Arts & Leisure
Nostalgia reigns with "Beehive" - opening production at the Ogunquit Playhouse
By Rose Safran
OGUNQUIT - "It's a trip down memory lane," said an opening night attendee of the high-energy musical revue, "Beehive, The 60's Musical Sensation" during an unexpected and temporary exodus of all theatre patrons due to the Ogunquit Playhouse's smoke detector system.The system now contains a program so efficient that atmospheric changes appeared to set it off, inviting the Fire Department and emptying the theatre during the second act of the Monday night opening.
"Once the system is put into motion," one of the ushers explained, "it has to complete its cycle."
In any case, the exodus was orderly, most folks returned to their seats after the disruption, and "the show went on."
And it's quite a show, one sure to invite the baby-boomer generation who seemed present in full force, applauding number after number, both the innocent earlier ones of pre-rock days as well as the more meaningful ones evolving during the 1960s phenomenon, after the famous import from England, The Beatles, burst on the scene.
With some 28 songs in the first act, and 10 in the second, and with six solid girl troupers, we are taken through a song-and-dance journey of a period of radical change in America - change in music, change in dress codes, change in morality, change in social structure.
From sweet-talking carefree girls of the early period who emote about love relationships in such tunes as "Sweet Talkin' Guy," "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "Where Did Our Love Go," "I Dream About Frankie," "You Don't Own Me," "Where the Boys Are," and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," in the first act, the chronologically-arranged show moves on to include equal rights and the liberation of women as exemplified by songs such as "Respect," "A Natural Woman," and "Do Right Woman," winding up with the do-your-own-thing philosophy - still prevailing today - in the finale, "Make Your Own Kind of Music."
"Beehive," the symbolic title, refers to a formal full - usually upswept - hairstyle created with teasing (reverse combing that makes the hair puffy), hairpins and gobs of hairspray to hold it in place during the days when Leslie Gore, Connie Francis and Brenda Lee took center stage (lots of laughs to a mimicry of this trio!), ultimately displaced by straighter less fussy, more natural hair, eventually evolving into anything-goes locks.
Petula Clark ("Downtown") is not ignored. Nor are the girls - Annette Funicello (complete with surfboard), Diana Ross (has to be dragged off the stage!), Tina Turner, The Supremes, Dusty Springfield, Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin as some of the musical titles indicate.
Highlights included "The Beat Goes On," the Sonny Bono/Cher number and Janis Joplin's "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)."
The experienced singer-dancer girls are (in alphabetical order) Trish Aponte, Gretchen Goldsworthy, Marcie Henderson, Rebekah Jacobs , A'lisa D. Miles, Alena Watters and they all deliver - albeit in different ways. While most of the numbers called for ensemble dancing, singing and acting, each performer did have an opportunity to belt out and "strut her special stuff" as the lead or in a duet as in the Aretha Franklin set. Several of these performers were in the Foothills Theatre (Worcester, Mass.) production of "Beehive." The revue, including the concept of describing an era through its music, was created by the late Larry Gallagher.
The Ogunquit Playhouse production opened with news announcements, and images projected on a screen, setting the period of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's election, brief tenure in office and tragic assassination. In the second act, it moved into the escalation of the Vietnam War, protests against it and the Woodstock era of deliberate excess and rebellious flower children.
The set designed by Sean Martin is intelligently minimal, compliments the dancers (doesn't compete with them!) and is interesting, consisting of successive panels of psychedelic colors that are picked up in some of the costumes.
Kurt Hultgren designed the many costumes, which range from frilly, full-skirted, sweet girl to scant, flashy, Tina Turner-style-mini to bedraggled, casual anything-goes Woodstock of peace-love-drugs. (Janis Joplin goes at the bottle in one scene.)
Light bulbs flashed on and off, adding to the atmosphere of the "let it all hang out" period. Unfortunately, some of the lights landed in the eyes of members of the audience - perhaps this will be corrected in later performances.
Russell Garrett, current Artistic director at the Foothills Theatre was responsible for the swift-paced choreography, which included the shimmy. You don't see that every day! Yep, The Ogunquit Playhouse rocked as the hair came down, skirts went up and the beat went wild. And the audience hooted and hooted, cheering at these favorite numbers and reincarnated popular performers of yesterday, perhaps thereby subtracting more than a few years for a couple of hours.
Oh, that great rejuvenator - nostalgia!
Now in its 74th season, The Ogunquit Playhouse has a new executive artistic director; he's Bradford Kenney, formerly of Worcester's Foothills Theatre.
"Beehive, The 60's Musical Sensation" runs through July 8 at the Ogunquit Playhouse with performances Monday to Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and matinees Wednesday and Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $36 to $46.
For more information, call 646-5511 or visit www.ogunquitplayhouse.org.
