Co-Stars of “Suds” Are Still Making a Splash

After “Suds,” what?

The half-dozen young San Diego actor/writer/friends who put together that nostalgic songfest of the ‘50s and ‘60s that played at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Old Globe Theatre, Off-Broadway and then back at the Rep again, are not just sitting around waiting for the next incarnation of “Suds,” which may come as early as February in San Francisco. Instead, they are working.

Steve Gunderson is starring in an independent film in New York (written by San Diego State University graduate Jim Hansen). Christine Sevec is teaching voice and speech at United States International University. Will Roberson is preparing to direct “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” at the Old Globe Theatre April 28. Bryan Scott is working on several new projects including a game show.

And Susan Mosher is now at the Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre, doing a delightful star turn in “Funny Girl.” Mosher is also getting her confidence up for a move to New York, while her “Suds” co-star, Melinda Gilb, understudies her as she plays Mrs. O’Malley.

Mosher identifies with the part of Fanny Brice, the real-life ugly duckling turned successful comedienne, in the role that made Barbra Streisand a star.

“Every night, every time I do the show, I get that feeling that that’s me,” Mosher said on the phone just before her Wednesday matinee. “I was always a little overweight and and awkward, but I always felt I had something that someone wanted to see. I could never dance, and I knew that my niche wasn’t that obvious. But I knew that I always wanted to play this part. There aren’t a lot of vehicles that are tailor-made for me.

“There’s one line where I say, ‘Don’t worry, Mrs. Strakosh. One day the whole world will look at me and be stunned.’ I really think it’s going to happen,” Mosher said.

Friendship--among the co-creators and stars of “Suds”--was a key to what made that show work. Friendship is fueling Mosher’s confidence for her New York move; she is getting encouragement from San Diego State graduate Kathy Najimy (of Off Broadway’s “The Kathy & Mo Show”) for that trip even as Gilb works with Najimy’s co-star, Maureen Gaffney, on a film script.

Friendship, too, is the reason Gilb agreed to understudy Mosher. When Mosher’s original understudy, Nanci Hunter, was sidelined in an automobile accident, Mosher asked Gilb to step in, and she did.

The Gilb and Mosher friendship dates back to Grossmont College (Mosher is from Spring Valley and Gilb from El Cajon). It’s been a mutual admiration society from the beginning.

“She was always my idol,” said Mosher of Gilb. “I think she is the best musical theater person in the city bar none. It’s ironic because in a lot of ways we were right for the same parts. But Melinda is of such high quality, if she got a part (instead of me) I would go, ‘Good!’ It’s not, ‘I hope she gets it’ and I really want to kill her.”

Fortunately, Fanny Brice is not a part Gilb covets. Being raised a Southern Baptist, she said she doesn’t have the same feeling for the Jewish comedienne that Mosher--who is Jewish--does.

“I can sing the songs fine, but the characters are foreign to me,” said Gilb on the phone just minutes before the curtain went up. “So it’s very interesting to work really hard to find something (in the part) and hope to God I never have to go on.”

ABC-TV will televise “America’s Dance Awards,” the first national dance awards presentation, that is to be presented at the gala opening of the San Diego Convention Center on Jan. 19. The show will air July 5 from 9-10 p.m.

In addition, television producer Gregory Willenborg, who is organizing the show, said over 20 stars, including Ann Margret and Ann Miller, are committed to attending the show. He will release a list of names Tuesday, he said on the phone from his Los Angeles office.

Both Willenborg and Kit Goldman, managing director of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, who is producing the gala, expressed dismay that early press articles have criticized them for giving out awards in categories that compare the Dance Theatre of Harlem (the winner) with San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet (San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet both declined to send representatives to the event). Both Goldman and Willenborgfeel that critics are missing the point of the occasion, which is to bring attention and funding to dancers, to a minority scholarship student to be named, and to the five arts organizations south of Broadway that will benefit from the proceeds of the gala: the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, Sushi Gallery, the Bowery Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre and the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts.

“I was surprised,” said Goldman. “When you look at the problems that classical dance companies have in attracting a large mainstream audience and raising money, you would think people would appreciate that we were trying to attract an audience and raise money. I thought we were doing something really wonderful. I was relatively devastated.”

Goldman also thought it was ironic that one critic, as a member of the San Diego Critics Circle, had denounced the program for presuming to compare the artistic vision of the Paul Taylor Company with that of Merce Cunningham. The San Diego Critics Circle gives out awards to shows from theaters with visions as diverse as the Old Globe, the La Jolla Playhouse, Starlight Musical Theatre and Sledgehammer Theatre.

But the bottom line, as far as Goldman and Willenborg are concerned, is to keep the focus on how these awards will benefit the arts. Willenborg hopes, if all goes well, to make the dance awards an annual event. Goldman hopes, if all goes well, that this event will put the Gaslamp on steady legs for 1990.

“Our goal is to have complete debt reduction during 1990 and the gala is incredibly important to us,” said Goldman. “We undertook it with the express purpose of finding a vehicle where we and our colleagues could find substantial funds.”

PROGRAM NOTES: “The Debutante,” the world premiere reworking of the Pygmalion story in black turn-of-the-century Philadelphia society, is set for a July 10-Sept. 2 run at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. Writer Elmo Terry Morgan will be teaming up with composer Clarice LaVerne Thompson on the musical which is set to star Cleavon Little. Little’s most recent encounter with Morgan and Thompson was pleasant. As host of the Audelco Awards--given for black theater productions--Little handed out eight awards to Morgan and Thompson for their collaboration on the musical “Song of Sheba” at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. . . .

Stephen Metcalfe, La Jolla-based writer of the movie “Cousins” (an adaptation of the French film “Cousin, Cousine”) and “Jacknife” (the film adaptation of his own play “Strange Snow”) is back to writing plays again. His latest was given a reading for the internal staff at the Old Globe Theatre recently. Metcalfe, an associate artist with the theater, already has quite a track record at the Old Globe; “Vikings,” “Strange Snow,” “Emily” (due for a North Coast Repertory Theatre production in 1990), “The Incredibly Famous Willy Rivers” and “White Linen” were all produced there.