December 2, 1995

By Joe Rhodes

When Bye Bye Birdie opened on Broadway in the spring of 1960, America still felt like an innocent place: Elvis was singing, assassinations were unthinkable, gasoline was cheap, and red meat was considered a friend.

Birdie on-stage was all sweetness and light, a little romance that reflected its time. But when the film version was released three years later, it took on a more sultry tone, opening with Ann-Margaret, a sex kitten on the prowl, purring the title track. Innocent she was not.

This week, a new production of Birdie debuts with a big-name cast including Jason Alexander, Vanessa Williams, Tyne Daly, George Wendt, and Chynna Phillips - and the innocence is back. The songs like "Put On a Happy Face" and "What's the Matter with Kids Today," are lighthearted and infectious, the romance squeaky-clean.

"A lot of people who grew up with the film are going to be surprised," says Marc Kudisch, who plays the hip-swiveling Conrad Birdie, a dimwitted '50s rock star who's going into the army. But first, his manager dreams up a publicity stunt: He sends Birdie to Sweet Apple, Ohio, to plant "One Last Kiss" on a lucky high-school girl named Kim (Chynna Phillips).

"Everybody seems to be clamoring for something an entire family can watch together. Well, this is it," says Alexander, who, before his Seinfeld days, was a Tony-winning Broadway performer and remains a devotee of musicals. "The biggest stumbling block to the genre is that audiences aren't used to seeing characters burst into song. But this is such a light, frivolous piece that it's not quite so jarring."

Ann Reinking, who choreographed this production and starred in a national touring company of Birdie three years ago, isn't worried about appealing to the MTV generation. "Kids flock to musicals like 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King,'" she says. "Those just happen to be animated."

It can't hurt that Birdie is frequently staged at high schools and community playhouses. "My theory is that everyone who's ever been involved in musical theater has been in a production of Bye Bye Birdie," says Alexander, who, yes, was in the play in high school. "It's a score that doesn't sound bad even if you only have a piano and a drum. There's nothing in it that's offensive, nothing that's a stretch. It's a very easy play to embrace."

While the 1963 film revolved around Ann-Margaret's sex-pot portrayal of Kim, this rendition focuses more on Birdie's manager, Albert (Alexander), a 39-year-old mama's boy who can't commit to his longtime girlfriend Rosie (Williams) or stand up to his overbearing mother (Daly).

Williams says there were some raised eyebrows when she and Alexander were cast as a romantic couple. "The first day we were on the set I heard some commotion," she says, her green eyes sparkling. "People were whispering, 'Psst. She's too tall for him. What are we gonna do?' And Jason goes, 'What are you worried about? My wife is taller than I am. So what?' That was it. If he doesn't have a problem with it, I certainly don't."

Not so easily laughed off were the whispers about whether there would be complaints about Williams, an African-American, playing a Hispanic character and singing a song called "Spanish Rose" that spoofs racial stereotypes.

"One reason I wanted to this is because the plot line deals with Rosie and Albert's racial differences and the mother having a problem with that," Williams says. "And when it comes to Jason and me kissing at the end, well, for the people who hate interracial couples, get those letters ready. We're waiting for them."

In his tapered double-breasted suits and rented hair, Alexander gets to display dance moves and a singing voice that will shock anyone who knows him only as Seinfeld's hapless George Costanza. "When we did the play in high school, I played Mr. McAfee [Kim's father]," Alexander says. "To be the leading man after all these years is terrific, although my wife isn't sure. She says, 'I married you because you were a character actor. You're supposed to be the guy in the hall while your best friend gets the girl.'"

The most impressive voice in the cast may belong to Daly, who won a Tony Award in 1990 in the Broadway revival of Gypsy. Unlike the others, she doesn't lip-synch when she's performing; she prefers to sing full blast, through every take. "We recorded the whole thing in a studio, and then you're supposed to match what you did," Daly says. "I don't even try. For me it's simpler to just sing the damn thing."

The show was shot on location in Fort Langley, British Columbia, a quiet commuter town 30 miles outside of Vancouver. And there was Daly, singing a cappella in the middle of the street until well after three in the morning.

"I thought the neighbors might be angry having to listen to my caterwauling all night," she confesses. On the contrary, the people in town were thrilled to have their community turned into an open-air musical theater. With its maple-lined streets, split-level houses, and white picket fences, the town looks more like 1950s America than any studio back lot ever could.

"Usually when people stop to watch a movie being made, all they get to see is some guy walking through a door 25 times in a row," says Wendt, who plays Mr. McAfee. "But in this, the director yells 'action' and people are dancing and fainting and flipping over things. It was pretty cool."

Hundreds of people lined up to watch production numbers being filmed, applauding wildly at each one.

"This has an atmosphere different from anything I've worked on before," says producer Boyce Harman. "Half the time when I'm producing movies, I feel like I'm in the catering and hotel management business. But this felt like we were really putting on a show."

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