One could say it began with a magic lamp and perhaps a flying carpet or two.
James Gruessing and Randy Brenner perform in the musical spectacular “Aladdin” at the Hyperion Theater in Disneyland. In real life (or is it the other way around?), Gruessing is the executive director of the Norris Theatre in Rolling Hills Estates. He’s producing “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” opening for two weekends starting tomorrow, and you get three wishes, or rather guesses, as to who’s in the director’s chair. Give up?
“I’ve been directing for a long, long time,” Brenner says, “and I kept teasing him (Gruessing) about [directing a show] because he would keep telling me his season: We’re gonna pick this, and then we’re gonna do that; and I was like, And am I directing? Finally one day, many months ago, he said, We’re going to be doing ‘White Christmas,’ and I said, ‘And are you gonna ask me to direct it?’ And he said, ‘Well, if you would have given me a chance I was exactly going to ask you that right now,’ and I said, ‘Okay.’”
Clearly destined for it
“White Christmas” originated as a movie, released in 1954 and starring Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, and Bing Crosby. The musical hit the stage in 2004, and opened on Broadway in 2008. It was nominated for two Tony Awards.
“My association with the stage version,” Brenner says, “is basically that in 1979 I was doing a pre-Broadway show in New York called “Joley,” based on the life of Al Jolson. In the chorus of that show was a gentleman named Randy Skinner. He and I became friends, mainly because we both had the same first name.”
This writer understands; his six best friends are also named “Bondo.”
“I’m a huge Danny Kaye fan,” Brenner continues. “Huge. And he (Skinner) was a huge Fred Astaire fan, which I am also – and he was also a Danny Kaye fan.
“We were talking and I said to him, This is sort of geeky of me, but when I was about 15-years-old – because in those days there was no video – I sat with a Bell and Howell reel-to-reel tape recorder and recorded [“White Christmas”] off the television, and then spent months transcribing that into script form because I thought one day it would make a great stage musical.
“And many years later,” he adds, “Randy Skinner, who was the choreographer of the Broadway production, called me way before there was an announcement and said, I have some good and bad news. I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘The good news is someone is actually doing a stage version of White Christmas and I’m the choreographer.’ I said, ‘Great.’ And he said, ‘The bad news is, unfortunately you have nothing to do with it.’”
Switching hats
Randy Brenner grew up in Philadelphia and attended Temple University. He says that although he took directing classes in college, he started out as an actor. Somewhere along the line – and it’s now been at least 15 years – the chance to try his hand at directing simply fell into his lap.
“I was in a class out here where someone said, ‘Would you like to direct a one-person show,’ and I said okay. It actually did very well, which led me to doing another one that did very, very well.”
The first show Brenner directed had one person, the second had two people, and it’s tempting to ask him if the third had three.
“I started to notice,” he says, “that unlike as an actor [where] you seek out the work, the work was seeking me out. That’s changed over the years, but I just thought, Well, this is something I should continue doing. So I continue acting and directing but at times it becomes too difficult to do both. In the last two years I’ve been choosing to go more to directing, and when I get that acting bug back I’ll do acting, which is how I ended up in ‘Aladdin.’”
Brenner had been away from the footlights while working as a co-producer and director with Stephen Schwartz on a new musical called “Snapshots.” Stepping back into acting, he ended up in ‘Aladdin’ with James Gruessing, and I think this is where we came in.
And on to Vermont
“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” is up for just two weekends and then it’s history. That brings out the reflective in Randy Brenner:
“Pretty much just as the show is closing is when everybody is really at their peak, where the show could just keep running and really bring out its best, but it’s the nature of all Los Angeles theater. It’s always been like that.”
And as for “White Christmas” at the Norris…
“This version is not the movie on stage, it’s different,” Brenner says. “Obviously there are no more Bing Crosbys and Danny Kayes, so you can’t expect to find duplicates of that and put them on stage. So the characters are slightly rewritten. [The creators, David Ives and Paul Blake] had the ability to go into the Irving Berlin songbook and use many more songs of his in this version – because the movie, I think, only had nine songs, and we have 17. So there’s a lot more Irving Berlin music in this.”
Those songs include “Blue Skies,” “I Love A Piano,” “Counting My Blessings,” “Sisters,” The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing,” “Snow,” and, oh yeah, “White Christmas.”
For a relatively new work, “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” has more of an old-fashioned feel to it, perhaps like “The Drowsy Chaperone.” Other than that it’s structured like the majority of other musicals.
So, what’s it all about, Alfie?
“It starts out during the war (World War II), and you meet these two characters who are performing, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis.” We’re also introduced to the beloved General Waverly.
“Then you skip ahead to 1954,” Brenner continues, “in which Phil Davis and Bob Wallace are now a song-and-dance team, big stars, and they meet a singing girl team, Betty and Judy, and Phil likes one of them.”
Bob and Phil are booked in Miami, “but the girls are going to Vermont to perform in this inn in the snow, and so [Phil] switches tickets and they all end up going to Vermont. When they get to the inn it’s 70 degrees and there is no snow.” And the innkeeper? Hey, it’s their old general!
Unfortunately, he seems to be waging a losing battle.
“He’s not the general he was,” Brenner explains, “and feels kind of lonely, and can’t get back into the service and wants to, and the inn is not going well. So [the foursome] decides to do a show, in the barn at the inn, and to get…” Brenner pauses, catching himself in the nick of time.
“I won’t tell you the rest of it because it’ll ruin the surprise – but to get things going to help him out is basically what happens. And the whole thing about there being no snow, and there’s kind of a fun pay-off at the end.”
Challenges? You bet!
“The different regional theaters and civic light operas that you work in all pose their own challenges,” Brenner admits. First of all, the size of the cast usually has to be pared down, and then there’s the balancing act of equity, or union actors, and non-equity actors. Furthermore, there’s the budget, and it’s not going to be matching what the show was given when it was on Broadway.
“You always have to conform to what that is,” Brenner says, “so you can never do ‘the Broadway version;’ you’re doing your version of the Broadway version because you’re getting someone else’s sets, costumes…”
Not long ago, Brenner directed “The Fix” for International City Theatre in Long Beach.
“I had to take a 22-character musical that I did a reading of with 17 characters, and pared those 17 down to nine. So that’s another challenge for a director: You have to become almost like a dramaturge because you have to start looking at the material as if you’re doing it new for these boundaries that you have to work in, in all these different theaters.”
But Brenner doesn’t want us to think he’s complaining.
“It’s rewarding, though. Everybody just comes to it with such talent and energy and vigor, and I always think there’s something really decent, really good about that, because everyone’s working at their best to meet the challenges at hand.”
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas opens tomorrow (Friday) at the Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Drive, Rolling Hills Estates. It plays this weekend and next: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets, $42 for adults and $25 for children. The cast includes Brent Schindele as Bob Wallace, David Lamoureux as Phil Davis, Gail Ellen Bennett as Betty Haynes, Tro Shaw as Judy Haynes, Polly Searle as Martha Watson, Michael Prohaska as General Waverly, and Juliette Boland as Susan Waverly. Fifteen additional actors have important supporting roles. The choreography is by Kami Seymour, with musical direction by Daniel Thomas. (310) 544-043 or go to norriscenter.com. ER
