Fifty songs. Thirty vocal tracks. Four-part harmonies. Two in charge of music and one fabulous band.
If you haven’t gone to see Suds, The Rocking ‘60s Musical Soap Opera, this weekend is your last chance.
It goes without saying that music is important to this production—it is a musical, after all. However, bringing all the pieces together—actors, voices, musicians, vocal tracks, accompaniment, harmonies—has been a challenge for first-time musical director Sandy Bouleau and director Blaine Ronning.
Bouleau has played piano for The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. Ronning played Brad, one of the male leads in Rocky, and has performed in numerous musicals in the Alberni Valley. They both perform in local bands.
Suds, however, took them out of their respective comfort zones.
The musical features 50 songs — 30 full numbers and medleys comprising the rest. The show features veteran singer/ rookie actor Janet Deakin, veteran actor/ sort of rookie singer Yvette Deveau, newcomer Lisa Fryer, ‘baddest’ singer Chris Arthurs and the inimitable Brent Ronning, Blaine’s brother.
Blaine Ronning signed on to direct Suds after Derek Burke put the musical forward as a possibility for Portal Players Dramatic Society this year. He called Bouleau and asked if she would handle the music.
“Then we got the scores and realized ‘holy crap, this is going to be a lot of work’,” Bouleau said.
She recorded all 28 vocal lines for the actors so they would have music with which to practice. Then they spent 12 hours a week since January on vocal rehearsals. “We were really fortunate with our cast because we had strong singers, and they can all harmonize,” Bouleau said.
“It’s really been a collaboration all the way through. I don’t know how to train vocalists; I was rehearsal pianist and Blaine was working on the harmonies,” she said.
“My heart has always had a soft spot for the music of the early ‘60s,” Ronning writes in his director’s notes. “During the first Suds rehearsal when our girls sang the Bacharach/ David medley, I knew that we had chosen a gem of a musical to perform at the Capitol Theatre.”
The band fell together as well, Bouleau said. The Spin Cycles are Scott Jarvis on bass, Dennis Olsen on guitar, Kayla Burton on saxophone, James Van Metre on drums and Bouleau on keyboard.
Bouleau plays with Olsen and Deakin in the band Storm Warning. She wanted Olsen for his strong guitar playing. Bouleau had worked with Burton on Jesus Christ Superstar. Olsen brought in the bass player. Van Metre is a heavy metal drummer and also Deveau’s son.
The band has had to be quick with the harmonies, changing keys and different tempos from piece to piece.
While bringing Suds to the stage has been a huge effort, “it’s been really rewarding,” Bouleau said. “This has been a great group of people to work with.”
Suds was also a bit of a Ronning affair. “My house was consumed by it,” Blaine Ronning said.
Not only did his brother sing, but Blaine’s wife Tina (and his sister-in-law Marina Connah too) was part of the costuming trio, and the sewing “sweatshop” was at their house.
“One week I saw Tina for two hours,” he said. He and his brother-in-law, Richard Connah, collaborated on the set, Blaine and Tina’s daughter also helped where needed, and Blaine’s niece did the choreography.
“It’s been a fun family outing,” Blaine said.
Suds plays the Capitol Theatre this Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17. Box office opens at 5:30 p.m., curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. For more information, go online to www.atthecapitol.org. Tickets are available in advance at the Rollin Art Centre.
editor@albernivalleynews.com
