Van
Dyke's Totally Electric
plays in Bradenton
By John Fleming, Performing Arts Critic
St. Petersburg Times
July 2, 2008
As a
student at Palm Harbor's East Lake High School in the 1980s, Jonathan
Van Dyke was in the show choir. "We were the geeks who wore sparkly
vests and cummberbunds and performed at the nursing home," said Van
Dyke. He put the experience to use in writing a musical, Totally
Electric.
Van Dyke staged the show at a Greenwich Village theater last year, and
it struck a chord--which makes sense, given the current nostalgia for
all things '80s.
"Much to my surprise we were sold out and got extended," he said.
"Through word of mouth, and theaters brave enough to do an unheard-of
musical, I have directed productions in the past year in Orlando,
Tampa, Riverview, and New Orleans. Leto High School (in Tampa) just did
it for their first musical ever."
Van Dyke, 36, moved to New York after high school to pursue a theater
career. He has returned to the Tampa Bay area as an actor, appearing in
cabaret shows at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and in Thrill
Me,
a musical on the Leopold-Loeb
murder case, for Gypsy Productions.
Totally Electric
is set in a high school and tells the story of
the Syncopated Sensations. The score includes such '80s hits as Eye
of the Tiger by Survivor,
Tiffany's version of I Think
We're
Alone Now, Can't
Fight This Feeling by REO
Speedwagon and
the Flashdance
theme.
"It might look pretty frothy, but it really is very layered and has a
lot of heart," Van Dyke said. The cast of 12 includes another East Lake
grad, Keri Sullivan.
