Like countless others in show business, Beverly Mango, a cherished institution of the Denver musical-theater scene and an artful piano accompanist who was specifically requested by Liberace during his Colorado appearances, remained fiercely obscure about her age. She drew her final breath June 26.
Treasured by directors, producers and actors for her candid, dexterous skills as a musical director and piano accompanist, and widely, if somewhat wryly, celebrated for the birthday cakes she routinely baked for friends and family members, Mango kept a veil drawn over her own birthdate.
“I am old enough to do this, and you don’t need to know anything else,” she would say tartly to clerks and others who inquired about her age.
“Over 21,” Mango wrote on the car-loan application she co- signed, years ago, for her daughter, Julie Mango Strain. Before Strain turned in the application, she covertly peeked inside to see what her mother wrote down.
“Stinker!” she said aloud, half-admiringly.
Raised by her grandparents in Marshalltown, Iowa, Mango began playing piano at age 4. As a student at the University of Denver, she studied at the prestigious Lamont School of Music, and taught piano and voice lessons.
Soon, directors from local theater companies began hiring her as a musical director. She became a staple at Bonfils Theatre, Schwayder Theatre, Turn of the Century’s theatrical productions, Denver Lyric Opera, Trident Theater, The Third Eye, Columbine Playhouse, Theatre 10, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, and dozens of other venues.
“When a musical is being born, regardless of where it is in Denver, the first question is, ‘Can we get in touch with Bev Mango?”‘ reported a squib on one of the many playbills Mango saved over the years.
She was the pianist who accompanied the Colorado shows of touring performers such as Bob Hope, Jim Bailey, Marty Allen, Ted Mack Amateur Hour and Liberace, for whom she dressed calculatedly. Her understated black outfits shifted audience attention to Liberace’s inimitably radiant get-ups. When he appeared at The Broadmoor hotel and other Colorado venues, Liberace invariably specified Mango as his accompanist.
Occasionally, Mango wrote some songs and scores, including the parodies “A Cross-Eyed Look at a Cock-Eyed World” and “The First Annual Unauthorized Version of the Miss America Pageant.” She celebrated the latter with a party during the real pageant, encouraging guests to play the role of a contestant and incorporating props, a talent show and costume changes.
Being a musical director often meant downscaling scores written for large Broadway orchestras to a manageable size for regional musicians. At home, music scores covered her piano as Mango worked out transcriptions for productions from Denver’s 15-year run of “The Fantasticks” to “The Barber of Seville.”
“(Mango has done) a remarkable job with the complete score … and plays the whole accompaniment herself,” a Denver reviewer wrote about Mango’s 1969 transcription of “A Christmas Carol” at The Third Eye.
Her marriage ended in divorce while her three children were young, effectively aborting any aspirations she harbored to transplant her career to New York City.
When, as an adult, Strain asked her mother about this, Mango replied that Manhattan struck her as a singularly unappealing place to raise children.
Still, she kept up with the friends she had made among East Coast and West Coast celebrities and musicians, staying in touch by letter and telephone.
While Mango seemed serene in her suburban home, she kept remarkably au fait with New York theater. She praised Stephen Sondheim and dismissed Andrew Lloyd Webber as a poseur; she found “Godspell” infinitely superior to Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
She knew the names of trendy Manhattan restaurants and the most voguish fashions. During shopping expeditions, she sometimes steered friends and family members away from clothing she considered passé and toward the chic displays.
About nine years ago, on what may or may not have been her 80th birthday, Mango’s family threw a surprise party for her. Scores of actors, directors and cast members came to fete her with stories and songs from the musicals in which she had coached them. As always, she deflected cajoling questions about her age, clamming up even when her grandchildren tried to trick her into spilling the beans.
At her funeral last week, most of the same people were there, singing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from Mango’s favorite musical, “The Sound of Music,” along with “Try To Remember,” “Look To the Rainbow” and other show tunes. Many mourners tried to wheedle family members into finally revealing Mango’s age. Her daughters and son respectfully declined, honoring that aspect of their mother’s legacy.
Survivors include daughters Lisa Hunt-Quintana of Highlands Ranch and Julie Strain of Centennial; son John Mango of Wheat Ridge; and eight grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
