The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Animal trainer recounts career in ‘Broadway Tails’
Raises money for Little Guild of St. Francis animal shelter in Cornwall
SHARON — Renowned theatrical animal trainer Bill Berloni, 61, introduced Chico, a rescued Chihuahua who played Bruiser in the 2008 musical version of the movie “Legally Blonde,” to an audience of more than 110 at the show “Broadway Tails.”
As he was carried by Berloni, the little dog’s huge eyes peered curiously over the audience at the Sharon Playhouse’s Bok Gallery at 49 Amenia Road, the place of the Saturday event in which Berloni recounted canine career milestones from his book of the same name. He demonstrated five of his dogs’ cued theatrical performances; and gave a book signing afterward, all which raised an estimated $20,000 for the Little Guild of St. Francis, an animal shelter in Cornwall.
One of Chico’s demonstrated tricks included Berloni saying an often quoted line from the musical: “All day long I felt like white open-toed shoes after Labor Day,” which cued the little dog to recoil from the fashion faux pas to the safety of a Gucci handbag. Audience members sitting in the $250ticket “Good Dog” seats in the front row as well as the $100-ticket “Sit” open seating chuckled. Tied with a ribbon to the right armrest of each seat was a gift bag filled with dog biscuits for pets at home.
During the show, Berloni said that part of the training process involved initially acclimating Chico to being carried around in a luxury bag in public, then adding cues for the correct theatrical behavior, rewarded by bits of dog food.
“The director (of ‘Legally Blonde’) wanted a scene where the dog comes center stage and tells the sorority sisters where Elle is,” Berloni said, referring to the musical’s blonde main character, and the Chihuahua’s timed barked responses. “So with a dog that likes to bark, like Chico, we used hand signals to signal to Chico when he should not bark as each question is posed to him.”
After previously being introduced by CBS Evening News correspondent and Little Guild advisory council member Richard Schlesinger, Berloni explained his background in animal training. He had been born during a pregnancy that proved risky to his mother’s health. His family offered Berloni as a substitute for siblings various pets, including Rexie, a collie puppy, and Whitey, a cat. “I figured that I had to go into their world of play in order for them to play with me,” he explained about his pets. “School was not pleasant. I couldn’t wait to get home to be with the animals.”
Later, he got bitten — not by any of his pets —
but by the drama bug in an unlikely way. His classmates jokingly elected “Bill Baloney” class president, getting the young Berloni interested in public oratory. “I was a shy person but when on stage, I had command of an audience.”
After cutting his teeth in his high school’s drama club, Berloni attended college in the late 1970s and as a drama-major sophomore at Central Connecticut State University, he apprenticed at the Goodspeed Opera House, a theater in East Haddam.
While there, a producer tempted the 19-year-old Berloni with the promise of a coveted equity card if he could find and train a dog for $35 for a new musical. (Such a union card is necessary for actors to break into larger professional Broadway productions). The musical was “Annie,” and the dog role was Sandy, the title character’s faithful canine companion.
“I went out with my Polaroid camera and went casting to animal shelters and found all these great animals in these horrible conditions,” Berloni told the audience. “There were rows of dogs in cages barking and jumping at the cage.”
During the life-changing experience, Berloni asked one animal shelter owner about a mixed-breed dog in the back of a cage who was not barking and whom Berloni thought may be right for the role. “He said. ‘We are putting that one to sleep tomorrow,’ ” Berloni said. “It was a revelation. I had had no idea that some animals had expiration dates and that they kill them when their time is up.”
After adopting and training the original Sandy to do several tricks, including popping out of a large Christmas box (which the current Sandy demonstrated on Saturday); lying perfectly still during musical numbers (“training for this involves meditation and massage”); and running across the stage on certain cues (in order for Annie to prove to a policeman that
Sandy is her dog), the original “Annie” opened to bad reviews, being particularly panned by The New York Times.
Despite the critical slamming, the famous film director Mike Nichols opted to direct the musical’s 1977 Broadway debut. Berloni trained Sandy and her understudy in case Sandy got sick. “Through the commands, dogs learn to love us and they feel safe,” he said he learned about dogs at the time.
“The show became a huge hit,” Berloni said, “and I became a worldfamous animal trainer at age 20. Forty-one years later, I am still doing the same thing: I am loving and respecting animals.”
