Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9309020345
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jeff De Bell
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He was a she.
What happened was that Michael Walsh hurt his back while dancing and was unable to do his next number in the hit show at Mill Mountain Theatre. Quicker than you can say "The show must go on," dance captain Jill Gillespie slipped into a form-hiding tuxedo, pasted a false mustache beneath her nose and took Walsh's place in the best showbiz tradition.
It was almost like, well, it was almost like "42nd Street," which is about an understudy who gets her chance and becomes a star.
The good news is that Walsh recovered and is back in the show.
There's good news at the box office, too. "42nd Street" is the hit of the season so far. As this is written, the show is nearly sold out.
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoThose who remember One Night Stands should be pleased to learn that Mill Mountain Theatre is cooking up a new series of "very limited engagements" for its Theatre B.
One-person shows by three past Mill Mountain Theatre performers are under consideration, as is a show based on storytelling with a regional slant.
This isn't the prestige fare of One Night Stands, but it's a start. "If we get the support, we can go on to bigger things," said Jere Hodgin, Mill Mountain's artistic and executive director.
One Night Stands imported the likes of Spalding Gray, the Kronos Quartet, Lenny Pickett and Molissa Fenley in 1990 and 1991. The series was sponsored by Mill Mountain in cooperation with the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.
Theatre B is Mill Mountain's space for what might be called "alternative" theater - stuff that has an enthusiastic following but is a little too offbeat for the bulk of Roanoke's basically conservative audience. The limited engagements are intended both to preserve that tradition and to keep the dust out of Theatre B, which will be getting less use owing to budget restraints next season.
In keeping with tradition, the season will begin with a holiday musical. It will be "The 1940's Radio Hour," which is presented as a live broadcast of "The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade" from the Hotel Astor's Algonquin Room on Dec. 21, 1942. It opens Dec. 3.
Next on the main stage (Feb.25) will be Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," as dramatized by Christopher Sergel. Another musical, "Five Guys Named Moe," follows with a May 6 opening. Clarke Peters' show is a celebration of the tunes of 1940s jazz star Louis Jordon.
"Hello Dolly!" will be first of the theater's two summer musicals. The mega-hit is based on Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" and, surprisingly, has never been done in Roanoke. It opens next June 24.
Winding up the season will be Aaron Sorkin's "A Few Good Men," a courtroom drama about the trial of two Marines for complicity in the death of a fellow trooper at Guantanamo Bay. Sorkin's play was the source of the recent Jack Nicholson-Tom Cruise movie of the same title. The play starts on Aug. 5, 1994.
As in the past, Mill Mountain's Norfolk Southern Festival of New Plays will be around to offset the winter blahs. It will feature a full production of the winner of the theater's annual new play competition, plus staged readings of three other works.
The contest winner is "Straight Man," a comedy/drama by Washington playwright Paul Sambol. If his name rings a bell, it may be because a couple of his works have been presented as part of the theater's Centerpieces series of lunchtime play readings.
\ Saturday Arts at Old First will continue Aug. 7 with a performance by Jim Murphy, a magician. The show will start at 11 a.m. in the First Baptist Church-turned arts center at Jefferson and Gilmer in Old Gainsboro.
Saturday Arts is a welcome addition to the valley's children's art scene, where pickin's can be discouragingly slim. The organizers' aim is plain and admirable: to hook kids on the performing arts so they'll be concert- and theater-goers when they grow up.
Performers are donating their services for the shows, which take place monthly during the summer and will move to a weekly basis in the fall if all goes well.
The shows only cost two bits, and there's a scholarship fund for youngsters who can't afford that.
\ Soap opera fans who'd like to see one of their idols in the flesh should hustle over to Charlottesville, where Michael Zaslow is appearing in the Heritage Repertory Theatre production of "Love Letters."
Zaslow, who plays Roger Thorpe on "Guiding Light," is one of the stalwarts of daytime television. Broadway actress Susan Hufford is appearing opposite him in A.R. Gurney's play. It runs through July 24.
\ Backstage is a column about the arts in Western Virginia. Jeff DeBell remains on a special non-arts assignment but will do the column on an occasional basis.
by CNB