When “Bye Bye Birdie” opened on Broadway in 1960, it brought American teen culture into focus in a way that had never been done before on stage. Audiences loved the exuberant song-and-dance numbers that seemed to at once embrace and satirize the quickly growing youth movement.
The show follows the frenzy that surrounds one teen idol by the name of Conrad Birdie (a thinly disguised Elvis Presley character), whose agent is determined to market him as an upstanding, patriotic good boy instead of the carousing cad he is. But when Birdie’s sex appeal cannot be contained, even in a Midwest town, much fun and antics ensue.
The Village Theatre has brought this Broadway staple to Everett in a winning production directed and choreographed by Steve Tomkins, with musical direction by Bruce Monroe and scenic design by Robert A. Dahlstrom. One impressive painted backdrop features screaming teens, with insets of “Time” magazine covers featuring photos of Birdie.
The story opens in the New York offices of Almaelou Music, the agency responsible for promoting said teen heartthrob, who’s about to join the Army. Birdie’s agent Albert Peterson works there with his secretary, Rose. She pines for Albert with love that goes unrequited as long as Albert remains under the thumb of his domineering mother.
Rose comes up with an inspired marketing scheme – a contest in which some fan will win one last kiss with Birdie before he goes into the Army. Rose’s brainstorm will get Birdie out of New York, thus getting Albert away from the clutches of his mother.
Ah, the best-laid plans… The show’s humor swells when Albert’s mother, not to be deterred, also shows up in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where Kim MacAfee is the lucky contest winner.
As Mrs. Peterson, Laura Kenny completely steals the show. Ever the guilt-tripping mother, she wrings her hands and seems faint at the idea of her boy getting married.
Kudos are in order as well for Dane Stokinger as Albert Peterson, Stacey Harris as Rosie Alvarez, Dan Connor as Conrad Birdie, Cara Rudd as Kim MacAfee, Hugh Hastings as Mr. Harry MacAfee and John Scott as Hugo Peabody.
As Birdie, Connor doesn’t get many lines, but he makes the most of the scenes in which he sings and slays the girls with his gyrating hips.
Some of the show’s original songs, such as “Put on a Happy Face” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” have become such classic numbers in American song and dance revues that you’d swear they’d debuted even earlier than 1960.
Other winning numbers include “The Telephone Hour,” with the Sweet Apple teens ensconced in Hollywood Squares-like towers, talking on princess phones, wearing pedal pushers in fruit-sherbet colors such as lime, orange, peach, strawberry and banana.
Another inspired song has the MacAfee clan singing a spiritual ode to Ed Sullivan in “Hymn for a Sunday Evening.”
And in “Kids,” the grown-ups lament their disrespectful offspring. (“Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way?”)
Ultimately, Conrad, Kim and Rose all run away for a while (they have a lot of livin’ to do, after all), and the whole town turns out to find them. This would-be crisis helps Albert sort out his priorities, and soon his mother must resign herself to his future with Rose. “My sonny boy doesn’t need me anymore,” she deadpans in a heavy New York accent. “Throw me out with the trash, kids!”
Shows at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 21. at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett. $22 to $46, 425-257-8600, or 888-257-3722, www.villagetheatre.org.
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