It’s opening night for those with a sweet tooth for musicals.
In those Andy Hardy movies of old, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and the rest of the gang bent on putting on a show used to grab the nearest barn.
In Torrance, they gravitate toward the more sumptuous Marsee Auditorium at El Camino College.
They’ve been going there about this time of year for a long time--a sure sign that it’s time for the annual Torrance summer musical.
“This gives Torrance residents an opportunity to see Broadway-type productions without having to run in to Los Angeles,†said Joe D’Alessio, performing arts supervisor for the Torrance Parks and Recreation Department, which has been sponsoring the yearly show for 25 years.
And it gives singer-actors an opportunity--during a few weeks of evening rehearsals and four performances on stage--to indulge the theater bug and, in some cases, to dream of a professional career.
“Community theater is an opportunity to perform for people who cannot go into theater, but who have the urge to act,†said Laurie Campbell-Leslie, a high school English teacher in Hawthorne who plays the title role in the musical, “Sugar,†which opens tonight. It is based on the movie comedy, “Some Like It Hot,†that starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe.
Campbell-Leslie said she knew she was hooked on theater when she played Maria in an earlier Torrance production of “West Side Storyâ€. “The director took me on stage, all by myself, and turned the stage lights on. I had a wonderful feeling of awe.â€
Despite the amateur status of the Torrance musical performers, D’Alessio said they have a zest that has prompted some in the audience to say that Torrance musicals could hold their own in big-time Los Angeles.
“Our performers are not jaded, they’ve not been doing the show for 15 weeks, the same thing every night,†D’Alessio said. “There’s a little more life to them.â€
The price certainly is right, with the top ticket going for $9, something D’Alessio attributes to tight budgets, high attendance and city funding that covers salaries of the professional directors--the only ones in the show who get paid.
The Torrance theater usually offers what D’Alessio calls the “classic musicals†that were hits on Broadway and on the road. “My Fair Lady†was last summer’s show. Earlier fare has included “Carousel,†“Annie Get Your Gun,†just plain “Annie†and “Guys and Dolls.†“West Side Story†has been performed twice, D’Alessio said, because it is “so outstanding visually.†“Sugar,†based on the hit motion picture, had a successful run on Broadway but never achieved the recognition of the other musicals.
D’Alessio called “Sugar†a deliberate change of pace. “We tried to pick a show entirely different . . . a jazz musical,†he said. The show offers a brassy score, gangsters and a bevy of women looking to land Miami millionaires.
There’s ample opportunity for sexual pranks and double-entendre dialogue as the two leading men disguise themselves as women and join an all-women orchestra to escape from the hoods who want to kill them. With all that temptation, they have a difficult time remembering that they’re supposed to be women.
D’Alessio says he’s waiting to see how the show goes over with what he calls the “conservative†Torrance audience. After all, he said, the city has never staged “Gypsy†because of its striptease numbers.
The Torrance musical tradition began in 1963. Shows initially were presented in the old City Hall in downtown Torrance and, after that was torn down, in the Torrance High School Auditorium.
The 1971 move from the high school, with its small stage, to the professional-class Marsee Auditorium at El Camino ushered in larger and more complex musicals. “Our first show there was “Oliver,†D’Alessio said. “There were a lot of kids and we were able to handle a cast of 50 to 60.â€
D’Alessio said the Torrance musical, which chooses performers by open audition, benefits from young people who have gained experience in school and in community theaters. And some of these people use the run as a showcase, sending invitations to talent agents. Some agents show up. Campbell-Leslie said she signed with an agent after playing Liza in “My Fair Lady†last year.
Michael Johnson, who plays one of the male leads in “Sugar,†says he began performing as a child musician and he too would like to be a professional actor. But Johnson, a personnel officer for the corporation that owns Nizetich’s restaurant in San Pedro, said he’s not willing to “pay the dues†that show business demands: “I do it as a hobby.â€
One man who’s not looking for a theatrical career--he’s the contented manager of a Rolling Hill Estates stock brokerage firm--is Dave Diestel. Though he hadn’t acted since high school, he decided to have some fun earlier this year by playing President Wintergreen in the 1930s political satire, “Of Thee I Sing.†It was presented by the Ready for Prime Time Players, a troupe of performers older than 50 based at the Norris Theatre for the Performing Arts in Rolling Hills Estates.
In “Sugar,†Diestel is Spats, the head gangster who wears a gray tuxedo and affects Cagney-like gestures. “After I auditioned and they called me and said I had the part, I thought it was great,†he said. “I’ve always been a ham.â€
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