“Bye Bye Birdie,” which opened in 1960, was the first musical
about the phenomenon that was rock and roll and signaled a career
boost for songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, librettist
Michael Stewart and especially director/choreographer Gower
Champion. For Champion, it was the first of nine major
musicals.

Englewood chose it for the 2003 Summer Musical, which involves
community actors of all ages. It will run Friday, Saturday and
Sunday, Aug. 1 to 3, in Fisher Auditorium at Englewood High School,
3800 S. Logan St., Englewood. Arts coordinator Carol McGuigan said
they wanted something light and funny as part of the city’s
centennial celebration. Director is Bill Ambron, the much-admired
drama teacher at Englewood High School, who has molded large casts
into a musical performance for many years. The program includes
summer classes for kids in theater skills.

The cast of characters includes not only Conrad Birdie (Philip
Rosenberg-Watt), a big ego rock star modeled on Elvis Presley and
who is about to be drafted; his agent Albert Peterson (Jon
Humbert), who has issues with a girlfriend Rose (Rachel Rosenberg)
and his meddlesome mother Mae (Mary Mahoney); but mid-western
parents, exasperated by the goofiness of their teens’ infatuation
with Conrad Birdie, who is certainly not an ideal role
model.

Peterson, facing a loss of income when Birdie enters the
military, cooks up a plan with Rose to have Birdie plant a farewell
kiss on a teen fan on the Ed Sullivan Show. Research found an
active fan club in Sweet Apple, Ohio and its leader, Kim Macaffe
(Rachel Pizzie). Kim is surrounded by a fussy father (Richard
Gaskill), a mother (Susan Williams) who tries to keep him calm and
a little brother (Patrick DeMarco). Dad backs off when told he’ll
be on television.

Kim’s jealous boyfriend Hugo Peabody (Ryan Parker) is even more
frustrated than the kids’ parents as Kim goes ga-ga over Birdie and
the show builds to the day of the show.

Rosenberg-Watt, a 22-year old graduate of the musical theater
program at University of Northern Colorado, said this is his third
Englewood musical. He performed at 12 in “The King and I” and more
recently as the comical Luther in “South Pacific. This fall, he
will be enrolled as a graduate student in film production at
University of Southern California in Los Angeles, focusing on a
highly technical side of theater.

Gaskill, 36, was one of Bill Ambron’s early students and said it
really felt like coming home to walk into the Fisher Auditorium for
auditions. He performed in musicals when he lived in Englewood, but
has been in Minnesota for the past 10 years and out of touch. Home
to help his mom, he decided to audition for Mr. Macaffee and is
enjoying the diversity of ages in cast members, as well as being
part of the show.

McGuigan commented that Judy Kahn, an actor who plays Mrs.
Merkle, mother of Ursula, got interested in researching the 1950’s
on the internet and put together a notebook of hair styles and
costumes, which the costume designer used. Kahn has been acting
since 1952.

Most actors were not yet in costume when we visited a rehearsal,
but Mary Mahoney, who plays the overbearing mama, Mae Peterson, was
getting used to a ’50s style coat, hat and shoes as she spouted
about “the traitor who stabbed me in the heart while my back was
turned” as she arrived by bus to keep track of Albert and interfere
in his romance with Rose.

“Bye Bye Birdie” will play at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1
and 2 and at 2 p.m. Aug. 3. Tickets ($6 in advance, $8 at the door)
are on sale from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday in the theater
lobby or at the door.