Wednesday, August 25, 1999
McKechnie working on new show at Playhouse
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Eden Park is looking a little like the Great White Way these days.
Donna McKechnie, star of A Chorus Line and Company, and Broadway director/choreographer Thommie Walsh have quietly checked into Playhouse in the Park to work on a new project.
Inside the Music is a one-woman musical autobiography of Ms. McKechnie. Author Christopher Durang (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo) is due Friday.
While the workshop process will culminate in run-through performances, none is expected to be open to the public.
“The work is still very much in progress,” Ms. McKechnie says. “We were looking for a supportive and nurturing environment, and the Playhouse has a terrific reputation as just that.”
The creative team will be in residence at the Playhouse through Sept. 12.
Inside the Music has been “a labor of love for more than five years,” says Ms. McKechnie, who most recently has starred in an acclaimed 1998 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies and choreographed a London production of the musical No Way to Treat a Lady.
“Inside the Music has been with me a long time, but the process has been somewhat backwards. I've worked on it sporadically, performing it two or three times at various theaters over the years, always in between other commitments in New York or London.
“This is the first formal workshop for the show, and I see this time at the Playhouse as the chance finally to make the most out of this fabulous collaboration with Chris and Thommie.
“It will be here that it moves from a less-structured cabaret toward a more theatrical book musical.”
The show traces her life, starting out as a young dancer in the Midwest who literally runs away to New York. It follows the struggles of a “young dancer who chooses to dance to her own beat” and touches on her first big break in the original How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
There will be 22 songs from great Broadway musicals and new material. Six dance numbers will include “The Music and the Mirror” from A Chorus Line. It wascreated specifically for her role as Cassie by composer Marvin Hamlisch and choreographer Michael Bennett.
Fans of Broadway theater know Mr. Walsh as the originator of the role of Bobby in A Chorus Line as well as his choreography in many Broadway shows including The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
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