Dames at Sea

Book and lyrics by George Haimsohn & Robin Miller
Music by Jim Wise

Director Musical Director Choreographer Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design Properties Design & Set Dressing Hair & Make-up Design Production Stage Manager Public Relations Technical Director Set Construction Production Crew Light Board Operator Sound Engineer Stage Crew Key Art Production Photography

Todd Nielsen Dean Mora Lisa Hopkins Stephen Gifford A. Jeffrey Schoenberg Jared A. Sayeg Drew Dalzell MacAndME Joni Rudesill Lisa Freed David Elzer/Demand PR Robert T. Kyle Red Colgrove A.C. Bradshaw, Sean Kozma, Cuyler Perry, Christopher Rivera, Chris Tucker, Heather Waters Kathryn Horan Heather Sorenson Andrea Dean, M.E. McElveney, Travis Moscinski, Owen Panno, Brie Quinn, Christopher Rivera, Chris Tucker, Heather Waters Doirean Heldt Michael Lamont

Mona Kent Joan Hennesey Ruby Dick Lucky The Captain

Heather Ayers Shanon Mari Mills Dink O'Neal Tessa Grady Jeffrey Scott Parsons Justin Michael Wilcox Dink O'Neal

Pianos Percussion

Dean Mora & Brent Crayon Brian Boyce

Overture "Wall Street" "It's You" "Broadway Baby" "That Mister Man of Mine" "Choo Choo Honeymoon" "The Sailor of My Dreams" Singapore Sue" "Good Times are Here to Stay"

Mona Ruby &  Dick Dick Mona & "Chorus" Joan & Lucky Ruby Lucky & Dick, Mona, Joan , Hennesey Entire Cast

Entr'acte "Dames at Sea" "Beguine" "Raining In My Heart" "Sometihng About You" "Raining in My Heart" (Reprise) "The Echo Waltz" "Star Tar" "Let's Have a Simple Wedding"

Lucky, Dick, Captain & Girls Mona & Captain Ruby & "Chorus" Ruby & Dick Ruby Mona, Joan & Ruby Ruby & "Chorus" Entire Cast

Busby Berkeley created some of the most lavish and instantly recognizable stage and screen choreography of the 20th Century.

Berkeley’s career as a choreographer began during World War I, when he served as a Field Artillery Lieutenant and directed parades and staged camp shows. After the war, he began a career as an actor and assistant director, but his talent for staging large musical numbers soon found him working for Florence Ziegfeld on the Rodgers and Hart musical A Connecticut Yankee. Eddie Cantor persuaded Berkeley to make his way to Hollywood where the two collaborated on a number of films.

His signature style included elaborate dances with large casts filmed from above, creating a kaleidoscopic effect with the performers arrayed in intricate geometric patterns. Berkeley’s "Parade of Faces" is another signature approach, in which he would give each member of the chorus line a close-up. One of the most famous examples of this being "We’re in the Money" with Ginger Rogers from The Gold Diggers of 1933.

When Dames at Sea writers George Haimsohn, Robin Miller, and composer Jim Wise met in New York in the early 1950’s, they learned that they shared a great love for all things Busby Berkeley. And so, this show was born originally as a shorter sketch called Golddiggers Afloat, a take-off of the great Gold Diggers series of films. As the show grew, they tipped their hats to such Berkeley gems as Dames, Babes on Broadway, and Romance on the High Seas with plucky producers and starry-eyed chorus girls. They lovingly spoof the extravagant song and dance numbers with their own versions, designed for a small cast and small stage.

Busby Berkeley was Hollywood and Broadway royalty, and some of his most beloved work includes Judy Garland performing "I Got Rhythm" in Girl Crazy, "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" in 42nd Street, and "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935. In 1971, at the age of 75, he returned to Broadway to supervise the smash No, No Nanette. He died in 1976, and was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 1988.


There is a mystique about California that has fascinated the country and the world for many decades. In 1924, Al Jolsen sang "California, here I come." I’m of the generation that remembers the cold, grey days on the east coast, listening to the Mamas and the Papas sing of "California Dreaming." In 1986, Tom Shales wrote in The Washington Post "There’s only one season in California: the eternal Spring of hope." And it’s been said that California is the place where the future happens first.

Not to dump on other states, but no one would ever sing "Michigan, here I come" or "Arizona Dreaming" or talk about "Idaho, where the future happens first." Drop in the word "California" and it works. But now that’s changed. Our state is in deep trouble, and we are viewed by the rest of the country with scorn and, even worse, pity. How did this happen?

I have a theory.

In 2003 the state legislature decimated the arts budget by 97%, making us second only to Mississippi in support of the arts. California used to be about dreaming, and making dreams reality. It used to be about hope. It used to be about creating the future. And that’s exactly what artists are about -- dreaming, hoping, creating the future.

There was a time when we Californians routinely astonished the world with our ability to come back from catastrophes, from crippling recession, from earthquakes, from fires. Some years ago, The Economist, a highly respected British weekly, carried an editorial about LA’s response to a devastating earthquake. They might have been speaking for all of California in saying "Los Angeles fails only when it forgets what it is; when it loses heart, and looks backward. At its best, looking forward, there is no more inspiring city in America."

Nine years ago the State of California looked backward when it stopped supporting artists. And now we’re in deep trouble. Coincidence? I don’t think so. That’s my theory.

Barbara Beckley
Artistic Director