Staging a big, bawdy musical comedy won’t just require the veteran members of the Denver Center Theatre Company to stretch.
They’ve gotta stretch. Literally.
“I’ll be down here,” Kathleen M. Brady says from the floor of the Bonfils Theatre Complex lobby, adorned in a pink jogging suit, fingers reaching for toes. It’s 10:30 a.m., one day before her first appearance in a musical since 1999.
Brady is getting in shape to run off with the show as the scene-swiping Domina of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” the DCTC’s first staging of a Broadway musical in 18 years.
The DCTC isn’t known for this. Neither are its players. Castmates Mike Hartman and David Ivers, who with Brady have logged a combined 45 years here, empathize with her every lurch. These three have gone a combined 43 years since last performing in a musical.
Brady: “It was easier to do this in my 30s.”
Hartman: “It was easier to do a lot of things in our 30s.”
Brady: “It was easier to do this in my 40s too.”
And now that she’s in her 50s?
Brady: “Let’s just say I understand why you warm up now. If you don’t warm up now … you’re dead in the water.”
Hartman: “Life is a warm-up.”
The day before, a bevy of young chorus girls rehearsed for eight hours in 3-inch spiked heels. “And at the end of the day, they were like, ‘Yeah, my feet are getting a little tired,”‘ Brady said. “And here I am wearing flats without cushioning – and I’m dying.”
Hartman: “And here I am saying, ‘Can I have socks with my sandals?’ Because my feet get cold.”
Wading into new waters
While “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is a 45-year-old warhorse, this is new territory for actors and audiences alike. And “it’s fun to venture into new waters,” Hartman said.
This brilliantly funny musical, whose writers include Stephen Sondheim and Larry Gelbart (“M*A*S*H”), is an outrageous romp about a Roman slave who wins his freedom by helping his young master charm the girl next door.
Hartman plays slave owner Senex, an older man still attracted to wine, women and song. He’s married to Brady’s bulldog, battle-ax of a wife, Domina; and Ivers is the aptly named Hysterium – the frantic straw boss of Senex’s other slaves.
The challenge for the actors?
Hartman: “To make fools of ourselves.”
Brady: “No one can be in ‘Forum’ without making a fool of themselves. I can’t think of a single soul who’s not.”
Ivers: “I’ll tell you who’s not.”
Brady: “Who?”
Ivers: “The cast of ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession.”‘
That’s because that dry Shaw comedy closed on April 21. Those people are long gone.
Ivers: “Exactly!”
So just how are each making fools of themselves?
Ivers: “For me, it began when I signed my contract.”
Brady: “All I have to do is get dressed, and when you see my outfit and my hair, you will understand. I don’t have to do anything.”
Hartman: “Playing a mature gentleman, as I do, I get to pretend that a 20-year-old girl actually has the hots for me. That … and I get to come on stage in just a towel.”
Ivers: “That frightens me every time.”
Checkered musical works from the past
Returning to the musical theater conjures stories both happy and horrible from this trio’s lyrically checkered pasts. Ivers’ high school staged “Grease” both his freshman and senior years. “With mullets,” he noted. “It was the ’80s.”
As a frosh, Ivers was cast as hipster DJ Vince Fontaine. “So I taped a piece of brown carpet to my chest to have chest hair,” he said. “I didn’t think of the ramifications.”
That was his last musical, until now.
The last time Hartman walked into an audition for a musical, the piano player asked for his sheet music. Hartman replied, “Just relax, bub.” He didn’t need him. He played his harmonica and sang a cappella, an act that left everyone in the room “gape-jawed,” he said.
Brady had performed musicals all her life, including many Broadway spectacles for the DCTC in the ’80s like “Guys and Dolls,” before budget cuts put an end to them. But she well remembers playing Bloody Mary in “South Pacific.” Brady was all of 14.
“There’s an album of me singing in that, and anytime I feel my head is getting any kind of big, all I have to do is put that album on,” she said. “I sing, ‘Bali Hai“‘ (here Brady demonstrates, in lilting form) … “Bali Hai“‘ (stronger, but still sweet) … “Bali Huuuyuhcchh“‘ (she yelps, as if being punched in the stomach).
