NORMAL
-- Acting can be the "Cats" meow. But creating your
own shows can be even more purr-fect.
Just ask Twin Cities native and Broadway veteran
Ray Roderick.
His own show, "Are We There Yet?," gets
its Illinois premiere this weekend at the Normal Theater via
B-N's all-singing Prairie Fire Theatre.
It'll be the first time Roderick's densely
packed 20 years' worth of stage work -- including acting in
the national tour of "Cats" -- has ever been brought
back home to where it all began.
Where it all began was at University High
School (class of '77) and, later, at Illinois State University
(class of '80).
Both institutions can be held partially responsible
for Roderick's theatrical coming-of-age -- especially ISU,
where Roderick toiled as court jester three years for the ISU
Madrigal Singers.
Responsible for Ray Roderick himself: his
parents James and Vera Broderick of Normal.
"Are We There Yet?" is a musical
comedy review co-written by Roderick and his associates, James
Hindman and Cheryl Stern, with original music by John Giaudini.
The inspiration, he says, came from his stint
directing and choreographing "I Love You, You're Perfect,
Now Change," a similarly structured pastiche of song and
comedy, centered on the theme of romantic relationships.
Roderick took the show around the country,
including a 4 1/2-year run in Denver, where, he says, it became
the longest-running theatrical production in Denver history.
"We thought: Wouldn't it be great to
take that model of sketch comedy meets original music and parody,
and create an original musical dealing with the fun and joy
and conflict within the family?"
The guiding principle in creating his show,
says Roderick, is the old dictum, "You can pick your friends,
but you can't pick your family."
Though written for a minimalist four-actor
ensemble (Brandon Albee, Mike McHugh, Jennifer Peterson and
Nola Richardson are Prairie Fire's quartet), "Are We There
Yet?" makes multi-character demands on the performers,
as they play multiple roles of every age and gender.
The actors, he says, "have to stretch
to play everything from children to grandparents to babies
to even the family pet," Roderick says. "The whole
cycle -- from diapers to Depends."
Making the show's Illinois debut special,
he says, are the involvement of some longtime local cronies,
including Prairie Fire executive producer Robert Mangialardi, "who
I've known since college, when I was a court jester for the
(ISU) madrigals and Bob was a madrigal. We sang in the same
vocal studio and Peter Schuetz was our teacher."
Directing the show is another local theater
veteran, Phil Shaw, who Roderick calls "one of the most
talented guys around."
The fact that the production is housed in
one of Roderick's favorite childhood haunts -- the Normal Theater
-- is the icing on the multi-decker cake. "It was a very,
very exciting place to be as a kid," he recalls of the
many Saturday afternoons spent inside the theater.
Though Roderick hopes to make it back home
this weekend for the opening, he wasn't sure at the time of
this interview, thanks to the many irons he has in the fire.
That includes the opening of a major off-Broadway
musical called "The Ark," which premieres Nov. 14
and offers a pop-rock spin on the biblical story of Noah & Co.,
starring veteran actor Adrian Zmed.
Though Roderick was lucky enough to wind up
performing in such Broadway offerings as "Cats," "Crazy
for You," "Barnum" and "A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum," he left acting behind almost
10 years ago.
It wasn't a bad last hurrah, by the way: appearing
with Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg, in "Funny Thing."
Roderick says that his plan all along was
to make directing, producing, writing and all the things he's
now doing his ultimate professional destiny.
Among his major credits in that realm: associate
director of the hit Broadway revival of "The Music Man" ...
director of the musical's national tour ... and associate directing
Madison Square Garden's annual production of "A Christmas
Carol" for six years.
Among his major credits on the home front:
husband to actress Karyn Quackenbush and father to a teen son,
Jamie.
As for the future of "Are We There Yet?," Roderick
thinks it has arrived at its intended destination.
"Some of the shows coming off Broadway
aren't shows that audiences want to see outside of New York," he
says.
"They're way edgier, not family-friendly.
That's where our company comes in. We're creating shows that
are family-friendly, but also entertaining and smart. And we've
been tremendously successful because of that approach."
Pantagraph review of ARE
WE THERE YET?
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