Cast relives doo-wop years in Forum’s ‘Dream’

Even though the two-dozen plus doo-wop songs in Forum Theatre Company’s jukebox musical “Life Could Be a Dream” predate the cast by several decades, the four actors playing a vocal quartet say it’s easy to keep it from being a museum piece.

“Fortunately, I don’t think you have to be a ’50s or ’60s fan to appreciate this music,” said Michael Karraker, who plays musical heartthrob Skip. “You don’t need reference points because it’s all energetic and entertaining.”

“Life Could Be a Dream” opened this week at the Wilke Center at First United Methodist Church in Wichita and runs for 11 performances through April 9.

Set in 1960, its spotlight is on Denny and the Dreamers, a fledgling doo-wop group preparing to enter a radio contest that could propel them to the big time. The show’s vocal selections include “Tears on My Pillow,” “Runaround Sue,” “Stay,” “Unchained Melody,” “Glory of Love” and “The Wanderer.”

The book was written by Roger Bean, whose “Marvelous Wonderettes” has been a hit among theater companies nationwide, including a 2011 performance by Cabaret Oldtown.

Cast members and director Kathryn Page Hauptman stress that “Dream” is not just a revue with one song after the next, but part of a compelling plot.

“The way it weaves all of these songs into the plot just makes a lot of sense,” said Chelsea Moore, who plays Lois, the girl who may come between the members of the quartet.

“Our audiences are going to just eat it up, with all this music,” said Hauptman, the Forum’s artistic director, who splits directing duties with Gigi Gans, the choreographer.

Through vinyl to MP3s, the cast is getting a greater appreciation of the music.

“We’ve spent a lot of time listening to the originals and getting used to the styles,” said Ryan Ehresman, who plays Wally, a preacher’s son.

“The writer is very clever in the way he arranged the music because it doesn’t sound just like the originals. That’s made it a lot more interesting and difficult,” Ehresman said.

But the cast members know that with devoted fans of the music in the audience, the detour can’t get too far off track.

“You can change some of the riffs a little bit – a little,” Ehresman said. “But if you stray too far, it’s not going to sound right.”

Although the foursome – which also includes Matt Starkey as group leader Denny and Ted Dvorak as the nerdy Eugene – each has a lengthy Wichita theater resume and were already familiar with each other, they had to work to create the vocal harmony.

“To work on our individual voices and then combine them into the harmonies has been a really cool experience,” Starkey said.

“There’s an energy in the room that doesn’t seem forced,” Dvorak added.

The cast has also grasped the influence that the music had on its time, Hauptman said.

“You can get all the notes right and all the phrasing,” she said. “But you don’t have the power of the doo-wop period, it’s not going to land.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Cast relives doo-wop years in Forum’s ‘Dream’."