Musical celebrates the American experience from the depression to the post-war boom

A roster of about 30 songs from the 1930s and ’40s in Forum Theatre’s new “The All Night Strut!” has given artistic director Kathryn Page Hauptman a chance to educate her young cast.

“We talked a lot about the period in which it was written and the influence it had on pop music as we know it today,” said Hauptman, who is directing a six-member cast. “We talked about the beautiful energy that created this music.”

The cast, largely 20-somethings, was reminded that it was people their age who brought the sounds to light, she said.

“When we talk about World War II, we tend to think about parents and grandparents,” Hauptman said. “But it was danced by and listened to by 20-, 21-year-olds who were creating this brand-new sound.

“We talked about applying it to their own lives and the music they listen to,” she added. “It really does influence a lot of the musical choices we listen to today.”

The songs include some familiar tunes – “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “In the Mood,” “Jukebox Saturday Night,” “As Time Goes By” – and some not-so-familiar songs, such as “Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer” and “You’re a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith.”

All of the six-person cast – Simeon Rawls, Briley Meek, Ted Dvorak, Anjelica McRae Breathett, Deiondre Teagle and Kalene “Koko” Blanton – sing in the production, with Dvorak and Breathett specializing in the ballads while the others have more dancing in the show.

A Winfield High graduate, Dvorak said he was familiar with many of the songs thanks to high school show choir. “Some of it’s like visiting old favorites, but there’s a decent amount of the new,” he said.

Dvorak said he’s especially touched by the song “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.”

“I saw it on the song list and got excited, and when I saw it was mine I was even more excited,” he said of his solo. “It just resonates so well and feels so great.”

Ben Karnes is the music director, with a four-piece band on a second level of the stage, which is designed to resemble an art-deco nightclub in Los Angeles during the period.

Gigi Gans, the lead choreographer, said she enjoys the music of the 1930s and ‘40s, and puts that energy into the dance numbers.

“I took a lot of the basic, old-school styles of swing and I’ve made it my own,” she said.

Hauptman and Dvorak said the cast has become attached to many of the songs in “The All Night Strut!”

“It’s never gone away. This music is covered by musicians constantly,” Hauptman said, pointing to the success of Michael Buble and of Rod Stewart’s most recent albums. “It’s part of the American songbook.”

“So much of it deals with love – finding love and what happens when you do find love, and how great it is,” Dvorak said. “If it’s not about love, it’s about having fun and looking for a party. It’s just so much of the songs resonate as much as they did 60, 70 years ago.”

The All Night Strut

When: Through March 3; performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Wilke Center, First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway

Tickets: $23 Thursdays-Sundays, $25 Fridays-Saturdays ($17 for preview dress rehearsal at 8 p.m. Feb. 7), by calling 618-0444 or at forumwichita.com