Gridiron players will trump 2016
Those headline-spoofing barristers and part-time thespians are back with the latest edition of Gridiron.
The biennial musical production, which includes 75 cast members, takes satirical aim at state and national political and pop-culture figures, subject matters with profoundly deep possibilities for humor and endless fodder for the show’s writers, a shadowy group known as the Clandestine Committee.
“We have all of the Trumps,” says Pulaski County Circuit Judge and Gridiron producer Mary McGowan. Her daughter, Molly McNulty, plays Ivanka Trump.
Closer to home, members of the Arkansas Legislature, the governor, political candidates and even former candidates will be spoofed.
“It’s like a gift from God,” McGowan says of the comedic possibilities offered by current headlines and personalities. “It’s unbelievable, and that causes rewrites because things happen that are just too good [to pass up]. We try to keep it really current.”
Director and choreographer Jana Beard says the production is ambitious.
“We are going big and bold this year. We’re tackling a harder show, with harder topics, and the cast has risen to the challenge. I think it’s going to be a really good representation of what’s been in the news — the little things and the bigger things — over the past couple of years.”
Beard’s daughter, Allison Stodola Wilson, and her husband, Craig Wilson, play Donald and Melania Trump, reprising their roles from 2016.
This year’s show is a benefit for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Gridiron’s home since 1990.
In April, the Rep announced that it was suspending operations due to a drop in ticket sales and a significant decline in charitable giving. Since then, two matching grants totaling more than $1 million have been offered by the Siloam Springs-based Windgate Charitable Foundation and The John & Robyn Horn Foundation.
Gridiron Productions Inc., the nonprofit that produces the show, will donate proceeds from this year’s run to help the theater match the grants.
“This is our 22nd year of doing Gridiron at the Rep, and the Rep has helped us immensely,” says McGowan, who began producing the show in 1996. “They are a wonderful asset for us to have in Little Rock, and we don’t want it to go away.”
Beard, a Gridiron dancer since 1988 and choreographer since 1990, started directing the production in 1996.
“The quality of our show has improved over the years because of the staff at the Rep and their professionalism,” she says. “They make us look wonderful, and our audiences have become accustomed to a very professional show, and we want to [help] the Rep.”
Cliff Baker, who founded the Rep in 1976 as the Arkansas Philharmonic Theatre, says there is a special relationship between the theater and Gridiron.
“We’ve grown together,” he says. “We had just moved into the building when they started partnering with the Rep and have always been great folks to collaborate with. The show grows every year, not just in size but in quality as well.”
This year’s Gridiron run has also kept some Rep workers employed, Baker says.
“It has let us keep some staff working that would otherwise be laid off in this period, so it really is making a huge difference.”
The Gridiron was started in 1916 by members of the Little Rock Bar Association as the Gridiron Luncheon, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. The show was held annually or biennially through the 1920s.
“It was begun by lawyers in Little Rock to poke fun at themselves,” McGowan says.
The show was suspended during the Depression and World War II but has been held every other year since 1947. It was presented on various stages around Little Rock before settling at the Rep, where McGowan hopes it will remain for the 2020 Gridiron and beyond.
“This is a really critical time for them and we need them here,” she says. “There are other theaters, and that’s great, but we need to keep the Rep going.”