“I never imagined a life in the theater then,” she said with a laugh. “I was just going, ‘Gee, I can’t believe I got this far: I got into a high school musical!”‘
The last time she said, “I can’t believe I got this far?”
“Last week.”
A return to the glory days?
“Forum” marks the start of an unprecedented partnership between the resident theater company and the Denver Center’s national touring division. The show is included in both subscription packages, which will draw thousands across the archway from the cavernous 2,800-seat Buell Theatre and into the intimate, 700-seat Space Theatre where “Forum” will be performed.
Later this year, DCTC actors will have a hand in “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” staged at the Buell. It’s all part of artistic director Kent Thompson’s goal of returning to the glory days when the DCTC routinely commissioned, developed and produced new musicals.
“I think for those people who go over there and don’t come over here, this will give them an interesting entrance into what our theater company is all about,” Hartman said. “I think a lot of those people will be surprised if they spend a little more time over here.”
A bold musical comedy like “Forum” also illustrates the best aspects of having a resident theater company: variety in individual performances.
“Forum” marks Ivers’ fifth production of the season, believed to be a record in the company’s 28 years. He was Venticelli in “Amadeus,” Fred in “A Christmas Carol,” Michael in “The Pillowman” … “and a couple of nitwits in ‘Pure Confidence,’ ” he said. Hartman played addled Uncle Harvey in “Season’s Greetings,” Gloucester in “King Lear” … “and a couple of nitwits in ‘Pure Confidence,”‘ he said.
“Part of the joy of having a resident company in your community is watching new actors join, and veteran members stretch,” said Ivers. “It keeps us fresh.”
That extends to directors too. Bruce Sevy, who directed both actors in last season’s landmark “All My Sons,” this time helmed “A Christmas Carol,” the Colorado New Play Summit and “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” before this.
“When someone can put his hand on all of that, and then come back and lead us in this new milieu – that’s pretty impressive,” said Ivers.
For Brady, the greatest thrill is to be backstage and hear the unfamiliar sound of a nine-piece orchestra striking up. “As an actor, that just lifts you into a different space,” she said. “You can’t help it.”
And Hartman couldn’t be happier.
“I get to wear socks with my sandals,” he said.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
MUSICAL COMEDY | Denver Center Theatre Company | Written by Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart and Stephen Sondheim | Directed by Bruce K. Sevy | Starring Ron Orbach, Mike Hartman, Kathleen M. Brady, Anderson Davis, David Ivers and Stephen Berger | At the Stage Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex | THROUGH JULY 8 | 6:30 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 1:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. the final three Sundays | $36-$46 | 303-893-4100, 866-464-2626 (800-641-1222 outside Denver), all King Soopers or denvercenter.org.
A little night music
It’s been 18 seasons since the Denver Center Theatre Company mounted an established Broadway musical:
Broadway musicals later performed by the DCTC:
2006-07 | “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
1989-90 | “A Little Night Music”
1988-89 | “Carousel”
1988-89 | “Company”
1987-88 | “Guys and Dolls”
1987-88 | “Man of La Mancha”
1986-87 | “South Pacific”
1985-86 | “Purlie”
1980-81 | “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”
1979-80 | “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”
Non-Broadway musicals later performed by the DCTC:
2005-06 | “Crowns”
2004-05 | “Fire on the Mountain”
2002-03 | “2 Pianos, 4 Hands”
1998-99 | “The Rivals”
DCTC world-premiere musicals:
2003-04 | “Nat King Cole & Me”
2001-02 | “Almost Heaven: Songs and Stories of John Denver”**
2001-02 | “The Immigrant”**
2000-01 | “Pork Pie: A Mythic Jazz Fable”
1999-00 | “Barrio Babies”
1998-99 | “Kingdom”
1997-98 | “Eliot Ness … in Cleveland”
1995-96 | “Appalachian Strings”
1994-95 | “It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues*
1993-94 | “Love, Janis”**
1986-87 | “Lost Highway: The Music and Legend of Hank Williams”**
1982-83 | “Quilters”*
*Later performed on Broadway
**Later performed off-Broadway
