Interview: MSMT Panel Takes a Look at History: Argentina's and Its Own

History- actual 20th century events and the theatre's own story and legacy - became the joint focus of Maine State Music Theatre's second Peek Behind the Curtain talkback, held on July 7 at the Curtis Memorial Library. The panel examined the characters and forces that formed the basis for MSMT"s thrilling production of Evita, now playing at the Pickard until July 16, and also took several excursions into MSMT's history, that forms the basis of a new retrospective exhibition, MSMT Past, Present, and Future, which serendipitously celebrated a gala opening that same date.

Moderated by Broadway World's Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, the panel featured the three stars of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical, Kate Fahrner, Matt Farcher, and Nat Chandler, as well as the Artistic Directors of two of the areas leading theatres, MSMT's own Curt Dale Clark and the Good Theater's Brian P. Allen.

"It has been twenty-one years since MSMT last mounted Evita," Clark notes, as he recounts how the company came to program the iconic show as part of their 2016 season. "We had tried to produce it in the first few years that Stephanie [Dupal] and I took the helm, but the rights were not available. Then, all of a sudden we got a call from Rodgers and Hammerstein (entertainment rights), and they told us there was a very narrow window this summer in which we might have the show. When we heard that, we immediately rearranged things to make this possible."

The Marc Robin-directed and choreographed epic retelling of the life of Argentine First Lady Eva Peron boasts the largest cast ever in MSMT's history. "I don't know what I was thinking when I decided on forty-six persons," Clark laughs genially. "There are literally people everywhere backstage, but on stage it works!"

The sheer size and spectacular quality of this new production prompt Brian P. Allen to recall his own involvement with the 1985 Evita at MSMT, then called the Brunswick Music Theatre. Allen was at that time General Manager/Managing Director and assistant to founder/Artistic/Executive Director Victoria Crandall. Colorful raconteur that he is, he loves to regale audiences with stories of the inimitable Miss Crandall, "his mentor and Auntie Mame all rolled into one," as her calls her in the exhibition catalog. To the delight of the audience and the current Evita stars, Allen recounts an hilarious story about how leading lady Valerie Perri became ill and unable to go on one Thursday evening of the 1985 run.

"On second Thursday of show - I call it Black Thursday - I got a call from Valerie asking me to take her to the hospital. She was unwell, but didn't want me to tell anyone because she said she'd be fine by afternoon. By lunch time, I knew she wasn't going to be fine, so I got on phone and called every woman in New York who had played Eva Peron except Patti LuPone, and not one was available. So at 3:30 p.m.we plucked a girl from ensemble, Susan Sarber, and decided to put her on. About 4:00 p.m. I found her in the music room, singing through the score while crew fitted her with costumes, wigs, shoes. I was momentarily encouraged. I thought 'this is going to work!. But to be safe, I called the props department and asked them to put props with lyrics on back of them in all her scenes. Then the Music Director told me that he needed someone who could read music to be in pit and sing up to her because she tended to skip. And since there were a couple scenes where props couldn't find a place to put lyrics, I was asked to be in the pit and hold cue cards So I found myself sitting between the two pianists with my cue cards and score. I knew the blocking fairly well, but I felt like one of those guys who directs planes. (Allen illustrates by waving his arms.) They dragged her around the stage, and I sang up to her, and somehow we got through! We made front page of the Portland Press Herald. Fortunately, Valerie got out of hospital and did two shows the day after."

"So you really played Evita, then, Brian?" Clark twits his colleague, and Allen concurs.

No doubt, part of the problem in finding a replacement on that day twenty-one years ago has to do with the extreme complexity and challenging nature of the role of Eva Peron. We put the question to actress Kate Fahrner who, along with Matt Farcher as Che and Nat Chandler as Juan Peron, are all making their role debuts in MSMT current production. Fahrner believes that no one really knows exactly who the historical Eva Peron was. "Everyone has an opinion of her, and these tend to be drastic. They love her or hate her. Before I undertook the part, I thought she was a wonderful woman who did so many amazing things to help the poor. I guess that is a little bit of me who likes to see the good in everybody. Marc [Robin] told me in the middle of one rehearsal, 'Kate, you are a very empathetic person. I need that to go away.' And it's true, because in the Andrew Lloyd-Webber retelling, Eva has the amazing strength and power to fight her way to the top. But I think she also has a heart. She loves her descamisados and wants to give them everything she didn't have in her own childhood. She acquired fame and wealth, but I don't think she wanted to flaunt these; I think she used them to say 'you, too, can fight for what you want, and you can do it.'

