Forum brings back doo-wop quartet in ‘Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream’

In a case of nostalgia upon nostalgia, Forum Theatre is bringing back the successful doo-wop musical it staged in the spring of 2017.

Well, kind of.

“Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream,” which opens this weekend, has a slight name change (adding the first musical exclamation) and a few adjustments in songs from the 1960s.

But its director, choreographer and half of its quartet cast are the same as four-plus years ago.

“It’s been revised, there are a few new songs, but it’s still the same fun piece that audiences love,” artistic director Kathryn Page Hauptman said. “It has a new, fresh feel to it.”

Hauptman said playwright Roger Bean had plans to take the show off-Broadway last year, but the COVID pandemic stopped that from happening. Sixties hits “The Twist” and “Do You Love Me?” were added, and “The Wanderer” was dropped. (Hauptman said plans are in the works for an East Coast stage musical bio of Dion from Dion and the Belmonts, who made “Wanderer” famous.)

The cast is decades younger than the hits featured in the show, but that doesn’t dampen their enthusiasm for the material.

“It was kind of fun to dive back into that era,” said Ryan Ehresman, who returns as Wally.

“I love the 1950s doo-wop groups, all the artists from that era,” said Simeon Rawls, new to the role of Denny. “My mom and I used to listen to those groups all the time, so I’m very familiar with the tunes. It’s definitely fun to sing it with Ryan and Ted and put them in a different context.”

Andrew Walker rounds out the quartet, the Crooning Crabcakes. Chelsey Moore Ehresman, Ryan’s wife, portrays the love interest in the musical.

Some of the foursome have worked together and others have not, but quickly found vocal harmony.

“It feels like we’ve known each other for decades,” Rawls said. “We have a lot of good chemistry together and I think that shows in the scenes the audiences will feel as well.”

The singers said they love the sound of the music they’re performing.

“It’s pretty, it’s interesting, it’s intricate,” Dvorak said. “I think it speaks to an older audience and a younger audience as well.”

“These songs are just plain fun, whether you know them going in the door or brand new to it,” Ehresman said. “They’re fun songs and putting them together with Gigi (Gans’) fun and bouncy and energetic choreography is a blast. Learning those tight harmonies and hearing them form and come together has been a blast.”

Hauptman said interest from the Forum audience was high on seeing “Sh-Boom!” return.

“There is interest in this doo-wop music. It’s really pretty timeless but it’s pretty complex,” she said. “It’s simple on the surface, but the tight harmonies are very hard to get, and to be dancing with it all the time, non-stop.”

“Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream”

When: Through Sunday, Aug. 15; performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

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

Tickets: $18 for July 29 preview; $23 for Thursdays and Sundays, $25 Fridays and Saturdays, from forumtheatre.org or 618-0444