An Interview with 'Times' Musical Supervisor Dansicker Pt. 2

            You might think that after the whirlwind of opening a new show on Broadway, Michael Dansicker might slow down, just a bit.  On the other hand, spending nearly two years at the center of the whirlwind that became The Times They Are A-Changin', slowing down could be a problem.  Now that the show has officially started tallying performances on Broadway there are still many things to take care of.  Sick cast members, TV and radio spots to supervise, not to mention the cast recording, all need looking after. 

            Of course, with dozens of shows to his credit, these are relatively small bumps on a very busy road.  In addition to finishing up with Times, he is working on a huge show with director-choreographer Kenny Ortega (Disney's High School Musical).  "I created it, and Kenny will direct it, along with 20 choreographers.  It's called America Dance, and it is the history of American dance from the 40's to the present."  Before it opens in Australia, "it is going to be cast via a reality show.  It'll have 60 dancers.  I'm creating and scoring it, so I'm on a tight contract with that," he explains.  After Australia, the show will tour Europe, and then the US for about 50 weeks before it sits down in Las Vegas.

            As if that extravaganza weren't enough, the hard working guy also has a new musical that he has written getting ready to workshop.  "I've written a very small musical about Bobby Driscoll, who was a Disney kid star.  He was in Song of the South, and played Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island.  He also won an Oscar for a movie called The Window – Best Juvenile Actor.  Anyway, I'm a consultant for Disney Entertainment, and I was in L.A. reading a dossier on him, and his story freaked me out!  Driscoll was the first contract player at Disney.  Well, he developed very bad acne and Disney dropped his contract!  Then they had to finish the contract, so they made him the voice of Peter Pan."  After years of not being hired by anyone, Driscoll turned to drugs.  "He became a major drug addict. Frances Farmer, the actress – they worked together on a picture called The Party Crashers – convinced him he should move to New York, because that's where all of the serious actors were, and he did.  But he ended up a derelict and a heroin addict, and he literally died in the street.  I did it for the Disney people, but they were very upset.  Every time he shoots up, he says, 'Tinkerbell, take me to Neverland.'  It is a very moving, dramatic piece.  Mark Price is going to play Bobby.  And several directors are talking to me about it.  We are just going to sit on stools and read it.  I think it should be heard."

Working for Disney has presented Mr. Dansicker with a variety of experiences.  He scored the original music for the Disney Cruises, which got him a trip to Italy.  "They sent me to Venice, where the ship was being built, to compose.  And there it was, a skeleton of a ship.  I sat there and looked at.  I didn't stay long.  They sent me to score music for a half-built ship.  Can you believe it?"  He also recalls working on an ill-fated revival of Carnival for Disney, with the likes of Peter Gallagher, Tony-winners Michele Pawk and  B.D. Wong, and then newcomer Sarah Uriarte Berry.  "Everyone but the director hated it.  Michael Eisner came in, didn't get it, and put the kibosh on it right there!" he laughs.  He worked a little bit on the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast, and has some friends in Tarzan, but other than that he has steered clear of Disney on Broadway.

A native of Baltimore, Dansicker says it all goes back to his childhood and education there.  He went to City High School, and studied part time at Peabody in the 12^th grade.  There he met Sarah Schlesinger, who is now the head of the writing program at NYU.  "We started a group in Baltimore called The Pickwick Players, in late 1964, and we continued until I left for New York about ten years later.  It became an Equity company.  The initial group was Howard Ashman (Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, Smile), Danny Lippman, who went on to write and produce Queer as Folk, Damon Evans, who played Lionel on The Jeffersons, and Carolyn Mignini, the first Miss Teenage America, who starred in Tintypes on Broadway.  So it all goes back to Baltimore for me."  He laughs, "What is so funny is that I decided to make New York my base when I couldn't get hired anywhere in Baltimore.  So I moved to New York, and my first professional job ended up being at the Cockeysville (Maryland) Dinner Theatre!"

Dansicker has quite a history with the show Man of La Mancha, having worked on at least three professional productions, including the 90's revival of the show with Raul Julia and Sheena Easton.  After a nearly disastrous revival of Man of La Mancha in Scranton – "The books never arrived for rehearsal, so I conducted an orchestra who had never played the show, with a leading man who hadn't played the role in almost twenty years, and Joan Diener, the original Aldonza.  The songs would stop, and they'd keep singing.  It was a mess!" – Dansicker worked on a revival of the show for TUTS, starring John Cullum and Ann Crumb ("what a voice!"). "I got them the original director, the original sets and even a few of the original muleteers!"  He also supervised that show which eventually  played at Baltimore's Lyric Opera House, and he conducted it there.  Though he comes back to see his mother, he hasn't had the chance to see any local theatre, but he hopes to.  In fact, he thinks Baltimore would be ideal for one of his original musicals, "a very dark piece, on the verge of camp."  Baltimore, the home of Hairspray knows a thing or two about camp.  That show has already had a nearly two decade life.

            In 1989, his original musical, 20 Fingers, Twenty Toes, the story of the Hilton Sisters (Daisy and Violet, and some 7 years BEFORE Side Show) debuted at the WPA.  "It's a nasty little show.  But it's fun, a lot of fun.  It's a real audience show.  When it opened at the WPA, The [New York] Post gave it a rave, Howard Kissel of The [New York Daily] News was on the fence.  Mel Gussow was the reviewer from The New York Times, and he didn't publish and didn't publish.  And up to then, everyone was taking me to lunch, to dinner.  Then his review came out – he was really put off by it, and then, people wouldn't even take my phone calls!"

            In 2004, the show was presented as part of York Theatre's Musicals in Mufti – the first off-Broadway show to be presented in that series.  After that, John Yap of JAY Records wanted to record it, and several theatres have expressed interest –  Eric Schaeffer at Signature, the people at Dodger Spaces, are but a few, but Dansicker is aware of the "economics and risks, which for a show like this really makes absolutely no sense.  That's why I know a small regional production would be a sensation."  He feels the same way about his show Swing Shift, which he describes as a boogie woogie opera, which was initially produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1982 and directed by Martin Charnin.  "While there have been dozens of requests for productions, I keep that one under lock and key as well."

Now, Dansicker is fielding a lot of calls for his services – musicals need his help, filmmakers want his expertise, and both Fox TV and Cirque de Soleil are both after him to do some scoring.  But first things first, he has a few loose ends to tie up before he lets Times take off on its own. Dansicker is currently getting a TV commercial up and running, is supervising the cast recording, and taking care of replacements.  An ailing Michael Arden, in fact, has caused some things to shift.  "Michael is still a little sick, so we are postponing the recording for a few weeks. They [the cast] are all exhausted. We switch to a Tuesday- Sunday schedule next week. So they will have almost 3 days off to recover," explains Mr. Dansicker.  In fact, Arden was ill enough to miss the final two preview performances last week, but rallied to make his Broadway opening – the first where he is originating a lead role.  His cover, Jason Wooten, went on, and as musical supervisor, Dansicker continues to work with him.  A full schedule is what this hard-working, gifted artist seems to thrive on.  For Michael Dansicker, the times are always a-changin'.

 

(PHOTOS by Richard Termine.  MAIN PAGE: Michael Arden; TOP: Jason McDole and Charlie Neshyba-Hodges; BOTTOM: Michael Arden and Thom Sesma, all in Twyla Tharp's The Times They Are A-Changin' at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.)