INTERVIEW: Vicki Lewis invites you to ‘The Prom’ at the Axelrod
Photo: Vicki Lewis stars in The Prom as Dee Dee Allen. Photo courtesy John Posada / Provided by the Axelrod with permission.
The Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park, New Jersey, continues its growing tradition of inviting some of the best actors in the country to this tucked-away regional theater down the Jersey Shore for unique takes on engaging musical theater. Last year saw the well-received production of The Bridges of Madison County starring Kate Baldwin and Aaron Lazar, and now the Axelrod is presenting The Prom, directed by Todd Buonopane and starring Vicki Lewis and John Scherer.
Lewis, the Broadway star of Anastasia, Damn Yankees and Chicago, portrays the character of Dee Dee Allen, a Broadway performer herself who is facing a crossroads in her personal life and professional career. Eventually Dee Dee’s story intersects with Barry Glickman (Scherer), Emma Nolan (Lillian Belle Doll) and host of other characters. At the center of the narrative are two girlfriends who are dating and want to attend the prom together in a conservative town, but they soon face backlash and homophobic comments. It’s up to Dee Dee and a group of her theatrical friends to descend upon this community and show them a thing or two about acceptance and inclusion.
“I didn’t get a chance to see it in New York, but it is really good,” Lewis said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a great musical. It moves very quickly. It’s got so much comedy and so much heart. The music is great. It’s a good show. I’m having such a fun time doing it.”
Lewis, who appeared for six seasons on Newsradio, was asked to take on the Dee Dee role mostly because one of her dear friends, Scherer, was in the ensemble. “He’s playing Barry, and he was asked to do it,” she said. “And then they said, ‘Hey, do you think Vicki Lewis would want to do it?’ That’s basically what happened, and then John said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Oh my God, this looks fun,’ and so now we’re doing it. It was that simple.”
For Lewis, she immediately recognized the Dee Dee character. She said she’s had a front-row seat to the Dee Dee’s of show business, and it’s fun to send up an actor who takes themselves too seriously. In the show, although Dee Dee believes in the cause of inclusion, she seems to be helping the situation at the prom only to score career points, and that turns into one of the main arcs of the musical: Can Dee Dee be altruistic without being self-centered?
“She is somebody that is of a certain age,” Lewis said. “As an older woman you become invisible oftentimes in this business, so she’s really at a breaking point as funny as all of it is. When she finally meets the school principal in the middle of this town, in the middle of nowhere, he sparks something in her, and she’s actually able to find some joy and some happiness in letting go of all the stuff that she thinks will make her happy, that she keeps clawing for — the money, the spotlight. And she becomes this beautiful woman who wants to learn how to be a better person and not be so self-centered, and you know it’s funny, being an actor can create such a horrible dynamic in a person if they take it too seriously. There are so many noes and so many ups and downs.”
Lewis added: “I’ve had chapters of television and voiceovers and Broadway. They don’t create the happiness. You have to find that in yourself, and it comes from other people … having friends around you, just getting outside of yourself. And then when the good things come, they’re fun, and when they don’t, you can glide through it.”
Lewis said she also connected with the larger themes of the musical, which was composed by Matthew Sklar, with lyrics by Chad Beguelin and a book by Bob Martin and Beguelin. The LGBTQIA+ acceptance at the heart of the piece is something that the actor has believed about the world for practically forever.
“I believed this should have been the message in 1981,” Lewis said. “It’s been frightening in many ways to see the hatred and the bigotry and the homophobia and the transphobia — in some ways, just heartbreaking. I know when I was a kid, you couldn’t open your mouth about any of this at all, and it’s a beautiful thing to see. We have all these young kids in the show. And John and I sit back … and it’s beautiful to watch them be who they are openly without any fear. It’s a really touching, beautiful thing.”
Lewis added: “I find myself tearing up in rehearsal. It’s handed over in such a way that it’s not heavy-handed, but it is so beautifully written and poignant that the audience can take in the message without feeling like they’ve just been hit over the head with it. And, yes, I feel very strongly that we need to be an inclusive world community. We really do. There’s nothing worse than a child who’s is coming into their own who can’t express who they are, who they want to love or how they want to present themselves.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Prom, starring Vicki Lewis, continues through May 21 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
