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It’s been two years since Arthur Marks, an alumnus of Music Theatre of Wichita who successfully made the professional leap to New York in 1989, has been back to perform.
Best remembered here for his star turns in “Honk!” and “Once on This Island” — as well as his emotional send-off concert — Marks has been busy helping launch five off-Broadway musicals, including “Sidd,” a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha” about the joys of Buddhism, and “Backstage at the Funky B,” a sort of “Upstairs, Downstairs” look at the inner workings of a neighborhood nightclub.
And he traveled the country for a year with the 30th anniversary national tour of “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” with “American Idol” stars Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis under guidance of the show’s original director and co-creator, Richard Maltby Jr.
Now Marks, who got his undergraduate degree from Bethel College in North Newton and taught at Wichita State after getting his master’s at the University of Connecticut, is back in Wichita for a new production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” put together by The Forum Theatre. The show, a 1978 Tony-winning revue based on the Harlem Renaissance music of Thomas “Fats” Waller, opens Thursday and runs through March 11.
And Marks is delighted to re-create his role of a smooth, seductive, stylish Harlem “viper” for hometown fans. It’s the role originated on Broadway by Andre DeShields and named after him, although traditionally, subsequent performers use their own names.
“He’s the ‘viper,’ but he’s not really a bad boy. He’s mischievous. He teases. He gets to play with everyone and get away with it,” says Marks, who played the same role for Music Theatre’s version more than a decade ago. “He’s the guy who gets to be flirty and seductive with all the women, but they know it’s not serious. He’s safe, like a brother.”
The wiry Marks admits that, after three times in the same role, people could think he’s being stereotyped.
“If it’s a stereotype, it’s a happy stereotype,” he says.
Joining Marks in the Forum cast are Betti O in the flatfoot floozie role (created by Tony winner Nell Carter), Kylie Jo Jennings as a girl trapped in a woman’s body (originated by Armelia McQueen), Huron Breaux as the embodiment of Fats Waller (Ken Page) and Barb Schoenhofer as the bad girl/other woman (Charlayne Woodard), with a special guest appearance by Wichita native and award-winning star Karla Burns.
Tim Raymond, utilizing Waller’s stride piano technique, will lead a combo of six musicians through about 30 high-stepping, sometimes provocative, sometimes poignant songs from the 1920s and 1930s, including “Honeysuckle Rose,” “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Black and Blue,” “The Joint Is Jumpin’ ” and, of course, the title tune.
Stride piano, notes Raymond, a Wichita native whose 35-year career as a music director has taken him from Nashville to Florida to Los Angeles and now back to Wichita, is a bouncy style associated with ragtime. Popular from about 1900 to 1930, it’s where the left hand plays octave chording while the right hand is free to play solo work. It’s more liberating and fun than regular concert work, Raymond says.
While the show originally was written for five black performers, director Rick Bumgardner says recent revivals — with the blessings of creator Maltby — have used performers of other races. Some have also shared the musical load by enlarging the cast, says Bumgardner, a 1984 Wichita State grad who has been a performer and director in Kansas City for more than 20 years with such groups as American Heartland Theatre, The New Theatre and Unicorn Theatre.
As a result, Bumgardner’s vision for the Forum will do both: Using Schoenhofer, a blond bombshell and strong dancer familiar from Music Theatre’s “A Chorus Line,” as a white society party girl and adding a star cameo for Burns, a Wichita native who won raves and awards in London and on Broadway.
“Does the show specify African-Americans for the cast? Yes and no. I was open to the idea of non-traditional casting because Waller’s music was popular in places like the Cotton Club with its black performers but whites-only patrons,” Bumgardner says. “It made sense to cast Barb as the bad girl, the other woman, the strong dame role. It isn’t a colorblind choice. She’s specifically white to play off the Cotton Club image.”
