‘Bent Broadway’ bends gender

The director listened to the six women rehearse a song on the stage at the No Square Theatre and buried his face in his hands.

“I’m hearing pretty singing that’s lacking testosterone,” said director Joe Lauderdale, who sits on the Laguna Beach theater’s board of directors. “I want you to have fun with this by playing a brusque and dumb athlete.”

Laughter cut through the theater’s storied Legion Hall.

The actresses were rehearsing No Square Theatre’s upcoming musical comedy, “Bent Broadway,” where women will sing the men’s songs and the men will sing the women’s songs, though they’ll all join in on group numbers. The show runs Feb. 6 and 7.

It’s not unusual for actors and actresses to portray a character of the opposite gender. In the ancient Greek theater, men played females, as they did in English Renaissance theater and continue to do in Japanese kabuki theater. Mary Pickford starred as Cedric Errol and Widow Errol in the 1921 film “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” and Cate Blanchett was stylized after Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There.”

The cross-gender acting is a way for Lauderdale to push boundaries at the community playhouse.

During the audition process, he paid attention to personality and listened for vocal quality, though attitude is what he considers most important. Because there are no costumes or props in the play, Lauderdale said he wanted to make sure each character understood the lyrics and played out the emotions in the words.

“It’s all about telling a story, with the text of the song being more important than hitting the high notes,” he said as the women practiced their lyrics during a Tuesday night rehearsal. “But they’re sounding better.”

*

‘The more manly the better’

The road to that success started earlier in the month when 10 members of the cast, five men and five women, first gathered at the theater to learn their roles after being chosen for the play.

Lauderdale told the group that he was proud that many had carved out time from their full-time jobs to perform in the show. He said it was the mission of No Square Theatre, a nonprofit, to provide theatrical experience to local amateur performers, directors and technical staff of all ages.

Then he got down to business.

“Ruby Rae is Rick,” he said, reading off the female characters to the ensemble of male actors. “Eloise is Wade and Dawn is Michael.”

Some giggled, while others silently mouthed words out of the script.

“So when we get to harmonies, we’ll go for wide ranges,” Lauderdale said.

Ella Wyatt, who runs the theater’s children’s programs, said she was thrilled to play Gaston, the main antagonist from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

“He’s the ultimate male chauvinist,” Wyatt said. “The more manly the better.”

Wyatt said she will perform Gaston’s song “Me,” with its lyrics showing the character’s superiority complex. Lauderdale told her that she is not to deepen her voice while singing the lyrics:

Picture this: A rustic hunting lodge,

My latest kill roasting over the fire,

My little wife massaging my feet, while

The little ones play on the floor with the dogs.

“This is about just having fun and not taking it seriously,” Wyatt said. “I don’t look at it about playing a man. For me, this is more about human emotions.”

Annika Carlson, who will play one of the self-centered football players, said she was excited to participate in the performance after seeing a show at No Square last year.

“I was hoping I could be a part of things,” she said.

And Kristen Matson, who plays another football player, said she wanted to take every opportunity to work with Lauderdale and musical director Diane King Vann.

“This group is so professional,” Lauderdale said. “They work so hard and they’re dedicated. What’s great for these actors is that some who never sing get to sing in this show.”

*

‘Macbeth!’ ‘Macbeth!’

Lauderdale, who said he doesn’t perform much because he has trouble remembering lines, will join the actors onstage for the two nights. He’ll play “Miss Mona” only because he already knows the lyrics to the song.

He said he’s nervous before every show, but once he’s in the middle of the act, he is fine — that is, if a cast member or theatergoer doesn’t utter the title of a Scottish tragedy.

Oops.

“Don’t ever say ‘Macbeth,’” he shrieked. “I’ve had terrible things happen. I was almost killed.”

He was playing Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when someone muttered the Shakespearean work while Lauderdale was set to fly in a tall theater. He found himself soaring and then landing on the stage with his nose touching the floor.

According to a theatrical superstition, called the “Scottish curse,” speaking the name “Macbeth” inside a theater will cause disaster.

But even death-defying experiences can’t dampen an actor’s need to perform.

“You always want to return,” he said. “Musical theater encompasses so many stories, and that’s what I’m hoping for, that I am introducing the audience to shows that they may never have seen.”

And speaking of that Scottish play, it and “Bent Broadway” share similar themes.

“I think that it’s fun and comical and serious and tragic and beautiful,” Lauderdale said of his play. “It’s all the things theater should be.”

How tragic?

“You have to come to find out.”

IF YOU GO

What: “Bent Broadway”

When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7

Where: No Square Theatre, 384 Legion St., Laguna Beach

Cost: $20

Information: (949) 715-0333 or nosquare.org