Joe Bean: from BHS to big screen?
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Nichols and McAllister’s rock opera, written in two weeks for the high school stage, sees its professional debut at the Playhouse.
The gods have already smiled on “Joe Bean,” a musical about divinely induced misery.
As soon as islander Bob McAllister’s and Mark Nichols original play, an update of Job’s Old Testament trials, debuted at Bainbridge High School last spring, a host of angels appeared to help carry the show to another level: a professional production opening here June 24.
“It’s the fabulous Joe Bean Support Group,” Nichols said. “That’s the parents and friends who first saw the original production. They came up after the show and said, ‘Wow, we really like it.’
“So we kept the names and now we are calling them on it.”
The group that gathered for the first time in islander Alice Tawresey’s home last October has played a range of sustaining roles for the production.
Mercury Online Solutions founder John Eisenhauer provided seed money; Anne Gregory and Ann Wilkinson led the nuts-and-bolts organization and publicity for the four Playhouse performances; and Marilyn Belieu coordinated a special show June 25 for young people.
The cadre’s contributions echo the play’s plot twists; when wealthy businessman Joe Bean is deprived of material goods and family as a test of his spirituality, he’s reduced to living on the street and joining a 12-step-style support group.
“I think it’s kind of funny,” Nichols said, “having a Joe Bean Support Group when he goes to a support group.”
But the help’s been invaluable as the production hurtles ahead, moving at the fast pace at which it was first conceived.
Penned in two weeks last spring because Bainbridge High school theater director Bob McAllister couldn’t acquire the rights to put on “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the show was conceived as a rock opera based on the Book of Job, an updated version pitting New Age polytheism against Jehovah.
McAllister pulled in Nichols, a long-time friend whose first rock opera was produced at BHS in 1987.
The pair jammed out the first draft of script, music and lyrics in record time, in a collaborative process which left both unable to untangle who did what.
“We always work together very closely,” Nichols said. “Even musically, (McAllister’s) got a great ear, so that ‘who wrote what’ thing doesn’t apply.”
For the second evolution of the play, five new numbers have been added and the cast of 40 reduced to 14 – a necessary move, if the show is to travel to other venues.
Four members of the original show – Vince Palazzolo, Brandon Belieu, Kelsey Mackin and Patrick Bradshaw – return to the cast.
The rest of the players are professionals from around Puget Sound.
The musical backup has been enlarged, with island guitarist Kevin Veatch and drummers “Squirrel” Desimone and Jarrod Kaplan joining area musicians.
“The band played (the score) yesterday for the first time,” Nichols said. “ The first time through and it was already so much better than the demo tapes. Yeah, it’s coming together fast.”
While the collaborators hammer out a coherent artistic statement, Eisenhauer has helped them focus on a larger vision of what the show can be, both say.
“We meet with John often to talk logistics and vision,” Nichols said, “He’s someone who has a stake in the show, and he’s also really smart. You don’t want to be like a puppy in a field of butterflies – all over the place, he says. You want to focus on one solid goal and move on to the next one.”
The next step is a Seattle production, and the gala show June 26 has been designated the night to invite critics, agents and other theater professionals.
But the long-range vision is a film, not a show.
A movie is a safer bet than breaking into Broadway.
When Nichols and McAllister made a cold call on venerable New York play publishing house, Samuel French, the reception was not-unexpectedly chilly.
“They said, ‘No one cares about your play. If it’s not from a little island off the East Coast, nobody cares,’’’ Nichols said. “We walked away from the situation saying, ‘We’re going to get there.’
“Like Stravinsky said, it’s like bricklaying: You lay one brick and then you lay another. You get in the zone and you just do the work.
“You’re paving the way for unbelievable things to happen.”
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“Joe Bean” appears 7:30 p.m. June 24-27 at the Playhouse. Tickets are $25 for the preview June 24; $15 for the under-25 show June 25; $100-500 for the “Funky Black Tie” benefit gala June 26; and $25 for June 27 closing night (7 p.m. opening).
Tickets at Vern’s Winslow Drug or McBride’s Hallmark. For gala tickets and information, call 780-2849.