In addition to Bruiser, Berloni’s star dogs appeared consecutively onstage like a “Who’s Who” of Broadway canine legends: the mutt Sandy from the musical “Annie;” the Cairn terrier Toto from “The Wiz;” the presumed Labradoodle mix Bowdie from the upcoming Broadway production of the 2005 film “Because of Winn-Dixie;” and a new protégé, a Tamaskan named Luchta, who made his debut in front of an audience on Saturday.
Nessa, the 5-year-old Cairn terrier, appeared onstage with Berloni. “Toto trained onstage the whole show on ‘The Wiz,’” he said. “Toto runs around and escapes the Wicked Witch. During training, the name ‘Toto’ had the meaning ‘Come,’ so the script didn’t have to be changed.”
Berloni’s new protégé, Luchta, the Tamaskan puppy came onstage following Berloni’s request that there would be no applause, gasps, or noise coming from the audience.
“This is his first time in front of people,” Berloni said, noting that, when fully grown, the lupine looking dog will eventually play the ferocious-andthen-tamed Wolf of Gubbio. Luchta will be trained to be part of a menagerie in a planned dance production based on the life of St Francis of Assisi called
“God’s Pool” by local choreographer Martha Clarke. Clarke was in the Sharon Playhouse audience on Saturday as well.
Tamaskan dogs are a Finnish dog crossbreed that has been specifically bred to resemble a wolf. Though the dogs contain no wolf DNA, Berloni said sometimes Tamaskans bite when they feel threatened. Indeed, to the contrary of the breed’s reputation, the young and wolf-like Luchta appeared calm and curious in front of the audience.
Berloni said that his latest project with his wife, Dorothy, (whom he had met when she was director of programming at Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts 17 years ago) is the upcoming Broadway musical production of the 2005 film “Because of Winn-Dixie.” He said the story about a large, rambunctious dog that changes a troubled small town for good, involved the show’s star, Bowdie, being onstage for a total of 107 minutes and following more than 110 cues.
Bowdie, who also performs in various TV commercials and the children’s show “Sesame Street: Elmo’s World,” had to at one point jump up and push Berloni to the ground as a stunt. “He is the culmination of 40 years of dog training and the things that dogs have taught me,” Berloni added.
Following a questionand-answer period, Berloni signed copies of “Broadway Tails” and took photos with his canine charges and book buyers.
Justin Vagliano, executive director of the Little Guild of St. Francis, said prior to the show: “We give thanks to the wonderful support of our community — and especially to Bill Berloni for volunteering his time and that of his fourlegged stars. We were completely sold out weeks in advance. As a result, and expecting to raise over $20,000, shows just how very important our friends here in the Northwest Corner feel the work of the
Little Guild is.”
After the show, Little Guild President John Guenther said, “I loved it. It’s a special thing to have Bill show his process and give us his back story on the dogs’ shows.”
Berloni gave an interview on the Friday before “Broadway Tails.” “I have a live show that runs anywhere from three to six times a year. It started off as an educational program for kids. Other groups heard about it, and it snowballed from there. That is how the Little Guild show started.”
In addition to the 31 dogs he keeps at his home in eastern Connecticut, Berloni and his wife and daughter also keep “on the farm that Sandy built,” horses, pigs, cats, a bird, and a donkey. “It is not too crazy a menagerie but the place is filled with animals,” he added.
Berloni’s dog-and-pony show and training he gives the animals has earned him a 2011 Tony Award, a visit to the White House, and has allowed him to recount beloved anecdotes in the book he co-wrote with Jim Hanrahan called “Broadway Tails: Heartfelt Stories of Rescued Dogs Who Became Showbiz Superstars” (published in 2012 by Lyons Press).
In addition to his many TV appearances and reality shows, Berloni appeared in a October 2009 episode of the behind-the-Broadway-scenes show “In the Wings:” In the episode, he commented, “When people ask me, ‘Why adopt rescue dogs?,’” I ask ‘Why not?’ They are just as smart and just as deserving as any other pet.”
He attributes his love of animals from his childhood spent on a farm in New Britain. “My only companions were dogs, cats, and rabbits,” he said during Friday’s interview. “I learned that you can’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. I respect animals and empathize with them — these are things other animal trainers forget.”
Berloni said this was the first time he had done a show for the Little Guild, adding, “If you have to spend an evening with people, what better way than to spend it than with animal lovers?”