Teens take on challenging revue
3-22-01
By LESLIE MIZELL
Special to the News & Record
GREENSBORO -- Not unsurprisingly, they were inspired by the "Hey,
let's put on a show!" plot in the musical "Babes in Arms."
The teenagers who starred in that Livestock Youtheatre production
thought that if the characters they were playing could do it, so could
they. And so, Phanatics Musical Theatre was born. The company's
first show, "You Thought We Wouldn't Make It," was presented in
February 2000 and raised $1,500 for the American Cancer Society.
"We actually didn't think past that first show," says
Phanatics artistic director Steve Royal. "But now we
have our incorporation so we're a nonprofit division of
the Livestock Players Musical Theatre. Ohmigosh,
the paperwork! It took all summer, but it was worth it."
Even with the group's status official, things got off to a
slow start as a new school year proved distracting to
Phanatics members. But in January, the troupe
decided on a show and has been working with
Livestock's artistic director, Barbara Britton, and City
Arts to arrange publicity, costumes, and technical
matters for this weekend's run.
"Since the Youtheatre is still very much alive, we're
planning on doing about one show per year," Royal
says. "We just want more opportunities for young people to be in a
show and maybe produce shows that aren't as mainstream as those
presented by the Youtheatre."
Phanatics' second production will be "Songs for a New World," which
opens tonight. Appropriately, the musical revue presented by these
young people was written by 20-year-old Jason Robert Brown.
"When I got to New York City, I was determined to write my big
Broadway musical," Brown says. "The only problem was that I didn't
really know anybody in New York other than the delivery guy from the
Chinese restaurant, and I didn't think he would be such a great
collaborator since he couldn't even give me the right change. So I
decided I would just take a bunch of songs I had written for various
abandoned pieces and put them up at a cabaret, and I could find
collaborators from there. But some things take on a life of their own."
Brown met Daisy Prince, the daughter of legendary director/producer
Hal Prince, while he was working in a piano bar, and she agreed to
direct "Songs of a New World," which had a short 1995 run in the
100-seat WPA Theatre. And when Stephen Sondheim backed out of
writing music and lyrics for Hal Prince's new musical, "Parade," Prince
went to the then-23-year-old Brown to fill in.
Written by Alfred Uhry ("Driving Miss Daisy"), "Parade" was based on
the true story of Leo Frank, a German Jew and Brooklyn native living in
Atlanta, who was accused of killing 13-year-old Mary Phagan in 1913.
A worker in his pencil factory, Phagan had come to his office to ask for
her week's pay, later to be found dead in the factory's basement. Frank
was convicted of the murder in a wave of anti-Semitism, but when the
governor commuted his death sentence to life in prison, Frank was
taken from his cell by a mob, then lynched.
"Parade" was critically well received but had trouble finding an
audience even before its promoters went broke. Nonetheless, Brown
won a 1999 Tony Award for his work.
"Songs for a New World" often deals with the same type of difficult
themes found in "Parade." Each of the revue's 19 songs deals with
finding the courage to go on in spite of life's crises. For example, "King
of the World" is sung by a man strapped into an electric chair. "I'm Not
Afraid" is performed by a woman unhappy in her marriage, and "Just
One Step" is sung by an unhappily married woman standing on the
ledge of a skyscraper. "The Flagmaker" is performed by a woman
sewing a flag for the men she's sending off to war, and it's followed by
"Flying Home," about a dead soldier saying goodbye to those he's
leaving behind. Musically, the songs also vary greatly, with some jazz
influence, some Joni Mitchell homage, and even a Kurt Weill pastiche.
"Songs for a New World" is a challenge to adults, much less teenagers.
But Phanatics -- the troupe borrowed its name from a member's e-mail
password -- is thriving on the challenge and is already looking forward
to its next show. However, Royal admits auditioning friends or other
kids his own age can be sticky.
Phanatics is open to high schoolers in all area schools, but it can often
be more difficult for young people to commit to a show, or to realize the
amount of work involved with staging a revue. "Songs for a New World"
started out with a cast of 14 (the musical was originally written for only
four), but that number had been whittled down to 10 by a couple of
weeks before opening night. Royal directs, with Justin Cowan as
musical director.
"We're proud of our achievements," Royal says. "And people seeing
'Songs for a New World' will see why we chose it. It's complex, and
each song takes you to a different setting, which is different from book
shows with just one basic theme. We saw the potential in the score. It's
difficult, but very different and unique."