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Obtaining and coordinating a script and score for Mack and Mabel proves to be a chore, but the show will go on with an experienced cast.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 11, 2002
Jerry Herman's musical Mack and Mabel is so rarely performed that the licensing company didn't have a current script and score to send to Richey Suncoast Theatre for its upcoming production of the show.
"They had sent me a file copy, the only one they had," said Dick Poole, who suggested the theater do the musical and agreed to direct it.
"Actually, they just sent me a copy of the book," Poole said, using the theatrical term for script. "When I got the music, it didn't match. It was the original music, but the third rewrite of the book."
Music director Stella Gaukhshteyn merged the music and the script so that entrances and exits would coincide, Poole said.
Mack and Mabel is the saga of legendary silent film director Mack Sennett and his greatest star, Mabel Normand. The story is told in flashback by Sennett himself, by then a broken man made obsolete by talkies. He reminisces about his love for Ms. Normand, regretting that he never told her he did, indeed, love her.
Playwright Michael Stewart and composer Herman ended the show with Ms. Normand's tragic death at a young age. Poole has adjusted the script to give the show an upbeat conclusion.
"I picked the show not knowing anything about it," Poole said. "I just loved the music."
So why pick a show so obscure that a director of 35 years wouldn't know the general plot?
"A director wants to branch out and do other things," Poole said.
To bring the project to fruition, Poole recruited tried and true actors he had worked with before.
"I have Lori Beth Swenson in the Mabel Normand role," Poole said. "She's won Larys for me for the last three years," the most recent being the Lary Award for her role as Anna Leonowens in The King and I at Francis Wilson Playhouse in Clearwater. Ms. Swenson also appeared in the musical 42nd Street at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre.
Playing Sennett is Jerry Slutzky, who has had lead roles in The Music Man, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Bye Bye Birdie for SLT Productions, a professional acting troupe based in Tampa, and at other venues.
Playing Lottie Ames is Dominica Sinopoli, who won a Lary for her performance in last season's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Richey Suncoast; playing Fatty Arbuckle is Drew Lundquist, a Protean in Funny/Forum; and doing Frank is Don Edmiston, who had leads in Sugar and The Music Man, among many roles at Richey Suncoast.
Others in the cast are Jennie Ashley as Ella, Patrick Curran as Kleiman, Justin Sargent as Fox, Lanny Freeman as William Desmond Taylor, Susan Johnson as Taylor's girlfriend, Phyllis, Michael Potts as a reporter, David Broughton as the purser and James Geiger as a newsboy.
The Sennett Beauties, a dance line coached by choreographer Jane Geddings, are Jo Ellen Hatfield, Kristin Bram, Star Dawn Verosic, Celeste M. Cummins, Christine Marlowe, Nicole Vaporis, Jene' Plexer and Jennie Ashley.
WHAT: Mack and Mabel, a musical
WHERE: Richey Suncoast Theatre, 6237 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey
WHEN: Thursday and Jan. 18-20, 25-27, and Feb. 1-3. Performances at 8 p.m., except Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
TICKETS: $12. Box office is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and an hour before each show.