Matt Farcher continues the conversation about the elusiveness of Evita's characters, especially his own, that of the revolutionary Che. "For me he is Everyman. It took me a long time to wrap my head around this part because he goes in and out of all these other individual characters - the server, the doorman, the activist. They all represent some contrast to Eva. I see him as a catalyst for Eva Peron. He has some wonderfully fulfilling moments with every aspect of comedy, goofiness and then moments of hard truth. There are snippets of references to the actual Che, and I think this works because he is a good representative of the people's cause, but Marc gave me the freedom to be the class clown, something I don't think the historical Che Guevara would have been. He was a far more serious guy. But in the musical Che serves to put a face on the underlying revolution.

Nat Chandler, the only actor of the trio who was acquainted with the original production, adds that the role was still a stimulating new experience for him. He recounts how his agent had sent him to audition for MSMT's Mamma Mia, but Clark [who did the casting] told the actor that he could see him as Peron. Chandler is grateful for the challenge. "Peron was not unlike Eva in his meager background. He, too, was born poor, was sent to a military school where he excelled in academics, then went to Switzerland where he acquired a worldly polish. He became a widower very early, and when he meets Eva, he falls in love. We wanted to play that sincerely. He saw Eva as someone who could galvanize the emotional support of the Argentine people for him. Both he and Eva were opportunists, and they worked their way up the ladder of success. But Peron begins to see her thirst for power as a downside to the relationship, and by the end of the show, I have this very icy scene in which I am just sick of it. As an actor, it's very juicy to play this cold, calculating ruthlessness."

Not only are the roles multifaceted dramatically, but they all make huge vocal demands as well. Clark, who has played in the past, the part of the tango singer Magaldi (in MSMT's current production portrayed by Ben Michael) mentions the thrill of singing the show stopping "On This Night of a Thousand Stars" - "the first real applause break in the show and such a gorgeous melody!" - while Fahrner, Farcher, and Chandler all expound on their singing and how they connect it to the drama. Fahrner says she sees her voice not as a separate entity, but rather as a vessel for character. "When I started singing, I didn't belt. I pretty much sang pretty coloratura soprano. Slowly, I figured out this part of my voice, and as I did, I discovered the passion and the acting behind a voice, because all of a sudden, my sound was coming from somewhere else inside me. Rather than thinking 'I am going to place my voice here so it sounds pretty,' I thought, "I am angry or I am passionate," and I began to color my singing that way."

Chandler, an accomplished singer in opera, operetta, and the big legitimate Broadway roles, has built a complementary reputation as a concert singer and recording artist with several albums to his credit. "I always had a musical slant to my career. My dad [ Tom Chandler] was a beautiful singer, and I sang in church choirs and in the Columbus Boys Choir growing up." Educated at Ohio Conservatory, Chandler says that as an actor he is always aware of his vocal technique and has been very careful over the decades of his career to husband his vocal gifts judiciously. "I am a lyric baritone or so-called bari-tenor. My voice fits well with Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe and composers like that and less well with some of the rock musicals. I do love to teach and break down what I do naturally and to think about technique. But I, too, am most interested in acting values. While I love great singing and singers, I do not like artists who just stand and sing. The voice has to be grounded in emotion in the gut, where the sound comes from."

Chandler, though, does grant that he has played his share of roles where the acting components are weak and the part rests entirely on the vocal merits. He does a humorous imitation of himself as The King and I's Lun Tha, adding, "But then you get to sing "We Kiss in a Shadow." Or there is Freddie Eynsford-Hill's "On the Street Where You Live" and then for all the thanklessness of the role, the singer boy in me stands up and gives it my all, and the music becomes its own reward."

