Writing helps actor
understand creative process, acting challenges
By Bruce R. Miller
Sioux City Journal
February 20, 2009
Theater
audiences love teen stories -- which could explain why "Bye, Bye
Birdie" has been revived and why its star, Jonathan Van Dyke, has
written his own musical about high school.
"No matter what the decade, the feelings are the same," says Van Dyke.
"There's the same excitement, the same angst, the same challenges. We
just might go at them differently."
In "Birdie," a look at an Elvis-like teen idol and the girls who love
him, "the telephone is very significant," Van Dyke says. "You see the
long cords and the girls talking. If you tried to update that, the show
would lose some of its charm."
In "Spring Awakening," a recent Tony winner, kids jump on chairs and
sing about "the bitch of living."
"You can go through almost each generation and see the angst and the
trouble from a different perspective," Van Dyke says. Which could
explain why he wrote "Totally Electric," a musical about growing up in
the '80s and how a group of show choir kids come together.
The show grew out of Van Dyke's own class reunion experience.
"I had the most wonderful time," he says. "I didn't realize how much
from my high school days I had been holding on to. It was very
therapeutic. I saw classmates as adults and everything had turned out
OK."
Immediately, the actor was inspired to start writing. He kept ideas on
scraps of paper and, over the course of several years, emerged with the
show. When he finally saw it staged, "it was the proudest moment of my
life. I had had these characters floating around in my brain for so
long that to finally see them come alive on stage was very rewarding."
To date, the show has been produced 10 times. Each time, "I kept a
close leash on it...I'm not ready to hand it over to anyone else."
Audiences, Van Dyke says, have loved reliving the era -- seeing the
clothes, hearing the music and remembering the drama.
Friends didn't recognize themselves, even though he drew on experiences
from their Clearwater, Fla., days.
Now nurturing a spoof of '60s "B" films (called "The Class of R.I.P."),
Van Dyke sees writing as another creative outlet. "I don't know if one
is more fulfulling, but it does help my acting. When you write, you act
out the lines in your head whether you want to or not. And it helps
give me more insight into character and performance."
In "Birdie," which tours through May, Van Dyke plays the role created
by another Van Dyke -- Dick. "We're related somehow," he says with a
laugh. "But we don't have Christmas together or anything like that. We
can trace our relatives back to Holland."
And Van Dyke? He boasts relatives in Siouxland, who he hopes will see
him when the show stops at the Orpheum Theatre Tuesday.
The show has plenty of charm and innocence, he says, and it recalls a
simpler time. "Maybe we could learn some lessons from it."
Oddly enough, Van Dyke hadn't appeared in the show before now.
A Broadway revival has been talked about; a new film version is in the
works.
"It's like a Valentine to the '50s," Van Dyke says. "Even though the
references are dated, they're very real...and it's good to look at the
innocent side of teenage life."
What: "Bye, Bye Birdie"
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Orpheum Theatre
Tickets: At all Ticketmaster locations
Details: The musical lightly spoofs the days of Elvis with such songs
as "Put on a Happy Face" and "Kids." It recalls a kinder, gentler time
when teen idols didn't make headlines with their negative antics, but
their positive ones.
