The Backstage Beat

This past weekend was the Indianapolis Symphony's world premiere of Irving Berlin: From Rags to Ritzes. It was a celebration of one of America’s most prolific song-writers starring Ashley Brown, Hugh Panaro, Tony DeSare, James T. Lane and NaTasha Yvette Williams. There was also a creative staff that consisted of David Levy, Stage Director, Fred Barton, Orchestrator & Arranger, Chad Zodrow, Stage Manager, and Clare Henkel, Wardrobe Designer. And of course, the performance was conducted by the brilliant Jack Everly, who also orchestrated and arranged several of the pieces and along with Producer, Ty Johnson, developed the idea to begin with. 

Rehearsals for 4 of the cast started in New York two weeks before the premiere. And while Ashley was still in Chicago performing 8 shows a week as Mary Poppins, she was also learning every piece of music that we sent her, and making time for costume fittings in between shows. Needless to say, we were keeping them busy long before their planes touched down in Indy. Once everyone was assembled together, we hit the ground running with 8 hour rehearsal days, followed by four rehearsals with the orchestra, all culminating in 4 performances. We didn’t have long to bring all the elements together, and changes in music and staging were occurring right up until the last minute, but because of the hard work of the orchestra musicians, music library and cast and the devotion of the creative staff, the performances were amazing and well-received.

One of the many highlights from the performance was during Ashley & Hugh’s duet of the romantic song “Always.” They started out by asking if anyone in the audience was celebrating a long-time anniversary, and several audience members yelled out everything from 20 years together to 50. Then Hugh would invite one lucky couple on to the stage for a dance with the orchestra… now, we had a hard time getting a couple to agree for various reasons (stage fright, foot injury, etc.) but eventually a couple would say yes and got to enjoy a dance on the Symphony Center stage with the orchestra playing and two leading Broadway performers serenading them.  The last performance was especially touching as the couple had been married 66 years… to each other!

All in all, it was a successful weekend on many fronts: the cast was splendid to work with and were some of the hardest working people in show biz, the music was soaring and exceptionally orchestrated, and the costumes were colorful, exciting and captured the era of Berlin perfectly. To quote Berlin himself, “The costumes, the scenery, the make-up, the props! The audience that lifts you when you’re down… There’s no business, like show business.”