Couple Back in Trenches at Starlight : ‘Anything Goes’ Lets Wards Return to Favorite Era

SAN DIEGO — Don and Bonnie Ward may be the artistic directors of the San Diego Civic Light Opera Assn., but they’re still hoofers at heart. And when the spirit moves them, the Wards get back into the trenches to choreograph and direct an occasional Starlight show.

This year, the veteran musical theater team set their sights on the dancingest show of the summer--Cole Porter’s classic “Anything Goes”--which begins a two-week run at the Starlight Bowl Thursday. During rehearsals, Don and Bonnie didn’t just demonstrate the routines, they were dancing along with the cast, despite the extra weight they’ve accumulated over the years.

“This is the first show we’ve done this summer,” said Bonnie during a short break, “and it’s good to be back again. ‘Anything Goes’ is special to us because it’s our era. We love the ‘30s and ‘40s, and the show has a lot of tap dancing--which, of course, we just can’t resist.”

As Bonnie pointed out, all the Starlight shows tend to put the accent on dancing, “because our large stage really cries out for movement. But in ‘Anything Goes,’ we’re really going overboard on the dance routines, since we have such strong dancers to work with.”

“Usually, you don’t get leads who can dance,” Bonnie acknowledged. “It’s very difficult to get leads who can do all three--dance, sing and act--well. And they have to be believable in the role, so acting is very important, and so is the singing.

“Sometimes, you have to choreograph around the stars, while the chorus does the real dancing. But Belle Calaway will do more in this production than the Reno Sweeney (character) did in the Broadway revival, because Belle is known in the business first as a dancer,” Bonnie said.

“I never did this show before,” Calaway said, “but I love to tap, because it really attacks the senses--your eyes and your ears . I don’t get much of a chance to dance now that I’m doing leading roles, and I miss it. Working with the Wards is wonderful, because their hearts are really in the project.”

The Wards’ choreography for this staging of “Anything Goes” harks back to the original 1932 production, which means tap dance fanciers should have their fill of snappy tapping feet.

“There wasn’t much tap in the 1962 revival, because it was kind of out of fashion at the time,” Bonnie said, “but we’re restoring the tap, and we’re also using a little ballroom, some musical theater dance, and jazz.”

Cynthia Ferrer, who stars as Hope Harcourt in the Starlight staging, has the fleet-footed prowess to see her through the trickiest tap numbers, but as Bonnie noted, it was her “look” as well as her skills that earned her the part.

“We’ve tried to get Cynthia before, but we never could work it out. Cynthia has the classic look of the ‘30s. Not many people can rival her. And we really wanted Darryl Ferrera for Moonface Martin. They happen to be husband and wife,” Bonnie noted, “but that’s not why we wanted them both.”

Although Ferrer is a newcomer to Starlight, the close-cropped redhead is no stranger to San Diego theatergoers. She made a stop at the Civic Theater last year as star of the national touring company of “Singin’ in the Rain,” and was lauded by most of the critics for her slick performance.

“I started as a dancer, and then honed in on my other talents,” Ferrer said. “But being a dancer has given me an edge. That’s how I got to do the tour of ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ ”

The weakest hoofer in this handpicked group of principals is the leading man, David Ruprecht, and even he can hold his own in the dance department.

“I’m mostly a singer and an actor,” he said. “But I can do the Fred and Ginger style dancing that I have to do in this show. Like Carol Burnett said, ‘I could never be a chorus dancer. I’m not good enough.’ But Don and Bonnie are so good, they can make me look like a dancer.”

Ruprecht, who co-starred with Helen Reddy in “Anything Goes” last year, is another first-timer in the Starlight cast, but “I hope it isn’t the last,” he said. “In Los Angeles, everyone talks about what a dream of a place this is to work and how great the Wards are. And they were right. This is a terrific place to work, and you have a wealth of talent here lucky enough to get a start at Starlight. We don’t have anyplace like this where kids can get started in L.A.”

Krysta Kennedy, a dance major at UC Riverside, is among this year’s crop of up-and-coming dancers. Like many Starlight fledglings, she’ll speak her first lines in “Anything Goes.”

“I was nervous,” Kennedy said. “Before this, I had never even seen the bowl, and speaking is not the same as just dancing. But everybody here is really nice, so I’m getting comfortable with it.”

Lisa Kaine, who got her show business start in Junior Theater, is also making a major jump.

“I’ve done chorus before, but this is my first time with a speaking role,” Kaine said.

“Lisa is primarily a dancer, and when we said, ‘You’ve got lines,’ she was dumbfounded,” Bonnie said. “Dancers spend so much time at the barre, they don’t think of themselves as doing roles. But we have some very promising young people in the cast, and we expect big things from them.”

The dancing will spill out over the orchestra pit again in “Anything Goes,” although some of the overhanging thrust stage built especially for “Grease” has been pared down for this show. But Starlight’s famous stop-action freezes for passing aircraft have been cut down to size by a recent improvement in the sound system.

“We invested in six body microphones for the stars,” Bonnie said. “Now, they can keep playing through the airplanes, even when the regular mikes go off.”

The body mikes haven’t eliminated all the annoying interruptions from overhead aircraft, but there is a noticeable difference in the number and duration of the dead spots.

After “Anything Goes,” the Wards will return to their duties as artistic directors. But the husband and wife team will take charge of staging one more show this year. And, of course, it’s another big showcase for tap dancing.