Enjoy Broadway with a twist at Stars Theatre’s ‘Wrinkles’
Over the last 11 years, Stars Theatre Restaurant has continued to bring together an impressive cast of performers age 55 or older for “Wrinkles.”
The limited-run show, which runs this weekend and next, was initially modeled after a similar show in Fresno.
Karen DeWalt has been involved since the beginning as a performer and adding on directing duties for the last three years.
DeWalt recalled the moment she was tapped to direct: “I was driving down the road and (Stars executive producer) Jim Fillbrandt called and said, ‘We want you to direct ‘Wrinkles.’ I just about crashed my car.”
Luckily she didn’t, and this creative force has since been guiding the show featuring a unique cast of senior performers.
The production is a musical revue with a different theme each year. Once it was “The Ed Sullivan Show,” with songs by artists who had performed on the show that ran until 1971, including The Beatles and Elvis.
Last year was decades of “Wrinkles,” featuring songs from the 1910s up to today.
“We choose popular songs that the audience can relate to,” DeWalt said.
This time around, it’s “Wrinkles does Broadway with a twist.”
“We’ve taken pop songs from Broadway shows and twisted them,” the director said. “For instance, from ‘Annie’ we have ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’ but instead of Annie singing we have Andy. And we have Jersey Boys and Jersey Girls.”
She expects the tap number from “42nd Street,” led by choreographer Marvin Ramey, will go over well with the crowd.
“Audiences love the tap dancing. When they see us coming out they react.”
The numbers featuring groups of men also go over well, in part, DeWalt suspects, because people don’t expect to see older men take the stage.
“They don’t even have to be great dancers. The audiences just love those men.”
Along with the singing and dancing, the show will include comedy skits with material from Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and the queen of comedy herself, Lucille Ball.
Singer Kim McAbee-Carter, who joined the “Wrinkles” family last year, took over as the “Technicolor Tessie” when another performer had to drop out late in rehearsals.
“She stepped up to the plate and is doing a wonderful job,” DeWalt said.
And while McAbee-Carter, a member of Buck Owens’ Buckaroos, has plenty of experience performing, others in the cast are more surprising like Dr. John Gundzik, whose day job — neuroradiologist and Kern Radiology medical director — belies his skills on the stage.
“He’s the most talented person and he’s hysterical,” DeWalt said. “He’s a hoot. He steals a show.
“I’m having him come out into the audience at the beginning singing ‘Willkommen’ (from ‘Cabaret’).”
This year’s cast includes Jeanne and Steve Adamak, Cheri Allard, Carol Bennett, Sherrie Billard, Kevin Birkbech, Lee Bush, Janet Bonanno Crane, Jonnie Eddy, Sarah Fields, Robin Harkleroad, Nancy Hess, Randy Jelmini, Sue Krause, Marilyn Michael, Debbie Myers, Glen Pitts, Roy Scarazzo, Gail Schweikart, Jason Sliger, Kristina Steinke, Verda Varner, Julie Walsh and Stephen Walsh, and Brad Wyatt.
Gundzik’s wife, Coleen, will also perform in the show. DeWalt’s fiance, Dave Bryan, will serve as emcee and one of her sons is returning to perform this year.
DeWalt said the cast has also become close off stage, going to see other theatrical productions or local events and supporting each other in difficult times.
“We’ve become a ‘Wrinkles’ family.”