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'Wild' homecoming
Hey kids, let's put on a show! Michelle Dowdy visits from Broadway, joining a group of friends to stage the grownup Wild Party in St. Petersburg.
By LANE DEGREGORY
Published August 18, 2006
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[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
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Michelle Dowdy, on couch, lounges with Andrew Schoomaker while rehearsing for Wild Party. In the show, Schoomaker plays her boyfriend. “We have to make out for, like, five minutes,” Dowdy says
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ST. PETERSBURG The Broadway actor overslept. She called the producer of her latest show and the reporter waiting to interview her. "Sorry," she said. "My mom didn't wake me up." All the other cast members already were on stage at the Palladium Theater, ready to run through the musical that would debut in a week. * The director had scheduled this 10 a.m. rehearsal especially for Michelle Dowdy. Monday is the only day she has off from her Broadway gig. She had flown in the night before and was staying in her old bedroom, in her mom's tiny Treasure Island apartment. "I'll be there soon," she promised the producer. nBut she needed a ride. At 19, she still hasn't learned to drive. * * * Michelle landed a role on Broadway the week she graduated from high school. She has been in New York for a year and two months, working as understudy to the lead in Hairspray. While her friends started college, Michelle was dancing for packed houses at the Neil Simon Theatre, wearing custom-made jazz shoes, earning $1,500 a week. The St. Petersburg Times told her story last year in a six-part series called "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now." She plays Tracy Turnblad, a chubby teenager who wants to dance on TV. The part is perfect for Michelle, who has never minded being heavy. The show also includes a boisterous, loving mother - sort of like Michelle's own mom. Several of Michelle's high school classmates go to college in New York, studying theater, voice, stage production. She shares a Manhattan apartment with two guys who also graduated from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High. Last fall, Michelle and her roommates started talking about how great it would be to get the gang back together. Though she loved the professional experience of working on Broadway, she missed putting on plays with her friends. Plus, after more than 100 rehearsals and performances of Hairspray, she was ready to zip on another costume, sing other songs. Michelle and her roommate, Jamieson Lindenburg, called their classmates, sent e-mails, posted ideas on MySpace. Would you guys be up for this? Will you be home this summer? Glenn Grieves had worked at the Palladium. He booked the stage for August. Michelle and Jamieson wanted to do the show Wild Party. They'd been singing to the CD for months. A racy Andrew Lippa musical that debuted off-Broadway in 2000, Wild Party is about a vaudeville dancer and clown who throw the ultimate prohibition-era party. By January it was settled. Two dozen friends, none of them old enough to drink, would put on a play in which everyone gets drunk. They started organizing a cast and production staff. Jamieson would direct the show. Glenn would be the producer. Sam Froeschle could build the sets. Alana Clapp could work the lights. Matt Everett was great with sound. They had a teenage musical director, costume designer, choreographer. Michelle couldn't play a major role because she couldn't fly back to Florida often enough to rehearse. She was cast as Mae, a girl trying to get her boyfriend to propose. Mae has 10 lines in Wild Party and sings three songs. Michelle scheduled her one-week vacation for August so she could be home for a dress rehearsal and four shows at the Palladium. She flew in three Mondays to practice with her friends. On the last one, she was late. * * * "Hi you!" she cried, running up to the stage, squeezing the choreographer in a tight hug. "I've missed you," Michelle told her friend Amanda Witt. "Oh, I've missed you all." The rehearsal stopped while Michelle hugged a half-dozen people. She blew a kiss to the piano player. Smiled and scrunched her freckled nose at the director. She was wearing a moss-colored top and her mom's black stretch pants. She had forgotten to pack dance clothes. "Okay, I want minimum conversation this morning. We have a lot of work to do," the director said, calling his cast back to work. Michelle took her place stage left, in front of a tall, red-headed actor who plays her boyfriend. In real life, Michelle hasn't dated since she and her high school beau broke up. "What I'm seeing here this morning, it's not gritty enough, it's not stark or dirty enough," the director said. "I want you all to really start thinking about your characters and how their bodies move." The musical director led everyone