This article is from April 19, 1999 and focuses on the Nashville-based performers who were in the Broadway version of The Civil War.
By Sharon of Wildhorn Side (The official newsletter for fans of Frank Wildhorn's musical theatre projects.)
(Ben; Chauvelin on the concept album), and Svengali (Billie), and is now in Civil War (Confederate Sergeant Virgil Franklin and the Auctioneer's Assistant). He is also Civil War's vocal director and the head of casting for Wildhorn Productions. We spoke with Dave after the JHFC Net Together on April 25 -- we were also joined briefly by Wayne Pretlow (Exter Thomas in Civil War).
Do you think that you have a character in Civil War?
Dave: I always like to think that as an actor, you gotta figure there's 1500people in the theatre, right? Probably, at least one of those people is looking at you. No matter what you're doing. Even if you're standing in the back. And if they
are, what story are you telling them? Are they looking at you and seeing somebody who's bored? Or are they getting some sort of story? So I really try to, as much as possible, make up my own story, and know where I am, and why I'm there, and what I'm doing. So, that whoever decides they're going to look at me, they get a story, they get a sense of it. And so while maybe I'm not saying a lot or doing a lot on the stage, I will somehow further the story of the show by what I'm presenting as they look at me.
And what do you think is your story?
Dave: Well, they told me that I'm a Sergeant, just by the stripes that are on my
uniform. As Gene [Miller, playing Captain Pierce] sings certain things, there's times that I'll be close to him, or times that I'll be close to other people on stage, and I try to think, "What's my relationship to them and how do I really feel about what's getting ready to happen here?" And it can change. So one night, during "Judgment Day," I may be very scared to die that night. And the next night, I may be just fired up to go kill Yankees, you know what I mean? But as long as you're making active choices, I think you're in good shape. And that's just what you have to do. As long as you're telling some sort of story. The place I can do that the most is, even though it's a very small thing, in the auctioneer scene. I have to figure, while I'm a person that would never do anything like that, I have to figure out my relationship to this person that I'm trying to sell.
Are you thinking evil thoughts at this point?
Dave: Yeah, I think, well, no. I have to think of it as just somebody who's an animal. I'm looking at this like I'm selling livestock. While that's a way that I would never think, that's acting. And so I have to say to myself, you know, I'm pissed off 'cause this . . . this . . . this thing won't stay the way I put him, and he keeps moving, and so I have to keep turnin' him around. And you just have to make active choices like that. And I think as long as you're doing that, then if somebody looks at you, then they see a part of the story, that helps them get a little more into it.
How did you get started with Team Wildhorn?
Dave: Well I got started with Frank back in 1989. I walked into an open call
audition for Jekyll & Hyde, and we made a connection because I had written
that I had attended the University of Miami on my resume, and he noticed that 'cause he had gone there too, and then when I went to the callback, he was like, "Oh, you're the guy from University of Miami."
And from J&H, you got the other shows?
Dave: Before we even did the first production of Jekyll, we did the demos for
Pimpernel. After we finished Svengali, I did the concept record of Pimpernel, and did the concept record of Jekyll. Then, I did the national tour of Jekyll. While we were doing that, one day Frank pulled me aside and said, "Come listen to a couple of these songs I've written." And he pulls me into a practice room and played me the first versions of "Last Waltz for Dixie" and "Virginia." And he said, "I'm gonna write this new Civil War musical and it's gonna be great." And while we were on the road, they did a bunch of demos of the songs, and then we did the record. And I was doing Whistle Down the Drain at the time.
Now, that's not what it's called.
Dave: [Laughter.] Well, it is to me. Wayne was in that with me, too.
Wayne: Whistle Down the Drain? You mean Whistle Down the Wind?
Dave: Yeah. 'Cause they had offered me the Broadway company of Jekyll & Hyde, but when Whistle called, even Frank called me and said, "Listen, I'm not sure what you're going to do in Jekyll." He said, "You're gonna get to cover the lead [in Whistle], you're gonna get to work with Hal Prince and Andrew Lloyd Webber, you know, you should go do that." So I did. Then, of course, the day that they told me that we weren't going to Broadway with that show, the first thing that hit my mind is, "Oh, I should've taken Jekyll & Hyde."
Wayne: That's exactly what he said.
Dave: I did. We were there. So, then I did Scarlet Pimpernel and we began to do the readings for Civil War. I was already working on some of the arrangements and helping musically put the Civil War readings together. I got Wayne and Irene Molloy and John Sawyer from Whistle Down the Wind, and Chuck Cooper, who had just won the Tony [for The Life], and got all these great people to do the readings. And one day after the last reading, Frank said, "Well listen, if you're going to get me all these great people, why do I have to pay somebody else to cast it? Why don't you just do it?" And I said, "Well, I don't know." And he said, "Well, what do we have to do to do that?" And I said, "Well, you just have to say that's what you want to do."
[Laughter.] And so he said, "OK, that's what I want to do." So, then I became involved on the casting level as well. Since I met Frank, it's going on ten years ago now, it's just continuing to be this really great relationship that keeps me employed, but yet I also feel like we're really- I feel like we're truly changing the way American musical theatre is presented, and it's obviously affecting the people out there, and that's the ultimate goal, to give them something.
Something like Civil War is very different.
Dave: Very different. We're the first ones to admit that. [Laughs.] But,
especially after reading the reviews, you wanna say, "Well, it's different by
whose definition of musical theatre?" You know what I mean? Where are all these people getting off saying that they're the definers of what musical theatre should be? You know, it's an art form that has had a certain form, but guys came along . . . . You've had your Gershwins, or Cole Porter, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, they all came along and did something different. I feel like that's what Frank is doing. He makes no bones about it when the songs get criticized because they sound radio-friendly, or they sound popular. That's by design. For him that's a great thing, because he wants it to be that way. He wants these things to get on the radio and people to cut 'em, and ice skaters to use 'em as their music. He wants that. And you can't fault that. And I'm telling you, I've stood on the stage and watched the response that people go through when they see all of these shows. And people love it. People love it. Every other musical that opened the season that Jekyll opened is closed. And only Lion King and Ragtime remain from Scarlet Pimpernel's season. So, there's something about them that people respond to, that people love. He's learned how to tap into that. And if eight to ten critics just don't like it, well, that's their opinion. But the reason they have a problem with that is because the power's been taken away from them. They no longer can tell people what to like and what not to like. People are making their own choices. And that's what Frank wants. He wants people to come into the theatre singing the music, and then to have a wonderful experience seeing the music on stage, and then come out of the theatre humming it again. And people do that, people respond to it. I mean, when have you ever said, "you know, we're going to have a fan club meeting somewhere" and hundreds of people show up like we just saw? It's a great thing. It's just been a wonderful ten-year ride so far, and it looks like we're heading nowhere but up. I said to my wife the other day, "Well, with Civil War opening, it's the end of a long journey." And she said, "No, I think it's the beginning."
