THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604040115
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 161 lines
AWAY FROM THE stage, Robert F. ``Bobby'' Mauney doesn't look or act like a good ol' country pump boy.
But the Briarwood resident is one of the stars of the Founders Inn production of the hit Broadway musical ``Pump Boys and Dinettes.''
Mauney, 36, plays the role of Jackson, one of the three pump boys in this rousing, country rock-a-billy songfest about the joys of life in a mythical Southern town that features a gas station right next door to the local dinette, the Double Cupp Diner, run by the Cupp sisters.
Mauney's an extremely affable guy who's handsome in that Tom-Hanks, guy-next-door kind of way. Polite and articulate, he exudes a freshly scrubbed wholesomeness. If you were casting a film you'd hire him to play the best friend, the Good Neighbor Sam or the kind of nice guy one could rely on.
Mauney holds a degree in history with a minor in business administration from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C. He's a very successful district sales manager for Microbac, a national environmental testing laboratory.
He's a ``P.K.,'' or ``preacher's kid.'' His father is the Rev. Marshall F. Mauney, a retired Lutheran minister who was pastor of the First Lutheran Church in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk.
Mauney said he loves to play golf and swings a mean tennis racket. But he said his main love, his top hobby, his ``addiction'' is the stage. Besides acting, he can sing, dance and even juggle. He knows how to play trumpet and violin and can play a mean piano.
He said he's worked at every theater from Hampton Roads all the way to Richmond, where he lived for five years working for the CIT Corp., a commercial lending business and a subsidiary of Manufacturers Hanover Trust.
So what's an educated, urbane and talented guy like Mauney doing playing a Gomer Pyle-type grit like Jackson in this down-home musical?
Very well, thank you. But don't take our word for it.
Mal Vincent, movie and theater critic for The Virginian-Pilot, reviewed the Founders Inn show last month and called it ``thigh-slapping down-home fun.''
He said the show is ``the little musical that wowed the up-nawth folks back in 1982 and has lived to come back home.'' He called the production a ``country-pop musical potpourri'' that began at the Ranch House Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. The show eventually became a hit Broadway musical and even earned itself a Tony nomination.
``The real scene stealer, though, is Bobby Mauney,'' Vincent wrote. ``He has crazy feet that might have been borrowed from early Steve Martin.''
Mentioning that line from the review, Mauney just gave an aw-shucks reaction.
``I do a very mediocre job at it,'' he said, almost blushing. ``You don't see tap much anymore so if you go on stage and produce a few clicks, people think you're great.''
But Mauney and his cast cohorts - Kathi Caplan, Michelle Hickling, Tom Schultheis and Gary Spell - do more than produce a few clicks on stage. In fact, what makes this show so good, Mauney said, is how the cast members click with each other.
``We're all friends,'' said Mauney, who lives with his wife Lorrie and 2-year-old son Justin in Great Bridge. ``I only like to do shows where I feel comfortable with the people in the cast. We've all done this show before and we enjoy each other's company. It's a joy being onstage with them entertaining people and making them happy. The people in this show are really super talented.
``Gary (Spell) is not only one of the cast members, but he's the director. And Kathi (Caplan) isn't just one of the Cupp sisters; she's the musical director. There's no weak link in this show. These are people I wouldn't mind having over for dinner. When we're not performing we talk to each other about anything and everything.''
He said the show itself is a non-threatening evening of light entertainment that would make anyone feel good. One reason, he said, is the audience gets involved. The cast makes sure of that.
``To make this show work it requires a lot of audience response,'' he said. ``We offer good foot-stompin' fun kind of music and we all go overboard to make the audience comfortable. This show really depends on the connection we make with the audience. They see us smiling, having a good time - and believe me we are having a ball onstage - then the audience begins to smile and have a good time, too.''
