| In 1994, Donna McKechnie
created a nightclub act that premiered at the famed Russian Tea Room in
New York City.
At the time, the show consisted
of some of her favorite popular and theatre songs, and anecdotal storytelling.
The response was so positive that she decided to develop it further into
something more substantial for the stage, “to keep me dancing.”
Chris Chadman, a protégé
of Bob Fosse's, worked with McKechnie and a second version of the show
debuted at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York for only one
weekend in April, but it now had a name, Inside the Music.
Riding on new incentive,
she sought out a theatre writer to give the show structure and a point
of view. At the top of her list was playwright Christopher Durang, whom
she invited to the White Barn Theatre in Connecticut to see it in concert
in 1995. She says she "almost fainted" when he agreed to work on the project.
“His off-the-wall humor was perfect for what I felt I needed to make this
story take hold and engage an audience, and I felt I must be lucky to find
him between plays!”
While in London recording
for the BBC in 1996, she seized the opportunity to perform Inside the Music
at the 70-seat Jermyn St. Theatre. She thought it would be an ideal way
to try out the new material in relative anonymity, away from the spotlight
and scrutiny of the New York critics, until Variety showed up on the second
preview and “I felt doomed.”
The show was highly acclaimed,
however, and “now I had a great press kit to move the show forward.”
After seeing a presentation
of the show, Robert Whitehead, the highly esteemed Broadway producer, “took
me to lunch and gave me some very good advice to go deeper into the places
I don’t want to go, the painful personal places, then the phoenix will
rise from the ashes. I knew immediately that he was right--yes, I didn’t
want to go there, and yes, it was the only way to create theatre. Chris
agreed and had some ideas as well.”
The major turning point in
the evolution of the show came in 1997 when Ed Stern of the Cincinnati
Playhouse in the Park gave them a great gift of a three week workshop.
McKechnie was now ready to bring in her old friend, Tony-Award winning
director-choreographer Thommie Walsh to direct. “We were given round-trip
tickets to Cincinnati, a stipend fee, room and board, one rehearsal room,
a stage manager, three musicians, and an obligation for 3 performances
with an invited audience of Board Members and their friends. Inside the
Music now had a heartbeat.”
The challenge now was to
find an appropriate venue to produce the show. She tested it in large concert
halls, nightclub settings, on a dark night on the A Chorus Line set at
The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and a dark night on another A
Chorus Line set at The Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. Walsh had invited
his friend and brilliant Broadway designer Larry Miller to see the show
in New Jersey. McKechnie recalls, “I met him for lunch and after talking
with him and hearing his ideas, I felt so happy with the prospect of working
with such a wonderful artist. I left the restaurant on a cloud.” But she
was still looking for a space to call her own, or, as McKechnie likes to
say, “I was looking for somewhere to land.”
Enter The Colony. After nine
years of evolving, Inside the Music has finally found its theatrical home,
where it will be seen for the first time in its proper, and envisioned,
theatrical format, with a set, lights and costumes all of its own.
For Donna McKechnie, Inside
the Music has always been a labor of love, a journey that's been about
connecting with the audience and sharing the incredible adventure that
has been her life. She thanks you for being here tonight and for taking
the journey Inside the Music. |