The conversation about intangible high points and challenges in Evita segues to talk about some literal physical challenges. A question from the floor asks the panel about the daring scenic moment when Eva and Juan stand high above the stage on the balcony of the Casa Rosada and the unit from which they address the crowd swings 3600 around and slides forward toward the crowd - blocking that produces audience gasps and a maneuver that instilled a little trepidation in Fahrner and Chandler at the first and only tech rehearsal where they first saw the scenery. Fahrner says, "It was my one and only diva moment. I saw this platform without any railing at the back, and I said, 'I'm not riding on that thing until someone else tries it out.' So Curt [Dale Clark] and Marc [Robin] graciously rode it first. Now I am fine with it."

Chandler shares the memory, saying "I have a slight fear of heights, but after Curt and Marc took a turn on it and everything was secure, I began to find it exciting - rather like a fair ride," he smiles.

Seconding Chandler's comment that "actors are often asked to do seemingly dangerous things," Clark recounts an anecdote about one of his own terrifying acting experiences. "Marc [Robin] was directing this industrial show to celebrate the opening of the Denver Library. I played the Phantom of the Opera, and I was to make my entrance lowered from the huge dome, spinning slowly over the guests below, all in tuxedos sipping cocktails. In rehearsal I was wearing a single pick point harness attached to this crank and as they lowered me out of the dome, I suddenly went into this flop sweat. All I could see was the marble floor below, and I was scared to death. And then from the floor I heard Marc say in an annoyed tone, 'You said you could do this!' So, I told the crew to take me back up and we'd try it again!" The second time the Phantom flew in successfully.

From flying Phantom to Artistic Director, leading MSMT through what is rapidly becoming a record-setting season, Clark muses on my query about how he and Dupal have managed to link tangible growth to commensurate intangible artistic progress. "I think artistic growth is made easier by the fact that people are coming to our theatre. When Stephanie [Dupal] and I started, we had to find a way to insure the theatre's financial health, but we have seen growth in that regard every year, so now we feel we can breathe a little. With all the practical things falling into line, we can concentrate even more on the artistic health of the company."

That artistic health and the fascinating fifty-eight year thread of MSMT's history from 1959 when Victoria Crandall founded the Brunswick Summer Playhouse to the exciting, daring 2016 season, and to Clark and Dupal's dreams and vision for MSMT's future is now the subject of the retrospective exhibition of over 125 artifacts, documents, costumes, set designs, props, and video footage which was unveiled in a ribbon cutting ceremony following the panel wrap up. In keeping with these historic reminiscences and by way of closing the panel discussion, Brian P. Allen was asked to share his favorite Victoria Crandall story and his own account of his several-decade association with and affection for MSMT.

Allen narrated an amusing story about accompanying Crandall to New York on one trip where she astonished the producer of Show Boat by meeting Bob Fosse in a hallway, having not seen the great choreographer in years since they had sung together at the Royale Theatre in 1950. The two began chatting away as if they had been seeing each other every day. "She knew everyone, and over the years I worked for her, I was introduced to so many legendary artists - Charles Strouse, Joan Roberts, Bob Fosse. It was an extraordinary way to learn! I gained so much from her, and I've carried it with me all my career. It was at MSMT that I figured out I wasn't just the business guy, but that I wanted to direct, which is why I eventually left the company to found my own. I am grateful to Vicky; I am grateful to MSMT, grateful for all Curt and Stephanie have and are doing for the company's future. I have had season tickets at MSMT since 1977 and in almost forty years I have missed only four shows. When I graduated from college, I sent out only one resume to Vicky Crandall, and she hired me. And as they say, the rest is history! MSMT is certainly a huge and cherished part of my history!"

Photograph Courtesy of MSMT, Olivia Wenner, photographer

The next Peek behind the Curtain talkback focusing on Fiddler on the Roof will be held at July 27, 2016 at the Curtis Memorial Library, 23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, ME at noon. The series is free and open to the public.

MSMT's exhibition, MSMT Past, Present, and Future Building a Better Future for the Arts in Midcoast Maine will be on display in the Collaboratory of the Curtis Memorial Library until August 31, 2016.