Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 8, 1995 TAG: 9505090065
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Inside the Music," born of the Broadway star's one-time cabaret show, molds soliloquy, dance and song into the story of McKechnie's life. But she's the first to admit it lies a little, too.
"This is not my book [autobiography]," said McKechnie, who began rehearsals for the Mill Mountain Theatre production of "Inside the Music" last week. "I will write a book. I have to write a book."
But this is theater. The show - which McKechnie is polishing here in the hinterlands before tossing it to the reviewing lions of New York - previews Wednesday and Thursday, and officially opens Friday night.
It runs through May 28.
"This is a journey to discovery," said the show's director, Peter Webb. "What we're working toward is telling a story . . . It's not a confessional."
"It's not even true," laughed McKechnie.
"It has theatrical truth in every word," insisted Webb.
Asked to summarize the plot, McKechnie said "It's a story about a girl who grows up in the midwest, and who runs away at an early age to chase her dream of becoming a dancer on Broadway."
That much, at least, would seem to fit McKechnie to a T. She ran away from her home in Detroit at 15 to join a dance troupe in New York City.
Beyond the bare outlines, theater-goers may decide for themselves where the truth lies in "Inside the Music" - if they care.
They may rest assured of a heaping helping of the star herself. Though McKechnie will share the stage with musicians, the focus is on her singing, dancing and chatting about her life. The play is laced heavily with song and dance numbers from the many musicals McKechnie, who is in her early 50s, has performed in through the years.
"Inside the Music" is the title of the original song written for McKechnie's character, Cassie, in "A Chorus Line." The song , never actually performed, was rewritten into "The Music and the Mirror."
McKechnie won a Tony award for her performance in that show.
A rough and ready run-through of "Inside the Music" in a Mill Mountain Theatre rehearsal room last week revealed a show that is part storytelling, and large part song and dance. It pays tribute to various celebrities McKechnie has met along the way, from choreographer Bob Fosse to songwriter Marvin Hamlisch to - at, least, insofar as the script can be believed - Fred Astaire. In "Inside the Music," McKechnie dances with Astaire across his living room.
"It is really, really good," believes Mill Mountain Theatre Director Jere Lee Hodgin, who scrapped the previously-scheduled "I Hate Hamlet" to make room for "Inside the Music."
Theater officials said a number of producers will be attending performances of "Inside the Music" in Roanoke, with an eye toward staging the play in New York.
Thus, "Inside the Music" joins "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" and the recent Theatre B production, "Grace and Glorie," on the growing list of productions Mill Mountain Theatre has helped prepare for larger venues.
"The whole idea of Roanoke being a New York tryout is, in fact, the truth," Hodgin said.
McKechnie - whose Broadway credits include "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," "Promises Promises" and "Company," in addition to "A Chorus Line" - has been performing the nucleus of "Inside the Music" as a club act for years.
With this project, she sets out to make it work as theater, with a clearer story line, she said.
To make it work, McKechnie has assembled a team that includes Webb, playwright Christopher Durang and musical director/arranger Bryan Louiselle.
All bring extensive theater credits to the task: Webb's recent musical, "Splendora," written in the collaboration with Mark Campbell and Stephen Hoffman and based on a novel by Edward Swift, received the Richard Rodgers Production Award for 1995.
Louiselle has been associate conductor/music director at the Radio City Music Hall since 1990. He has done musical arrangements for two Miss America pageants and the Superbowl half-time show, as well as the Cole Porter 100th Birthday Celebration at Carnegie Hall.
Durang, who wove bits and pieces of McKechnie's life and career into the quasi-biographical script of "Inside the Music," is a writer whose work has been produced on and off of Broadway. His "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You," won an Obie Award; a collection of his one act plays, Durang/Durang, recently was performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
by CNB