through warmups, singing scales. Then the dance captain made the whole cast do 250 crunches. Michelle sat out the last 100. * * * She can't afford to lose weight. She has already lost out on a Hollywood deal because, at 5 feet 2 and 172 pounds, the casting agent told her she was too skinny to play Tracy Turnblad in an upcoming Hairspray movie with John Travolta. That was a big blow, she said. She had been one of five finalists. She has auditioned for other roles: for a Zombie soul singer in the off-Broadway musical Evil Dead; for an understudy part in the Broadway show Avenue Q. She didn't get either. But she's waiting to hear from Finding Nemo. The Disney movie is being made into a musical, and Michelle tried out to be the title fish. Not that she needs to find another job. Hairspray just signed her as understudy for another year. She has been rehearsing with Haylie Duff (Hilary's big sister) who is now playing the part of Amber von Tussle. Most nights, Michelle still hangs out backstage with the other understudies. She has played the lead 60 times so far, once for two weeks straight. Her grandparents, her dad and many of her high school friends have flown in to see her. Her mom, Karla Harris, has seen Michelle on Broadway seven times. She sobs every time. * * * At the Palladium, during rehearsal, Michelle had to make out with the redhead in a corner. She got choked by the leading man, tossed across the stage. But the hardest part seemed to be at the end of a musical number, when Michelle was supposed to do a split. She winced as she dropped to the stage. "I'm dying here," she groaned. "I'm getting too old." Two guys helped her up. "If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right," the director said. "Let's try that again." As soon as rehearsal was over, a friend drove Michelle to Studio@620 to meet her high school vocal teacher. She was singing that night at a restaurant in downtown St. Pete - a promotion for Wild Party. She had asked Karen Bail, who taught her at Gibbs, to accompany her on piano. They ran through six songs, then Michelle traded her dance duds for a black cocktail dress she had just bought in New York. She untwisted her scrunchee and brushed her dark, wavy hair. * * * She stood on the balcony at Bella Brava restaurant, behind a banner for Wild Party. Her name was in letters six inches high. Her mom was there, with her best friend and her mom's boyfriend, sitting at the table closest to the makeshift stage. "I didn't think she'd changed. But look at my baby up there," Karla said, dabbing her eyes. "She's so poised. She's a professional now." Michelle had grown much more confident in the last year. She had no problem, now, riding subways or hailing cabs. And she felt more connected to her Hairspray family. She even played second base on the cast softball team. She wonders sometimes what life would be like if she had gone to college, instead of chasing the spotlight. Her friends have such different lives on campus. Having them around her in New York to support her, and all over the country to call and e-mail, has helped ease her transition from high school student to starlet. And now that she's getting to do Wild Party with them all, well, "It's just like old times," Michelle said. "Only we're all better at what we do now." Two tables of her friends were at the restaurant that night, waiting to watch her perform. "Hi," Michelle called over the microphone, waving. "My name is Michelle Dowdy and I'm gonna sing some songs for you tonight. This first number is from a little show I do on Broadway." She wrinkled her freckled nose and laughed. "Weird, huh?" Lane DeGregory can be reached at (727) 893-8825 or degregory@sptimes.com ABOUT THE SHOW Broadway actor Michelle Dowdy is returning to her hometown this weekend to perform in Wild Party at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg. She and two dozen friends, mostly graduates of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High, came back from New York and colleges across the country to produce the racy musical by Andrew Lippa. Diana DeGarmo, the American Idol finalist who until recently played Penny in Hairspray with Michelle, will join the cast for a cameo appearance on Saturday night and Sunday. All of the actors, directors, choreographers, set and costume designers are under 21. Set in the 1920s, Wild Party is based on a book-length poem written in the period. The musical, which debuted off-Broadway in 2000, tells the story of a vaudeville dancer and clown who want to throw the ultimate prohibition-era party. Scenes include a lesbian trolling after a minor girl; and two brothers who are gay lovers. Much of the material is not appropriate for children. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $10 to $15. The Palladium is at 253 Fifth Ave. N. To order tickets, call the Palladium at 727 822-3590 or visit www.mypalladium.org.
[Last modified August 17, 2006, 16:39:29]
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