OC Register Interviews Winter Wonderettes Director, Roger Bean

By Paul Hodgins
OC Register
November 25, 2009

Over the last few years, Roger Bean's life has been pretty much taken over by four modestly talented female singers who call themselves the Wonderettes.

Bean, a playwright and director, admits that he spends more time than he ever imagined dealing with his fictional creations, who hail from Springfield (Bean chose that hometown because it's the most common name for an American city – he wants the Wonderettes to be from nowhere and everywhere).

"In the last couple of years, my life has mostly been taken up with Wonderettes-related stuff," said Bean, who has spent several weeks preparing "Winter Wonderettes" for a production at the Laguna Playhouse, where it opens Nov. 28. "Recently there have been 'Wonderette' shows in New York and Chicago and Florida and Hawaii."

Last year, local audiences got their first taste of the winsome foursome when the original incarnation of the show, "The Marvelous Wonderettes," played at the Laguna Playhouse.

The Wonderettes are catty, vindictive, backbiting and blithely egotistical. They're also the best of friends who have been performing as close-harmony singers since high school.

The group consists of Missy, the prim, level-headed one, easily the quartet's most talented singer; Cindy Lou, a statuesque beauty with a sultry delivery and that annoying sense of entitlement beautiful people exude; excitable Betty Jean, whose got some creative differences with Cindy Lou; and Suzy, a gum-chewing, lovable bimbo who has a budding romance going with Richie, the guy who runs the show's lights and isn't afraid of demonstrating his luminous love from the tech booth.

"Winter Wonderettes" is a sequel of sorts to "The Marvelous Wonderettes," which begins in 1958 when the four girls are still in high school and ends 10 years later, when life has started to deliver its tribulations and rewards.
"'Winter Wonderettes' takes place about six months after the first play ends," Bean said. "There's a little bit of movement that's happened. You find out that Missy, who got proposed to onstage, has been married. Richie is married to Suzy. She's had twins and she's pregnant again. She's turning into a baby factory."

The story is set in Harper's Hardware, where Betty Jean has worked since high school. The Wonderettes have transformed the drab place into a Yuletide-themed wonderland. Mr. Harper is due to appear at the end of the evening as Santa Claus, as he does every year to hand out everyone's eagerly anticipated Christmas bonus envelope.

But this year, Harper is a no-show. Betty Jean runs off to find him but comes back with the envelopes instead. Everyone opens them to discover not cash but pink slips. Harper's Hardware is closing its doors forever.
"I think everyone will really identify with that part of the show this year," said Bean, who penned "Winter Wonderettes" back in 2003 when unemployment was far less of an issue than it is today.

Bean is quick to reassure us that things aren't as dire as they appear. It was never his intention to delve into heavy issues with the Wonderettes franchise.

"I wanted to steer clear of the weightier things happening at the time. Getting into the Vietnam War, for example, would have been too rough for this little jukebox world I created."

One hallmark of Bean's shows is his use of period music, both popular and obscure, to define the Wonderettes' style and help tell their stories. "Winter Wonderettes" contains traditional Christmas carols, midcentury pop songs that everyone knows and a few not-so-familiar tunes as well: "The Man With the Bag," "Run, Rudolph, Run," "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" and "Suzy Snowflake."

"I go through a lot of songs when I put these shows together," Bean said. "I listen to them over and over, and stories begin to take shape. I think, 'I'd love to have this song in the show. Whose story does it fit into?' After many listenings the solution will come to me about how the songs could be part of somebody's story line."

Bean once thought that the success of the Wonderettes would give him a certain amount of free time. No such luck.

"I run my own licensing company now, which looks after the Wonderettes as well as three other shows that are my own. Every once in a while I find a short period to write something new. But the more success I have the busier I get. I used to think, 'When I get to a certain level of success I'll be able to do whatever I want.' But once you create something like this, you spend a lot of your time maintaining it."

Laguna Playhouse Celebrates 89!

During the October 22nd performance of "Moonlight and Magnolias," the Laguna Playhouse celebrated several special events! First, we had a very special guest come out and speak during our Stage Talk, actress Ann Rutherford, who played Scarlet O'Hara's little sister in Gone With the Wind. Stage Talk, usually when the audience asks questions to the actors and crew, was taken over by Ann's charisma and fun personality.

October 22nd also happened to mark the 89th anniversary of Laguna Playhouse! And believe it or not, Ann's 89th birthday was also later that week! We rolled out a birthday cake and the entire audience sang happy birthday to Ann and the Laguna Playhouse.

Here's some clips from the interview. More can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLagunaPlayhouse

How did you hear about the movie and get the role?


What was it like working with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh?

Interview with Moonlight and Magnolias Director, Andy Barnicle

Q: What made you want to do this particular play?
A: I saw the premiere at the Old Globe in San Diego some years ago, and I felt that one day it would be a good fit for me and Laguna Playhouse. I'm at my best with comedy that has heart, and this one surely does. The story of the creation of the screenplay for Gone with the Wind also reveals some interesting things about the ethnic tension in Hollywood in what we usually refer to as the "glory days." Maybe they weren't so glorious after all.

Q: This is based on real characters and a real situation. What challenge does this pose on you and the actors as far as being authentic to history?
A: The play is actually Hutchinson's speculation on what happened. He has altered the actual circumstances slightly in order to create a unity of time, place and action so that the pressure of finishing the project is greater on the characters. My research has shown that, in actuality, the trio of main characters took nearly a week on this job, they were only holed up in Selznick's office for one long day and then came in for regular workdays after that, and they only finished the first half of the movie so that Selznick could begin shooting again. Otherwise, most of the circumstantial facts are true. I think enough time has passed that most folk don't carry an actual memory of the physical behavior of Hecht, Selznick and Fleming, but we are seeking actors who won't completely betray type.

Q: How much research on the real life people involved in this play will you and the actors do? Will there be a group screening of GWTW for actors and crew?
A: I have read whatever biographies and auto-biographies exist about these characters. I suspect that I have retraced Hutchinson's research steps, because I found the source material for many of the lines and ideas in the play. There's a lot of material, especially a collection of Selznick's daily memos, which were prolific, which sometimes Hutchnison quotes.

Q: The play reads at times like a rapid fire Marx Brothers-style movie, and the overall feel is very comic. How difficult is it to stage/direct this kind of play?
A: The difficult task here is to stage the farcical moments in balance with, or outgrowths of, the serious ideas. Creating comedy that seems possible will allow the motivational forces behind these real people to manifest themselves. If we go too far in either direction we will have a problem--a really slick farce that doesn't allow for the human urges underneath, or a too serious play that has occasional bizarre and unlikely behavior in it. All in all, the theory is to find out who the people are and what they want in order to justify the extreme behavior. These men have needs so great, and there is so much at stake, that they are driven to extreme behavior. If this extreme behavior gets disconnected from its need to exist however, what results are cartoon characters who are difficult to invest in.