‘Ugly Duckling’ tale told with song and dance

Honk!

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

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Kitsap Sun, by Michael C. Moore, BREMERTON — There was a time when “Honk!”, a musical-theater version of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling,” seemed poised to become the toast of Broadway.

But no one, at the time, was in the mood.

“I think it would’ve been a big success,” said Adam Othman, who’s directing the Mountaineers Players’ production of the show that opens May 25 at the Kitsap Forest Theater. “It was testing out in the U.S., and looked like it was going to be a big hit, but then the whole 9/11 thing happened.”

A success in its birthplace of London, where it won the Olivier Award (the Brits’ equivalent of the Tonys) for Best Musical in 2000, “Honk!” seemed like a sure bet for a similar reception across the pond. After the events of 9/11, however, no one was in much of a play-going mood, and the show moved onto a virtual back burner.

“It’s a shame,” said Othman, who’s a veteran of decades of shows around the Seattle area (including KFT, where he first appeared in 1987, and most recently in 2011’s “Into the Woods”). “This show is one of those undiscovered classics. It was bad timing that it didn’t get on Broadway, but a lot of people knew about it, and it developed a following.

“It has a lot of heart, and the music is very rich and deep,” he added of the show that will mark his KFT directing debut.

The musical — with music by George Stiles and book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe — might not be familiar to a lot of people as other entries in its genre, but the story certainly is: The “ugly duckling” endures the ridicule and ostracism of his peers, only to mature into a beautiful swan.

“It’s a good show for this place, and the audience they get here,” Othman said. “It’s a family show, and it’s got a good message about tolerance, and that beauty is only skin deep.”

As usual for the Mountaineers — who conducted auditions for its 2014 season in both Seattle and Kitsap — the show is a family affair on stage as well as in the galleries.

“We knew we would get the people out (to audition),” Othman said. “For this show, it was a matter of getting the right mix of people, both adults and kids. One of the great things about this theater is that you can have kids and their parents in the same show.”

There are several family connections in the cast of “Honk!”, including Beavan Walters and her daughter, Sophie, who play matriarch Ida and one of her ducklings. The two have been paired previously at KFT, most notably as Maria Rainer and the youngest Von Trapp child in “The Sound of Music.” (Her son, Scooter, is also in his very first KFT show!).

Several others who’ve done memorable turns in past KFT productions are in Othman’s cast, including Jenny Dreessen and Megan Castillo. But there are some newcomers who will make an impression as well, including Nick McCarthy, who plays Ugly, and Jason Gingold as a conniving cat who pretends to befriend Ugly when all he’s really interested in is eating him.

“There’s a lot of wonderful song-and-dance in the show,” Othman said. “A lot of it is slightly vaudeville-esque. But there’s also a lot of sincerity, in the ballads that Ugly and his mom sing, and as he goes through this whole process of finding out who he is.”

Musical direction is by Amy Beth Nolte, a veteran of several KFT shows both in that capacity and as a performer. Costumer Barbara Klingberg might well find herself up to her elbows in feathers for this show, and choreographer Heather Dawson’s dance steps will be performed at the waddle. Keyboard accompaniment will come from Greg Smith And Victoria Casteel.

“I’ve worked with Amy Beth here before,” Othman said. “As soon as I got this (assignment), I knew I wanted her for musical director. Heather’s new here, but she’s worked with me (with the student program at Seattle Prep, which he directs).