Dance Fever

Most of what’s being called a “swing revival” these days has little to do with swing music in the classic sense. Instead, Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and their ilk are trying to re-create jump music of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, emulating Louis Prima, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris and their own imitators.

During the next several days, two swing-themed events will take place at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza: “Swingtime Canteen” tonight; and “Swing, Swing, Swing,” featuring Harry Selvin’s 18-piece band, a swing dance demonstration and exhibition on Saturday.

“Swingtime Canteen,” a touring show that comes to the Civic Arts Plaza tonight, is a thinly plotted book musical that gives seven women an opportunity to perform vocal rhythm numbers from the golden era of genuine swing, not to mention a bevy of sentimental favorites--”A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and the like.

As co-author William Repicci explained in a chat last week, the genesis came from a show by Linda Thorsen Bond, a playwright in Midland, Texas. “She called it ‘Home Fires,’ and it included men, women and a band. I suggested that we scale the show down for Broadway.”

After some rewriting by Repicci and playwright-actor Charles Busch, and some trial runs, the show opened off-Broadway in early 1995 for a 300-performance run. It opened in London in 1996, and there have been more than 50 productions around this country, Repicci said. (The show’s “closest cousin,” he allows, is “Forever Plaid”; he worked with that show’s co-creator, Stuart Ross, on an earlier project, “Creeps.”

Although rights are available to community theater groups, most would find it difficult to cast a show with seven female singers, many of whom also play instruments ranging from woodwinds to percussion and sing more than 30 songs, including a fast-paced Andrews Sisters medley. “It’s quite demanding on the cast,” Repicci notes. “So the touring production is quite attractive to producers who wouldn’t have the resources to pull [it] together . . . themselves.”

The production that comes to Thousand Oaks originated at Circa 21 Playhouse in Rock Island, Ill. “As soon as I heard about the show, I contacted Bill,” explained Circa 21 producer Denny Hitchcock. “I felt that with a renewed interest in the ‘40s and swing music, it would sell well. We had an eight-week run in our 336-seat theater and outsold ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in the same slot.” The tour opened in Washington state on Friday and will be out for six weeks, Hitchcock added.

DETAILS

“Swingtime Canteen” plays at 8 tonight only at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza auditorium, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. in Thousand Oaks. Tickets range from $20 to $35. “Swing, Swing, Swing” takes place Saturday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Forum Theater (same address), opening with the swing dance workshop at 7 p.m.; the concert/dance follows at 8, and a floor show begins about 9:45. All tickets are $36.50, which includes swing dance lesson and the concert/floor show.

Tickets for either show may be purchased through Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 583-8700 or at the Civic Arts Plaza box office. For more information, call 449-2787.

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From the Stage to the Page: When Adrea Gibbs submitted her master’s thesis to La Salle University in New Orleans two years ago, “My professor liked it so much, he encouraged me to seek publication for it.”

She sought, she found, and Saturday afternoon she will sign copies of “Let’s Put on a Show” at Borders in Thousand Oaks.

“My original objective,” she said the other day, “was that I had never been able to find a theater book that encompassed everything that goes into putting on a show, especially for children.”

Gibbs, whose experience ranges from choreographing a Japanese tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” to appearing in the Moscow Circus and several productions of “Cats,” more recently directed the Camarillo Community Theater’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” choreographed the Marquie Dinner Theater’s upcoming “Dames at Sea” and directs her original “A Dickens of a Christmas” at Camarillo Community Theater later this year.

“I had been an educator in theater and dance,” she said, “so I already understood the product and the need for it. The book, which includes everything from theater terminology to makeup tips, is written for a junior-high level, but any child could take the book and put on a show in their house.”

DETAILS

Adrea Gibbs will sign “Let’s Put on a Show!” Saturday at 4 p.m. at Borders, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd. in Thousand Oaks. For more information, call 497-8159.

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Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.