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player ready...If the stage seems just a tad smaller when the lights go up on Drury Lane’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie,” you’re not imagining things. For the musical set during the dawn of rock ‘n roll and starring an Elvis-like pop star, director Tammy Mader is quite literally making the sound larger than usual.
“I’ve sacrificed a bit of the stage so I could open up the orchestra pit and make it bigger,” says Mader, “This show is all about rock, and I really want the audience to experience that sound on a visceral level.”
Mader is Drury Lane’s not-so-secret weapon when it comes to staging musicals that rock. Got a show that calls for gyrating dance moves and infectious power chords? You want to deploy Mader. A quintuple threat director/choreographer/singer/actor/dancer, Mader was the directorial force behind Drury Lane’s Jeff Award-winning productions of “Hairspray” and “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.” Her performance credits go back more than 20 years at the venerable dinner theater, and include memorable turns in the rockabilly classic “Pump Boys and Dinettes.”
Mader tuned in to the sounds of 1950s and ’60s as a teenager growing up in Virginia. “When I went through my teenage rebellion years, the Stray Cats were huge. I picked up hard on that, and it took me into rockabilly and music form the late ’50s and 1960s. It was how I found my identity. All of a sudden I was listening to the old stuff, antiquing and scouring thrift stores for fashion from the era. That music, that time — it still resonates with me.”
“Bye Bye Birdie” may be set in late 1950s of Elvis and Eisenhower and Ed Sullivan, but its plot is as current as reality TV. The story centers on Conrad Birdie (Jason Michael Evans), an Elvis-like megawatt superstar about to join the army. His handlers come up with a pre-induction publicity stunt: Conrad will give one lucky teen girl a farewell kiss on prime-time, live TV, during the most popular show on the planet: The Ed Sullivan Show. Presumably the televised sendoff will keep Conrad in the hearts and minds of his adoring public while he’s serving overseas.
When Sweet Apple, Ohio teen Kim MacAfee (Leryn Turlington) is chosen at random to receive the kiss, the small-town locals pretty much lose their minds. With fame dangled in front of them, Kim and her friends stop singing wholesome ditties about going steady and start singing about fast cars, strong booze, wild parties and torrid encounters with Hollywood hunks. Part of the show’s tension comes from whether Kim will remain true to herself or turn into a Kim Kardashian-type celebutante.
“TV worship is something that has persevered from Birdie’s era to now,” points out Mader. “We’ve got all these ‘stars’ — people who aren’t particularly talented but they’ve become wildly successful from just selling their personality.” “Bye Bye Birdie” shows the almighty power of being on TV when the chorus sings an actual hymn to late night talk show king Ed Sullivan. Substitute YouTube or Instagram for Ed Sullivan in the worshipful lyrics and you’ve got a song as contemporary as the latest viral video.
As Conrad Birdie, Evans is at the heart of the frenzy. Like a lot of massively famous people, the New York-based actor notes, Conrad Birdie isn’t necessarily anybody’s idea of a solid role model. “It’s all about the celebrity. All the girls scream over him and worship him, but he’s not a guy you’d want your daughter hanging out with. And like some people who get really famous pretty young, the fame kind of goes to his head. He gets caught up in it.”
Evans makes his Drury Lane debut as Birdie, following an 11th hour video audition barely two weeks before “Birdie” rehearsals commenced.
“We did get right down to the line on the casting,” says Mader. “We didn’t want an Elvis impersonator. We were holding out for just the right guy. Jason’s got this really great confidence and a smoldering quality that scream ‘rock star.’ And most of all we wanted that sound — that real rock sound. I think we’ve got it.”
‘Bye Bye Birdie’
When: Jan. 14-March 13
Where: Drury Lane, Oak Brook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace
Tickets: $45-$90
Contact: 630-530-0111; www.drurylanetheatre.com