BOOM! Theater performers range from novices to Equity cardholders who have toured nationally. The performers were in their twenties when their most recent production of the musical “La Cage Aux Folles” first opened on Broadway in 1983. They were nearing middle age when it was adapted into the film “The Birdcage.” And now they’re retired, or close to it.
“A lot of the people our age are not really offered anything because we age out of roles,” said Rob Phillips of Akron. “This gives us an opportunity to do something we never really – I never thought I would’ve ever gone on stage in drag and had a wonderful time doing it.”
Phillips was one of the leads in a recent production of “La Cage Aux Folles,” and the other was Harry Cool of Cuyahoga Falls. They’re both in their 60s.
“We bring a wealth of actual life experience,” Phillips said. “When we do some of the numbers, I actually have to hold back the tears.”
He’s not the only one. Val Renner, associate director of the Akron Civic Theatre and co-founder of BOOM!, said, “when Rob sings the song, ‘I Am What I Am,’ I don't think there's a dry eye in the audience. He is singing his song of what he's had to go through in his lifetime.”
The company grew from a realization that the Civic already had age-specific theater groups for teens and millennials.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, there is a part of society and in theater that can be overlooked. And it's the 50 and older generation,’” Renner said. “There's a lot of people that are in this age bracket. So how do we engage them? How do we make their life better? And one way is through the arts. You need to have some platform to still display all of your talents on."
BOOM!’s first production was “Cabaret” last fall. The lead in the 1972 film was played by then 26-year-old Liza Minnelli. At the Akron Civic, Sally Bowles was played by Tina Davis from Gates Mills. She’s over 50, and she was also in “La Cage Aux Folles.”
“As you get older, the parts become smaller-and-smaller because most shows are written to have a younger ingenue and a younger leading man. So, to be able to step into those roles as older people – with just as much talent and just as much passion for the characters – I think every single person here would say, ‘This is really a dream come true,’” Davis said.
Renner said it’s also a dream come true for her seeing the actors bonding in ways no one could have predicted, as they did in “Cabaret.”
“We had a sheriff. We people of color that came out. Karen’s. We had every type of person in that play. And what we realized was, this brought together a group of people who might never have talked in their entire lifetime. They might never have known a transgender person. They might never have had conversations with gay people before. And here they were. They embraced each other. And what they presented was this beautiful work of art,” Renner said.
BOOM! Theater is open to anyone over 50, even though the name sounds a little like it could be exclusive to Baby Boomers, who are usually 60+.
“We didn't want to call it ‘Boomer Theater’ because then people might have a connotation that it's a bunch of old people. Actually, it is ‘boom’ in the sense of when someone performs - and they drop the mic - they go, ‘Boom, done, I did it.’ And that's what BOOM! is. They did it. They came back and they did it and they did it great,” Renner said.
What will they be doing next? This July, the Akron Civic will host an Ohio Arts Council workshop for actors in BOOM!’s age bracket. The third production for BOOM! Theater, “Scrooge: The Musical,” is due this December.
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