Mauney said the production uses a minimum of dialogue and scenery. There's just a gas pump on one side and a lunch counter on the other with lots of upbeat songs with titles like ``Farmer Tan,'' ``Catfish,'' ``Serve Yourself,'' ``The Menu Song,'' ``Be Good or Be Gone,'' ``Mamaw'' and ``Fisherman's Prayer,'' just to name a few.
Vincent said in his review that the actors create ``a world in which folks don't lock their doors and the biggest worry is whether the catfish are biting.''
To reel the audience in, Mauney said he and the cast visit with the audience before, during and after the show.
``We come in from the back and walk through the audience,'' he said. ``We chat and shake hands. We ask them questions like `have I ever worked on your car?' or `where you from?', things like that. I feel that if I have a connection with the audience, it will work out. I may not be the best actor or singer or dancer but I think I'm the type of guy people can relate to and connect with.''
Mauney sells his acting prowess short.
He said he loves to do physical comedy and cites actors like Danny Kaye, Donald O'Connor, Robin Williams and Jimmy Stewart as thespian role models. He said he's been performing and acting since he was a kid.
``Being a pastor's kid you couldn't help but perform in the choir and in church productions,'' he said. ``But I was never a child actor. I was too much into playing baseball.''
Mauney said his acting ``addiction'' didn't hit him until he was in college. As a lark, he tried out for the role of Sancho Panza in the musical ``Man of La Mancha.'' He loved the experience and soon got greasepaint in his blood.
``I really got into it,'' he said. ``You name it, I played in it. I was in productions like `Godspell,' `South Pacific' and many, many others.''
His college acting career was so extensive, he eventually joined the national theater fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega.
After college his acting blossomed, too. Especially in Richmond.
``I did a lot of dinner theater in Richmond,'' Mauney said. ``I never took any acting, singing or dancing lessons, I just learned by doing production after production.''
While in Richmond, for example, Mauney was featured for 13 weeks in a production of ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat,'' presented at the Barksdale Dinner Theatre. The show was successful and went on to become one of the longest running dinner theater musical productions in the country, he said.
Mauney said he learned his dancing skills, gained his ``crazy feet,'' when he landed a role as the gangster Spats in the musical ``Sugar.''
``Spats would tap dance everywhere he went,'' he said. ``I had never tap danced in my life so I spent six weeks learning and then I did it every night of the show.''
Being a fast learner and being able to quickly adapt to a role is one of Mauney's greatest assets as an actor.
``This is actually my first full role with the Founders Inn,'' he said. ``Before I was a fill-in for actors who couldn't make a show. So I had to learn roles very fast. I'm what you would call a utility player. I'm one of those fools who learns a play in a few days and then steps right in.''
Mauney said he filled in a role in Shakespeare's ``Romeo and Juliet'' where he had to learn his lines and how to fence in only three days. Another time, in the Founders Inn production of ``Forever Plaid,'' a musical about a Four Freshman type '50s vocal harmony group, one of the members got married.
Mauney got the call.
``The show had a lot of intricate, four-part vocal harmony and very intricate dance steps,'' he said. ``I got a tape of the show along with the script, the songs and the music. I had four weeks to learn everything. I had to watch the video to see the steps, had one run-through and then had to step right in. But I did it. The first time I was on stage, I was so numb, I didn't have time to get scared.''
After his run with ``Pump Boys and Dinettes,'' Mauney said he's going to take a rest and enjoy relaxing with his family for a while. But he said he'll eventually return to the stage.
``I know I'll be back,'' he said. ``It's in my blood, I guess.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Singing and playing in ``Pump Boys and Dinettes'' are Kathi Caplan,
left, who plays Rhetta Cupp, Bobby Mauney, center, who plays
Jackson, and Tom Schultheis, right, who plays Jim.
Bobby Mauney greets the audience before the show starts in earnest.
Mal Vincent called the show ``thigh-slapping down-home fun.''
Bobby Mauney threads a fishing hook in a scene from the play.
by CNB