Musical: CityRep, Tulsa theaters collaborate on premiere
director. “It fits in with the idea of our sense of community.”
When it was released in 1996, Reed’s novel earned strong notices in Kirkus Review and Publishers Weekly, Churchman said, and it has since become a cult classic. Reed set the poignant story in his hometown of Pryor.
The novel centers on Charlie Hope (recent OU graduate Tanner Rose), a young gay man growing up in the blue-collar town; his mother (Oklahoma native and Broadway actress Stacey Logan, “Sweet Smell of Success”), a fervent evangelical Christian with a tragic past; his grandfather (Terry Runnels, Broadway’s “Zorba”), an alcoholic skirt-chaser who runs the local bar where Charlie is born on the pool table; and his first love, Dewar (OU senior Mark Jammal). Rose and Jammal have worked on the development of “Pryor Rendering” since December.
Directed by Stephen Nachamie (most recently the associate director on the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of “She Loves Me”), the new musical also will feature favorite CityRep performers Ben Hall, Scott Hynes and Linda Leonard and set design by Richard Ellis, principal scenic director for Tulsa’s American Theatre Company.
“It will be the first time I think there’s ever been this kind of theatrical collaboration between the two cities,” Jordan said.
Although it is set in the 1960s, Churchman said the story’s themes remain relevant.
“In many of these small towns, you have people who are very religious, you have people who are very live and let live … and you have people who live outside the boundaries and color outside the line,” he said. “Oklahoma is full of eccentric characters and always has been.”
Although they are unconventional, he said Reed’s characters also have an authenticity that Oklahomans will recognize and appreciate.
“When I first read the book, I felt as if I knew these characters. I was born and raised in Dallas, but especially my father’s side of the family is from Oklahoma. And I just felt that there’s not a cliche in the entire (story). Quite often when someone wants to write about this part of the country, it’s so cliche-ridden. And this is so real,” said Churchman, whose father’s family hails from Ardmore.
“I think that everyone will recognize their own history. … There’s going to be a recognition of, like, their grandma or their next-door neighbor, because this is an Oklahoma story. There’s not a lot of those on the stage. We feel like this is where it needs to premiere.”
Along with taking its name from a real-life Oklahoma town, the title has two meanings. It refers to the fictional local rendering plant where discarded animal parts from the nearby slaughterhouse are melted down into lubricants and fertilizer, but it also refers to the tearing down and rebuilding of one’s identity.
“You have to be taken apart in a way. You have to be rendered to be reborn as something better than you were,” Churchman said. “I think that kind of spirit of rebirth, of overcoming obstacles, is, again, very Oklahoman. It really speaks to what it took to settle this place, what it took to live here through the Dust Bowl and what it means to live outside the lines someplace in Oklahoma.”
Birthing a new musical comes with its own set of obstacles. Churchman and Schiro have been working on “Pryor Rendering” off and on for nearly a decade, since Churchman loaned his writing partner his copy of the novel. They have stuck with the project through many rewrites, a first reading two years ago at CityRep, a workshop in New York last year and a series of fundraisers in OKC, Tulsa, San Francisco and online.
“Pryor Rendering” is the third world-premiere production CityRep has ushered to the stage in its 15 seasons, after the OKC bombing drama “The Oklahoma City Project” and Oklahoma playwright James Tyra’s adaptation of the classical comedy “Lysistrata.”
“It’s a very challenging thing to do a new musical. … Everything has to be created, and no one’s done it before,” Jordan said. “We’re helping to develop the theatrical canon, but with a great deal of diversity. So I’m really proud of that.”
Churchman and Schiro set out to create a musical and not just a play because they felt music would give the story added power as they took it from page to stage. Schiro has penned the music for a five-piece country-bluegrass combo that will capture the spirit of the story and the state, Churchman said.
“Music is sort of outsized to the culture itself of this state,” he said. “We are a musical people, and I think that people are actually really beginning to acknowledge that and say, ‘We don’t just pump out amazing country artists; music is kind of in our bones here.’ ”