The Birmingham News, January 9, 2003, pp. 1E-2E.
Say ‘Hello’
Director takes challenge in latest BFT production
“What you get out of the show is that all these people are really looking for an emotional connection, and for the most part not finding it.”—Derek Jackson, Director
By Alec Harvey
News staff writer
Coming off “Always, Patsy Cline” at Summerfest Musical Theatre, Derek Jackson couldn’t have asked for a bigger challenge than “Hello Again.”
With the former, Jackson led a band through some of Cline’s classics, such as “Crazy,” Walking After Midnight” and “I Fall to Pieces.” As director and musical director of Birmingham Festival Theatre’s production of “Hello Again,” he’s dealing with a daring musical by Michael John LaChiusa, whom some call the present and future of the American musical theatre.
Based on “La Ronde,” Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 play, “Hello Again” comprises 10 vignettes that link 10 sexual encounters throughout the 20th century. One character from each scene moves onto the next and a different partner.
“The Sound of Music” it ain’t.
“I’m certain that some people will be offended, but it’s really beautiful music,” says Jackson, who has directed many musicals in Birmingham and at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. “There are a lot of touching moments in the show, and a lot of it is just hysterically funny. The beauty of the score and the comedy of it is going to buy us a lot of tolerance from the audience.”
Even the composer says his shows may be a tough sell in Birmingham.
“It’s not a dirty play by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a risky piece to do for a theater,” LaChiusa says during a break rehearsing “Little Fish,” his new show in New York.
“But if the piece is done well, with good performances, and a smart directorial concept, audiences will appreciate it.”
Choreographer Graciella Danielle brought the concept of “Hello Again” to LaChiusa.
“It was immediately attractive to me,” he says of “La Ronde.” “I remember reading it when I was in high school, so it was great when it came to me.”
LaChiusa set “Hello Again” throughout the 20th century, with vignettes taking place at locales as diverse as aboard the Titanic and in a theater showing a Fred Astaire movie, allowing for changing music styles.
“A good musical has a lot of variety to it and a lot of different fun things in it,” he says. It makes for some challenging material, particularly for those performing it.
“It’s harder than Sondheim,” says Jan D. Hunter, who plays a prostitute in BFT’s production. “It doesn’t make any sense sometimes. It’s really cool, though.”
Jackson found the score “brilliant” when he first heard it on CD.
“When Festival offered me to opportunity to direct something there, this was my choice,” he says. “They asked me to look at another show to see if I would change my mind. I did, but I didn’t change my mind.”
Jackson says audiences for the most part will find “Hello Again” entertaining.
“What you get out of the show is that all these people are really looking for an emotional connection, and for the most part not finding it,” he says.
LaChiusa agrees.
“The piece is about our wish for an ideal lover,” the composer says. “How we go about finding that is always difficult, sometimes very pleasurable, but we shouldn’t ever give up that search.”
Four photo captions:
Director Derek Jackson says casting “Hello Again” was a difficult process. Here, Jan Dickson Hunter and Lonnie Parsons, foreground, are backed up by, from left, Chris Hardin, Dwayne Johnson, Jordan Bragg, Brent Baker, Kimberly Kirklin, Kim Hutchens, Neal Hunter Hyde and Brooke Hoffine.
When “Hello Again” premiered at Lincoln Center in New York in 1994, Michael John LaChiusa was hailed as the heir apparent to Stephen Sondheim. Now 40, he earned Tony nominations in 1999 for both “The Wild Party” and “Marie Christine.”
Choreographer Carl Dean, right, and director Derek Jackson, left, work with Brooke Hoffine and Lonnie Parsons during a rehearsal of “Hello Again.” The choreography is integral to the Michael John LaChiusa musical.
Jan D. Hunter is the prostitute and Brent Baker the soldier in the opening vignette of “Hello Again.”