The man behind ‘Masks’

It’s a rare disease with a long, scary name: craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, also known as “lion’s disease” because the bone disorder causes calcium to build up in the skull, thickening features so the human face resembles that of a lion.

The 1985 movie “Mask” -- the true story of Roy L. “Rocky” Dennis, a Southern California teenager who died of the disease at age 16 -- brought the condition to the attention of the public

While most people never encounter the disorder, makeup designer Michael Westmore has had to deal with it twice: once for the movie, now for “Mask” the stage musical, opening Friday at the Pasadena Playhouse. It features Allen E. Read as Rocky, with music and lyrics by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and a book by “Mask” screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan.

For the film, which starred Eric Stoltz as Rocky, Westmore was able to mold the mask using three separate pieces of foam latex, applied to the face and blended with makeup. Stoltz also wore dentures to simulate Rocky’s deformed teeth.

After the real Rocky died, his mother -- portrayed by Cher in the movie and Michelle Duffy in the musical -- donated his skull to the Stanford University School of Medicine. For the film, the school offered to lend the skull to Westmore, but he says he was able get all the detail he needed from photographs.

Because of the accumulation of bone in the forehead, Westmore says, Rocky’s eyes were forced about 3 1/2 inches apart; in the Stoltz mask, the distance was reduced to 1 1/2 inches so Stoltz would be able to see.

Onstage, the Rocky character has to be able to sing -- and that changes the rules. The stage mask begins with five latex pieces -- forehead, nose, two cheekbones and chin -- to accommodate more facial movement. To this end, the dentures have also been eliminated as well as the latex foam that covered the actor’s upper lip in the movie.

Westmore says the makeup used to connect the pieces has become more sophisticated since 1985, but the technique for mixing the foam latex remains as unsophisticated as ever: At his North Hollywood workshop, Westmore pops the liquid latex mixture into a Sunbeam kitchen blender, after which it is poured into plaster molds, formed on clay models.

What comes out looks heavy but feels as light as whipped cream -- although the sulfur used to cure the latex caused actor Read to comment that the first time the mask was applied, the pieces reeked of rotten eggs. Westmore and makeup artist Brad Look assured him that the segments would be given a bath in vanilla water before the first performance.

Scarlet symbol

Though Rocky’s face was so disfigured that he was once asked to take off his mask -- hence the title -- the boy was, Read says, proud of his thick mane of wavy red hair. The job of re-creating Rocky’s hair fell to wig designer Carol Doran. The wig, made of human hair, is attached to the mask with spirit gum and removed with alcohol the same way it would be attached and removed from skin. Doran has re-created the look of Rocky’s hair but has dyed it slightly redder so the color will read onstage.

While the mask pieces can probably be reused for only a few performances before they begin to disintegrate, Doran says that because the show’s run at the Pasadena Playhouse is only about six weeks, the wig should last throughout. The shirts that the Rocky character wears have invisible zippers in the shoulders so Read can pull them on over his enlarged head.

Westmore, whose credits include designing elaborate aliens for the many TV and movie incarnations of “Star Trek,” says creating this mask was in some ways more difficult. “It’s the same process, but with an alien you can make a ridge or a stripe or polka dots; here, you’re dealing with a person,” he says. “The only adaptation we’ve made to the stage is to make the ridges in his face more pronounced.”

For the stage, Westmore adds, the creative team considered a less literal presentation of the boy’s disease “for about 10 seconds and then it went out the window. You have to put the third dimension on, or it really wouldn’t work -- you’d be asking the audience to use their imaginations, and most of them don’t have one,” he says. “It happens so often at the studios, an actor will say, ‘I don’t need that, I can just play that; I never wore the old-age makeup when I was at theater school at Northwestern . . .’ ” The veteran makeup designer shakes his head.

Once the process is streamlined, the makeup crew expects it will take about an hour to apply Read’s mask, which he will leave on between shows on two-performance days. On those days, he will have to avoid greasy or staining foods, such as spareribs or spaghetti sauce, to keep from damaging the mask.

Read, who says he jumped at the role without considering how long it might keep him in the makeup chair, is relieved to find that the construction is surprisingly comfortable. “When we made the plaster mold of my head, neck and shoulders, that was more claustrophobic -- they had to completely enclose my head and neck, I got a little freaked out,” he admits. The mask, he says, “really feels like an extension of me rather than an appendage.”

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diane.haithman@latimes.com

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‘Mask’

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: Opens Friday. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Call for exceptions.

Ends: April 20

Price: $38 to $76

Contact: (626) 356-7529