| ©Sacramento Bee March 6, 2005 'Singin' in the Rain' actors, director dissect the new show By Dixie Reid |
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One of many gems in the 1952 movie musical "Singin' in the Rain" was when Donald O'Connor's Cosmo Brown ran up a wall and somersaulted onto the floor. By the time that "Make 'em Laugh" scene had wrapped, an exhausted O'Connor took time off to let his carpet burns heal.
"I have my own carpet burns," says Michael Arnold. "Here's one. Oh, there's another. There are a lot of pratfalls, and you can't pad everything." The 38-year-old Arnold plays Cosmo in an original co-production of "Singin' in the Rain" presented by California Musical Theatre and 5th Avenue Theatre of Seattle. It opens Wednesday and continues through March 20 at the Community Center Theater as part of the Broadway Series. "I watched the movie as a kid, and I've been wanting to do this choreography for as long as I can remember," says Arnold, who was a gymnast in his younger days. "A lot of what I do is the same choreography and physical stuff Donald O'Connor did. They built a wall specifically designed so I could run up and do a flip." Cosmo's wall - a slab of steel 2 inches thick, standing 12 feet high and delivered to the stage on pneumatic casters - and the onstage downpour as Michael Gruber (playing 1920s film star Don Lockwood, the Gene Kelly role) warbles the title song are in keeping with director Jamie Rocco's desire to stay true to the movie. "It's such a perfectly put-together film. What I get from it is a love of performing, and I hope to put that into what we do," says Rocco, who also directed "Singin' in the Rain" at the Community Center Theater in 1993. This is his sixth production of the show. "You never stop painting," Rocco says. "You keep dabbing with a brush here, a stroke there. It's really created for the actors doing it, some of whom I've worked with before." Gruber and Christina Saffran Ashford, who plays Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds' role in the movie), both performed here in '93, in the same roles they fill this time around. Arnold joined the show recently. "They are such wonderful performers and complement each other so well," Rocco says. "It's been a joy to continue to explore how to express what the characters are expressing." "Singin' in the Rain" is the lively tale of moviemaking in the late 1920s, just as Hollywood was going from silent films to talkies. The American Film Institute voted it the No. 10 best movie of all time and the top-ranked musical on its list. The AFI also named "Good Morning," "Singin' in the Rain" and Cosmo's slapstick "Make 'em Laugh" to its list of top 100 movie songs. One of the most beloved scenes in the movie is Don Lockwood playfully dancing through puddles and singing the title song. Chances are that Kelly's socks were soaked during the filming. "It's a tricky thing," says Gruber. "My shoes get wet eight times a week. I can't wear dance shoes, because they're not meant to get wet and will be ruined. I've even tried plastic shoes. "But what we're using this time are rubber-soled Florsheim wingtips. For some reason, they dry out quickly, keep their shape and stay rather soft. And they give me a nice traction, because the deck can be a little slippery." And slippery it could be in an 800-gallon downpour. Making rain on stage is simple, says production manager Andy Luft. It involves rain tanks, a set of valves, a sump pump and a 39-foot-wide rain deck that consists of a building facade, a sidewalk and a street. "The cool thing about the rain deck is that there are catch basins, little depressions, where Michael Gruber can jump in and splash. He loves splashing," says Luft, with a laugh. "He's like a duck." In the movie, which was co-directed by Stanley Donen and Kelly, the rainwater was made more visible by mixing it with milk. "We can't do that," says Luft, "because germs would grow in the water. The water is heated to 140 degrees, and that's not hot enough to kill germs but will hold them at bay." Each week, he says, the rain tanks are sanitized and chlorine bleach is mixed in the water. Four times a week, the crew cleans all filters in the system. And, before each performance, they clean the rain-pipe filters. "The maintenance on this show is incredible, ungodly," Luft says. Moving day is in itself a big production. The sets travel in five trucks, with lighting and other essentials packed into two semis. And while the show is under way, about 50 people (including three hair designers and two wig experts) work backstage to support 30 cast members. "It's very complicated, and a lot of things could go wrong," says director Rocco. "It's been so much fun. "It's just a joy. Technically, it's filled with challenges, particularly the rain, but when it works it's filled with the 'wow' factor." Gruber's dancin' in the rain number brings a splashy end to Act I. "It's a wonderful part, and a wonderful opportunity to do some great songs and great dances and to work with great people, and for that I am grateful," he says. "When I initially was preparing for the the part, I watched the movie quite a bit, for the dance numbers. There's a certain style you want to emulate, which is so wonderful. It was iconic, in a way. We want to give the audience a nostalgic experience." Gruber, whose most recent appearance in Sacramento was in Music Circus' 2002 production of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," was 29 years old when he first played Don (in Wichita, the year before the stage version of "Singin' in the Rain" played Sacramento.) Now he's 40. And eight times a week, he's still singing, dancing and leaping onto the lamppost in the rain. "I'm actually managing fairly well," he says. "I have to warm up longer than I did as a kid and rest more when I'm not on stage. As I've gotten older, I've gotten better at technique, so I can manage it better. "This is a difficult part, but I will do it as long as I can. I will be sad to say goodbye to it when my body can't do it anymore."
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