Grab a tissue — musical 'Beaches' comes ashore at Drury Lane

Posted June 22, 2015 6:00 am

By Scott C. Morgan

Broadway veterans Shoshana Bean (“Wicked,” “Hairspray”), left, and Whitney Bashor (“Bridges of Madison County”) rehearse in their roles as Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White in the stage musical adaptation of “Beaches,” playing at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Courtesy of Drury Lane Theatre

Author Iris Rainer Dart is used to jokes about “Beaches” being a guaranteed weepie — particularly the 1988 film adaptation with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. Even tough-guy Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson told the women of “The View” that the movie made him cry.

So Drury Lane Theatre audiences might need a tissue or two when Dart, playwright Thom Thomas and composer David Austin wrap up revisions to a musical based on her 1985 novel.

“Beaches” — charting the ups and downs in a lifelong friendship between two very different women — is the first new developing musical to play the Oakbrook Terrace theater in 20 years. It runs June 24 to Aug. 16.

“I think that everybody needs a good cry,” said Dart, 71. “This is a piece about the joy of friendship and the passion. It's a love story in many ways, and so we were able to use the excitement of that relationship to create songs and the pain when things fall apart.”

But Dart stresses that “This is not your mother's ‘Beaches.' It's the same characters, but different dames.”

“Beaches” as a musical debuted in 2014 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, with artistic director Eric Schaeffer (“Follies,” “Million Dollar Quartet”) helming the production. Reviews were mixed, prompting some major revamping in terms of the material, casting and production team for Drury Lane.

“Any time you create something new, it's great to step back from it and look at it again,” said Schaeffer. “I would say it's probably about 60 percent new work that's going into the show here at Drury Lane.”

The only cast members retained from the Signature production were child actors Presley Ryan as Little Cee Cee and Brooklyn Shuck as Little Bertie/Nina, while the majority of the “Beaches” cast comes largely from Chicago — save for Broadway veterans Shoshana Bean (“Wicked,” “Hairspray”) and Whitney Bashor (“The Bridges of Madison County”) who were newly cast as Cee Cee and Bertie.

“Shoshana and Whitney have this fantastic chemistry together. From the moment they're onstage, you go, ‘They're best friends,'” Schaeffer said. “It's something you can't manufacture and it comes down to casting and getting the right people.”

Dart is eager to be working again in musical theater after her 2011 Broadway writing debut on the musical “The People in the Picture,” co-written with composers Mike Stoller and Artie Butler.

“I have always been a theater person. My joke is that I took a wrong turn at Hollywood,” Dart said, also mentioning her TV writing work for “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” and entertainer John Davidson.

Luckily for Dart, the Disney/Touchstone film contract for “Beaches” didn't include the novel's stage rights, so she was able to forge ahead in finding collaborators to transform it into a musical.

“It's such a natural because the lead character sings,” said Dart about driven singing star Cee Cee. “But the second reason is because it's a piece that's filled with emotion. They say about musicals that when people are too emotional to talk, that's when the singing becomes organic.”

In a concession to the legions of “Beaches” fans who love the hit number “Wind Beneath My Wings,” Dart and Schaeffer said the song originally penned in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley has been incorporated into the musical.

“It's an expectation,” Dart said. “That's the song that everybody knows and they still play it at weddings. And if you open a music box at the Hallmark store, it plays it.”

Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler starred as lifelong friends in the 1988 film version of Iris Rainer Dart's 1985 novel "Beaches." The hit song "Wind Beneath My Wings" featured in the film has been incorporated into the new stage musical adaptation playing at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, even though the rest of the stage score is by a different set of songwriters. Courtesy of Touchstone Pictures

Broadway director Eric Schaeffer ("Follies," "Million Dollar Quartet") rehearses Whitney Bashor and Shoshana Bean, who respectively star as Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White, in the Broadway-aimed stage musical adaptation of "Beaches" playing at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Courtesy of Drury Lane Theatre

Broadway director Eric Schaeffer ("Follies," "Million Dollar Quartet") rehearses Whitney Bashor and Shoshana Bean, who respectively star as Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White in the revised stage musical adaptation of "Beaches," playing at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Courtesy of Drury Lane Theatre

Broadway veterans Shoshana Bean ("Wicked," "Hairspray") and Whitney Bashor ("Bridges of Madison County") rehearse for the revised stage musical adaptation of "Beaches" playing at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Courtesy of Drury Lane Theatre

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Location: Drury Lane Theatre, 10 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630) 530-0111 or <a href="http://drurylane.com">drurylane.com</a>

Showtimes: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, 1:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday from June 24 through Aug. 16

Tickets: $45-$60; dinner and theater packages also available

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