Naperville Central takes chance with ‘big’

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

What could possibly go wrong taking the premise of the 1988 Tom Hanks movie “Big” and turning it into a Broadway musical?

The answer, it turns out, is just about everything.

The play opened on the Great White Way in April 1996 and mercifully closed six months later after 193 performances.

But just when “big” seemed deader than the Indiana Pacers, the folks who created it decided to try to recoup some of their losses by rewriting and restaging it for a national touring company. Magically, and perhaps unexpectedly, the show was given new life.

And it’s that new, more successful version that will take center stage this weekend in a student production of the musical at Naperville Central High School.

Curt Parry, the producer and musical director heading the Central production, isn’t worried by the play’s spotty history and says audience members shouldn’t be either.

“If you heard the music you would be instantly attracted to it,” he says. “It has a very catchy, modern score that includes hip-hop as well as typical musical theater.”

Taking chances

There are countless decisions when you’re planning your high school’s spring musical, and one of the trickiest is whether to go with a show everybody knows — “Hello Dolly,” “The Music Man” — or something that’s, shall we say, a little more obscure.

The former probably guarantees a few more ticket sales; the latter offers some different challenges for your student-actors.

Parry took all that into consideration when deciding to pursue “big,” which opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29, and continues at the same time Saturday and then 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Central’s main auditorium.

He says both the music and the plot — “You’re a kid and you wish for something and it comes true” — appeal to his students.

The story revolves around a 12-year-old boy, Josh, who fervently wishes to be big and one day wakes up as a grown man — but with the mind and spirit of a boy. He winds up with a job as the “idea” man at a toy company and brings his childlike sense of wonder into a dog-eat-dog adult world.

Parry says the stage version mirrors much of the movie (a few of the racier scenes have been snipped), including the moment when Josh and his boss dance on a giant keyboard. Central got the 16-foot, 300-pound keyboard from a high school in Oswego, which already performed “big.”

For Parry, though, the highlight comes at the end of the first act with a number called “Cross the Line.”

The head of the toy company is holding a party, Parry says, in which his workers are supposed to get some insight by mingling with kids. He quickly becomes disgusted, though, when he sees the adults on one side of the room and the kids on the other.

It’s then the boss takes out his trusty can of Silly String, draws a line in the middle of the room and instructs both the adults and the kids to break down their self-imposed barriers and cross the line.

Going pro

Once you choose your spring musical, the next biggest challenge is to make sure your high school cast — both on stage and in the orchestra pit — is up to the challenge of performing a play and music written for professionals.

“As with all Broadway musicals, you have high school students tackling shows from the professional world,” Parry says. “This show was written for professionals, and the director’s job is to help these young singer/actors bring it to life on the high school stage.”

Parry has no doubt his students will be able to pull it off, but, “we need every minute and every rehearsal.”

The good news is that, while the play isn’t widely known, the movie is. That can be both a blessing and a curse, Parry says, “but it almost always helps.”

“You don’t feel you have to re-create the wheel,” he says. “If it worked in the movie, you just have to make it come alive on stage.”

If you go

If you go

What: The musical “big”

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 29-30, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1

Where: Naperville Central High School auditorium, 440 W. Aurora Ave.

Tickets: $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors; available at the door

Info: (630) 420-6834 or cparry@naperville203.org