The world of rock ‘n’ roll was, pardon the expression, all shook up when in 1958 Elvis Presley put his hip-swiveling act on hold to enlist in the Army. But music’s loss was the musical theater’s gain, as Lee Adams, Charles Strouse and Michael Stewart used that news as their inspiration for their show biz-meets-Middle America satire, Bye Bye Birdie.
Classically trained Strouse is credited with being the first composer to bring the sound of rock to Broadway, although most of the show’s score is conventional theater music. These days, the musical is chiefly known for being the perennially most produced show in high schools. But if you are curious how Bye Bye Birdie holds up in the hands of professionals, take a look at what The Wick Theatre and veteran director Norb Joerder make of the slight, but appealing show, the Tony Award-winning best musical of 1961.
The Elvis character, Conrad Birdie, was the initial hook, but the show’s main character is actually Conrad’s manager and chief songwriter, Albert Peterson. His long-suffering secretary/fiancée Rose Alvarez comes up with the publicity stunt of having Conrad kiss a randomly chosen teen on national television as a goodbye gesture to all of his fans. So off we go to Sweet Apple, Ohio, where the Birdie invasion predictably disrupts the once-peaceful town.
Adams and Strouse have fun celebrating and making fun of rock music in Conrad’s two solos, “Honestly Sincere” and “One Last Kiss.” More enduring are such songs as “A Lot of Livin’ To Do” and that salute to the generation gap, “Kids.” The show’s best known number, “Put On a Happy Face,” is curiously superfluous to the plot, as Albert cheers up two anonymous teens who we never see again.
Jeremy Benton, last featured at The Wick in Anything Goes, is an apt nebbish as Albert, making the most of a couple of standout dance opportunities. Leah Sessa comes on strong as Rosie, making the show’s most difficult sequence, the comic “Shriners’ Ballet,” look easy and scoring with her 11th-hour solo of ethnic identity, “Spanish Rose.”
The production’s not-so-secret weapon is Lourelene Snedeker as Albert’s mink-clad, guilt-imparting mother, Mae. She steals every scene she is in with a textbook demonstration of comic delivery. Alexandra Van Hasselt, also an alum of The Wick’s Anything Goes, is an asset as the designated kissee, Kim McAfee, who joins her family in a reverent paean to Ed Sullivan, “Hymn for a Sunday Evening.”
Only the one-named Cole disappoints as Conrad Birdie, a few quarts low on the hip-swiveling shtick and merely life-sized in a role written to be broader and larger.
Isabel Rubio has fun evoking the late 1950s with her costumes, Clifford Spurlock’s lighting adds to the production’s sparkle and the projections by Kacey Koploff handle most of the scenic chores.
With jokes about band leader Sammy Kaye and JFK clan member Peter Lawford dating the show, its creators probably never expected Bye Bye Birdie to have the longevity it has enjoyed. As affectionately revived at The Wick, you will be transported back more than 60 years, to a time and a musical like they don’t write anymore.
BYE BYE BIRDIE, The Wick Theatre, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, Dec. 24. $79-$129. 561-995-2333.