hard not to love. The lyrics and the music just get those endorphins moving and you just want to bop along with the fabulous rhythmic beat. So it's no surprise to me of the success of the off-Broadway show, The Marvelous Wonderettes, is celebrating a milestone performance.
On September 14th, The Marvelous Wonderettes' one-year anniversary will mark their 418th performance, surpassing the runs of landmark off-Broadway productions including Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (2006), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (1985), Jeffrey (1993), Closer Than Ever (1989), Bat Boy (2001), Anything Goes (1962 revival) and Torch Song Trilogy (1982).
A cotton candy-colored non-stop pop musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes features the iconic sounds of the fifties and sixties in a journey back to the 1958 Springfield High School prom where the Wonderettes - Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy - are four young girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts. Brimming with such classic hits as "Lollipop," "Dream Lover," "Stupid Cupid," "Lipstick on Your Collar," "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me," "It's My Party" and "It's In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)," The Marvelous Wonderettes is a high-octane musical blast from the past.
This interview is different than many others that I have done as we have input from the creator/director and the four current stars of the show. The Marvelous Wonderettes features Kirsten Bracken, Misty Cotton, Christina DeCicco and Lindsay Mendez. But we'll start off the interview with creator/director Roger Bean.
Bean directed the original Milwaukee Rep, Laguna Playhouse and Los Angeles productions of The Marvelous Wonderettes. For the Los Angeles production, MR. Bean received a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical, and the show received the 2007 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Musical. The Marvelous Wonderettes was also nominated for the 2009 Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical.
Other musicals and revues created by MR. Bean, commissioned and premiered at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, include The Andrews Brothers (Musical Theatre West, Fullerton CLO, Cabaret Oldtown, Cabrillo Music Theatre); Route 66 (Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Moonlight Avo Playhouse, Invisible Theatre, Seven Angels, Springer Opera House); Honky Tonk Laundry (Centerstage Spokane, Des Moines Playhouse, Oregon Cabaret, Art Station Theatre); Why Do Fools Fall In Love? (Rocky Mountain Repertory, Venice Little Theatre); Life Could Be A Dream (Majestic Theatre, Texas Family Musicals); and the holiday sequel to this show: Winter Wonderettes (Delaware Theatre Company, Laguna Playhouse, Water Tower Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Festival, El Portal Theatre). MR. Bean has had the great pleasure of directing for the Delaware Theatre Co., Laguna Playhouse, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Northlight Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Madison Rep, Florida Studio, Oregon Cabaret, Skylight Opera, and numerous stages in-between.
TJ: Roger, how did you come up with the idea for the show?
BEAN: I grew up listening to my mother singing these types of songs around the house, so I was already pretty well immersed in the music of the era. My mother had been part of a singing trio in high school, and I had always found that intriguing. Then she showed me some photos from her yearbook of her and her friends as school song leaders (a singing version of a cheerleader) and that opened the floodgates.
