Still Singin’ in the Rain

Coral Drouyn gives her umbrella a workout as the national tour of Singin’ In The Rain takes shape.

It’s sixty-four years ago – and the Golden Age of Hollywood Screen Musicals is at its peak. Within a decade Movie Musical production will be halved, then halved again by 1970. It took until 1977, when Saturday Night Fever revived the genre, to have people flocking back to musicals at the movies.

But in late 1952, as a seven year old, I saw Singin’ In The Rain on screen and fell in love with the genre - along with most of my generation. The love affair lasts to this very day. Interestingly, the film is set in 1929 and the advent of talkies is the core of the plot. It was a case of art imitating life. True musicals started being released in 1930 - over 150 of them in the first year. They were heady days.

It was a given that Singin’ In The Rain would move to the stage, but it took until 1985 for it to reach Broadway, after a run at the London Palladium, with a book by Comden and Green and the songs we know and love by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed.

The Chichester Festival Theatre created the current production, with its 12,000 litres of water on stage in every performance, in 2011. The music is the same as it was in 1952 (with the addition of one extra song) and if you strip away the marvels of the production, you are left with a classic boy meets girl love story with marvellous songs and brilliant dancing.

“It really is timeless,” says Gretel Scarlett, who plays Kathy Selden, the role originated by the iconic Debbie Reynolds. “The songs truly are ‘standards’ – we all know them, even if we don’t know where they came from. And they are just a joy to sing - clean simple melodies which don’t rely on vocal tricks, but you need to be spot on key.”

It’s not just the title song, there’s ‘You Are My Lucky Star’, ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, ‘Broadway Rhythm’, ‘You Were Meant For Me’, ‘Good Morning’, ‘All I do is Dream of You’ … we’ve all heard more than one of these in our lives.

Yet it’s the dancing that makes the show so special, and it’s not surprising that Andrew Wright has been nominated for multiple awards for the choreography.

“A lot of people think that Andrew (Wright) has just re-created the choreography from the movie,” says Jaye Elster, the assistant choreographer, “but that’s not the case. Andrew pays homage to the original, but he’s incorporated so much more. There’s even a Tango routine and far more expansive dancing with a variety of styles from all of the dancers. And don’t forget that this is all done live, there’s no stopping the camera for another take. These dancers are athletes, and they need to be incredibly fit. It’s such a demanding show.”

It’s most demanding on the man playing Don Lockwood, Gene Kelly’s role. Adam Garcia has made his mark on international stages and in movies, but he is the first to admit that the stamina needed for this kind of role gets harder with age.

“I’m a new dad, and I stay fit, but there’s no denying that I’m also over 40 now. Eight shows a week is tough on any dancer, and we have to train like any other athlete. People don’t think of dancing as a sport, needing constant work-outs, probably because it’s such a ‘feel-good’ thing to watch, and a joyous thing to do. Believe me, we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t totally love it. And it’s great to get to do solo routines, after playing Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever where all the dancing was partner work. I’ve always been a Gene Kelly fan, so this role is just a dream.”

And what about getting wet twice a night, eight performances a week? And in a Melbourne Winter? Adam laughs.

“Yes, Melbourne winters can be harsh because the weather is so changeable, but they’re not as bad as English winters, and I’ve survived them. The main worry is catching a bad cold, especially when you’re getting wet twice a night. Let’s not forget – I certainly haven’t – that I turn 43 during the Melbourne run. That’s … um … ‘mature’ in dancing terms. But then Kelly was 41 when he made the film, and he had a high fever when he actually shot the famous rain dance. I’m just going to have to stay fit.”

So just how high is the standard of the dancers in the show?

“It’s phenomenal,” says ex-pat Associate Director Cameron Wenn. “We knew it would be of course, having people like Adam and Tap Dogs on the world stage for some years now. But when we were creating this production in Chichester I kept saying, ‘Wait till we get to Australia. Wait till you see the auditions there’ – and they were completely blown away.”

Erika Heynatz plays Lina Lamont, the silent movie star with the voice of a squeaky lawnmower. Although she is also a triple threat, she doesn’t get to dance in this show.

“I don’t mind,” she tells me. “I have a great comic role and I’m happy to let the others do the hard slog. But its interesting that so many of the musicals of the last twenty years or so have not really been dance shows - singers have really been at the fore, which is great for them, but there haven’t been a lot of dance shows.”

The reason might be the ascension of Stephen Sondheim as the doyen of Musical Theatre and those acolytes who have followed his style.

There are great musicals like Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, and even Dreamgirls and Wicked, where the dancing is totally incidental and not integral to the storytelling. That makes Singin’ In The Rain all the more special.

It was only revealed a few years ago that Gene Kelly actually recorded and overdubbed the tapping on the film so that the beats would be heard - he even recorded the taps for Debbie Reynolds. There’s nothing quite like hearing the crisp sound of taps during a musical number.

Don’t expect scene changes every few minutes. There are no cameras to call “Cut” to, and so Chichester Director Jonathon Church (now Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company) has re-staged and re-imagined the setting so that the show keeps up the same energy levels and momentum throughout. It sweeps you along, and you feel part of the story.

Robyn Arthur, who plays two character roles in the show, and has been in theatre for 41 years now, is having the time of her life watching dance rehearsals.

“I can’t remember a more delightful experience,” she tells me. “This show is about laughing, about feeling like a kid again. It’s just a ‘feel good’ experience and reminds me of when I first saw the movie. And look at their skills. The training is just so phenomenal. We have so many great Performing Arts academies now. Back in the sixties we had to pay for every class separately and jump on and off trains and buses to get from one to another. Yes, it gave us tenacity and persistence, but it made things harder. These ‘kids’ are so gifted, and have the training to really help them reach their potential.” Robyn has just finished a long tour with Jonathan Biggins’ play Australia Day and seems to move seamlessly from one production to another.

“I’m just grateful to be working, and especially glad to be working with a whole new generation of performers.”

As our Kathy (Gretel Scarlett) says “This is a show for grandparents and grandkids and everyone in between. No bad language, no rudeness. Wholesome isn’t a dirty word. Singin’ In The Rain is just fabulous entertainment.”

Following its Melbourne season at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Singin’ In The Rain plays at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney from July 7, then Brisbane (September), Adelaide (December) and Perth.

Photographer: Jeff Busby.

Originally published in the May / June 2016 edition of Stage Whispers.