The boys are back and hoping to swing
Front Porch Theatricals stages post-WWII "Bandstand: The New American Musical"
Nancy Zionts is excited about Front Porch Theatricals new production “Bandstand: The New American Musical.”
No, really, she’s very excited.
“I saw dress [rehearsal] last night and, oh my God, the costumes and, oh my God, the wig person and oh my God, the lighting guy. All these pieces when they come together, it’s magical and this is just absolutely magical. It’s very exciting.”
She’s just as effusive praising everyone else involved in the production — from the designer to the choreographer and actors, all the way to the stagehands and interns.
Zionts is especially taken with the music, calling it “extraordinary.”
“It’s a swing experience. There’s a five-piece combo on stage the whole time, and it’s backed by a 13-piece orchestra,” she said. “Musical director Deana Muro has killed herself the last year. She was the first person we told about the show because we had to get her involved, and she wanted this show.”
“Bandstand” tells the story of Pfc. Donny Novitski, a singer and songwriter who returns home from World War II with the hope of rebuilding his life with only the shirt on his back and a dream in his heart. He joins forces with fellow veterans, forming a musical outfit to compete in a national swing band competition.
The production is the Pittsburgh premiere of the award-winning musical and is a work Zionts and her Front Porch Theatricals production partner Bruce E. G. Smith have had their eye on since its Broadway debut in 2017.
The show went on tour in 2019, which meant Front Porch had to wait for its run to finish before it could get production rights.
“We literally would be on the site for the licensor every day pushing the button,” Zionts said. “The first day it became available last year, we grabbed it.”
The story confronts the realities of a generation that had to rebuild their lives after returning home from war.
Soldiers, Zionts said, came home as heroes to ticker tape parades but carried the weight of what they experienced with them.
“They were all in different conflicts and experienced different things,” she said. “One of the guys is a liberator of Dachau — you see the PTSD he had. It turned him into both an alcoholic and a lawyer fighting for social justice. You see what people took from their experiences and how deeply it touched them and what it did to their lives.”
Despite the heaviness of some of the material, Zionts promises an inspiring performance.
“You can’t leave not uplifted by this show,” she said.
As for the actors? Zionts noted that Pittsburgh has a large talent pool to draw from, meaning Front Porch as the opportunity to cast people age-appropriate to the characters they’re portraying.
“We have everybody from college kids all the way up through the Gold Star widow,” she said. “We have people running the whole spectrum and are very proud that every single person in the show — on stage, backstage, around — is from Pittsburgh. We’ve never had a problem casting anything in Pittsburgh.”
The city’s talent, Zionts said, is “deep and lovely.”
And, for those familiar with Front Porch’s history with Zionts’ late husband, Leon Zionts, there will be moments paying homage to the production company’s founder and local musical theater stalwart.
“Somebody in the show will wear a beret,” Zionts said, a tribute to Leon’s signature headware. “That’s easy for this one.”
One of the goals of each production, she noted, is for performers to know about her husband and his role in the company and on local stages. It’s something she considers part of the work Front Porch does, calling it a “legacy” mission.
“I believe he haunts the theater,” she said. “We joke about it all the time. I believe he haunts some of the work we do. We crack jokes about him the whole way through.”
Front Porch will also pay homage to veterans during “Bandstand’s” run.
Not only did Front Porch employ an intern from Carnegie Mellon University to help educate the cast and crew about some of the words and themes of the show, but Zionts also asked if anyone involved with the production knew a veteran they wanted to honor.
“I thought we’d get five or six,” she said. “You never know people’s feelings about war and service. I thought we’d get a few. We are honoring in our program and lobby over 100 veterans with a firsthand connection to our Front Porch family as part of this show. It’s so moving and wonderful.”
Zionts said they’ve also reached out to various veteran groups and are offering discounts to veterans.
“Many of us know veterans that have never spoken about their experience and this story talks about the stories they came home with that many of us didn’t know,” she said. “It’s been a wonderful, uplifting experience.”
Directed by Joe Jackson and starring Dave Toole and Marnie Quick, “Bandstand” will be staged from Aug. 16-25 at the New Hazlett Theater. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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