By SHARON EBERSON
By the numbers, the Pittsburgh premiere of Bandstand: A New American Musical is the largest show ever mounted by Front Porch Theatricals. By the emotional breadth of the show about returning World War II veterans, it also is among the company’s most impactful.
It helps that the talent leaps off the often crowded stage, led by David Toole and Marnie Quick, as Donny Novitski, struggling mightily with survivor’s guilt, and Julia Trojan, widow of Donny’s close friend.
Toole, who has never failed to impress in performances for Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Front Porch and others, demonstrates his abundant range as the anguished, driven Donny. Quick, so memorable in the company’s Merrily We Roll Along last year, delivers a pitch-perfect performance, including Broadway belts that could bring you to the edge of your seat and then knock you back, even on a jam-packed New Hazlett Theater stage.
as Julia, in the Front Porch Theatricals’ Pittsburgh premiere. (Image: Chris Sichi)
Julia is enlisted as a vocalist for the fictional Donny Nova Band, made up of veterans who, like Donny, have come back to their Ohio town from the war, with physical and mental baggage that is weighing them down.
The band members come to lean on each other as they join Donny’s dream of creating a patriotic song that will win a national radio contest, carry them to New York and then Hollywood, and perhaps exorcise the memories of war.
The triple-threat band members are foremost musicians, but here they must have major acting chops and sing as well. Music director, conductor and pianist Deana Muro has gathered an impressive quintet of Pittsburgh musicians to do just that:
Patrick Breiner (saxophone and clarinet), Chris McGraw (bass), Mike Mackey (trumpet), Dylan Pal (trombone) and Kamran Mian (drums).
Each has a veteran’s backstory – McGraw’s Davy, for example, is a jokester and alcoholic. He plays the clown, trying to forget what he saw while helping to free Dachau Concentration Camp. Pal’s Wayne is a troubled germaphobe, and there’s a running joke about Mian’s Johnny, whose diminished mental capacity is due to a jeep that rolled over three times …
Their struggles and musicianship are integral to Bandstand, as they overcome one obstacle after another, trying to make it through the layered song contest. With each step forward, and several leaps back, Donny’s dream becomes their dream.
One of the most powerful songs in Bandstand involves Donny’s vision of finally receiving what is due not only to his band, but he speaks of all veterans when he sings:
“Let me take your bags my friend
You’ve been carrying those for far too long
Troubled times are at an end
And we’re waiting to hear your song
It’s a privilege, sir, may I say
Right this way”
When Donny visits Julia, the widow of his pal, it turns out she is not only a singer but a songwriter, and they form a bond based on music and shared loss. Julia’s quick-with-a-quip mother (Sharon Schaller) pushes her toward the band and Donny, recognizing their neediness, even as Donny withholds information that could tear them apart.
All the while, the band plays club dates in the Cleveland area, building a following and spreading swing-dance fever.
Back to those numbers: The musicians, vocalists and dancers, not to mention an out-of-sight – literally and figuratively – 12-piece orchestra, makes the show experience feel fully immersive at times. (From a perch in the second row, there seemed to be a few perilously close calls with patrons, during high kicks and lifts. But no harm done.)
Due to the New Hazlett’s thrust stage, director-choreographer Joe Jackson has had to chart his own course from that of director and Tony Award-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton and Bandstand). Picture a nightclub with small tables on the edge of a tight dance floor, with 10 dancers partnering on Lindy Hop- and Jitterbug-style steps, kicks and lifts, and a full-tilt band upstage, and you have some idea of what will surely have you swaying and tapping your feet.
Dancer/actors – most in multiple roles – include Jessica Doremus (Jean Ann Ryan), Dixie Surewood (Oliver), Victor Aponte, Annie Batista, Malcolm McGraw, Carolyn Jerz, Charlotte Jensen, Kaleb Purswell and Halle Surgil, with understudies Logan Johnson, Sarah Chelli and Anna Gergerich.
With music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Oberacker and Rob Taylor, the orchestrations by Bill Elliott and Greg Anthony Rassen’s got the most awards attention, justifiably.
The book of the musical got a lukewarm reception on Broadway, and it does try its darnedest to be a swinging entertainment and a study on how not to treat returning veterans. As raucous as the show is at times, in Front Porch’s production, Bandstand never loses sight of its message of perseverance, redemption and hope.
Syncing the band and powerful voices onstage with the orchestra below proves to be a beastly challenge, mostly mission accomplished. There were occasional sound glitches on opening night Friday that hopefully will be ironed out.
The spirit of the piece extends to the agile set design, by Johnmichael Bohach, and other preparations for Bandstand – the set was built Downtown, at Point Park University, and City Theatre on the South Side provided rehearsal space for the North Side production.
The experience of Bandstand begins in the New Hazlett lobby, in a display reflecting the military service of the cast and crew’s family members. It is a reminder that Front Porch secured the show, the finale to its 2024 summer season, in this, the 80th anniversary year of D-Day.
That intent was reflected in a sweet one-on-one moment that summed up the impact of the 1945-set musical.
While singing about welcoming home the troops, Quick, in character as Julia, shook the hand of 100-year-old Betty Digby, a WWII WAVE from Upper St. Clair, who was seated in the front row.
She had received a long ovation after being pointed out, as were all the veterans in the audience, during a preshow talk by producers Nancy Zionts and Bruce E.G. Smith, himself a veteran.
The rousing, moving Bandstand serves as a great big musical thank you from Front Porch to Pittsburgh’s military families.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Front Porch Theatricals production of Bandstand is at the New Hazlett Theater, North Side, August 16-25, 2024. Tickets: https://www.frontporchpgh.com/copy-of-tickets. Veterans are invited to use the promo code VETS45 for discounted tickets.
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