Hershey, PA

Lebanon Daily - April 3, 2005

The Patriot News - March 31, 2005

The Patriot News - March 28, 2005

Tampa, FL

Tampa Tribune Review - March 30, 2005

St. Petersburg Times Review - March 30, 2005

Tampa Tribune Article - March 27, 2005

St. Petersburg Times Article (Garrett Zuercher interview) - March 27, 2005

St. Petersburg Times Article (Jeff Calhoun interview) - March 27, 2005

Herald Tribune Article - March 25, 2005

Bradenton Herald Article - March 25, 2005

Cincinnati, OH

Talking Broadway.com - March 18, 2005

Cincinnati Enquirer - March 16, 2005

Cincinnati Weekly  Garrett Zuercher Interview - March 16, 2005

Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh Daily News - March 9, 2005

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - March 10, 2005

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - March 10, 2005

 

Director Stages Tale With Music for Eye, Ear

By PHYLLIS STEWART - Features Editor, Daily News

It has been Jeff Calhoun's excellent adventure, an uncertain odyssey that has taken him from his grandmother's garage in Pittsburgh, where he staged neighborhood plays, to summer stock, on the road with the ill-fated "Busker Alley," and to Broadway, where he achieved success as the director and choreographer of the critically acclaimed 2003 revival of "Big River," with its innovative mix of deaf and hearing actors, of signing and singing.

"Big River," which was developed by Deaf West Theatre and Calhoun, is based on Mark Twain's classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The tale of adventure and self-discovery, which begins on a raft on the Mississippi River in the 1840s, opens Tuesday at the Hershey Theatre for a six-day run.

And according to New York Times critic Ben Brantley, " ... this adaptation of Twain's epochal account of an American odyssey makes the crucial point that there's more than one way to tell a story and to sing a song. Though the coordination and integration of signed, spoken and sung language are surely a matter of great complexity, you're never allowed to sense the effort."

That effort was considerable, according to the 44-year-old Calhoun. "There are the normal challenges a director faces but other things you never thought of," he said during a telephone conversation from San Diego, where he was directing "Himself and Nora," a new musical about James Joyce and his wife.

"The hearing actors have to learn to sign, the deaf have

to learn to stay with the music. You have to rethink the use of props, because a deaf person needs his hands to sign. You have to rethink staging, because the actors can't have their backs to one another. ... It makes us more creative. We were forced to have built-in visual cues with the choreography, for example. Something as simple as looking for a certain light to change or what step an actor is on ...

"It's a comedy of errors until it jells hearing actor on the same page as deaf actor, deaf actor on the same page as the musical director. The rehearsal process was twice as long as for a normal production. It takes a lot of commitment.

"This project drew a special breed of actor," Calhoun added in his pleasant, even way. "The audience picks up on the sensitivity and uniqueness of the actors."

For most audiences, Calhoun said, "it takes 10 minutes to get acclimated" to the synchronized ballet of speaking, signing, gesture, song and dance, "but by the end they forget who's deaf and who's hearing."

The production was originally developed at Deaf West in North Hollywood in the fall of 2001. After winning numerous awards it transferred and was further developed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2002 before moving to the Roundabout Theater Company's American Airlines Theater in New York in the 2003-04 season.

"It's changed everybody's life in a profound way," Calhoun said of the production. "We started at a 66-seat theater in North Hollywood, and clearly you don't go there for fame and fortune. The irony is that this has given me the most critical acclaim I've ever had as well as the opportunity to put things on stage that no one has seen before."

Putting things on stage was a preoccupation early on. Jeff Calhoun was born in Buffalo, N.Y., the youngest of Joyce and Robert Calhoun's two sons. The family soon moved to the Pittsburgh suburb of Richland and at 9 he started tap classes at the Fairgrieve School of Dance.

"Every Saturday night I saw the dancers on 'The Carol Burnett Show' and I told my mother 'I want to do that.'

"My parents were the most supportive people," Calhoun said. "They spent their life driving me from football practice (he was a quarterback) to dance class. That's been the foundation of everything for me on this journey."

As a teenager, the 6-foot, 4-inch Calhoun played a number of sports football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, track was involved in student and community theater, and choreographed and staged half-time shows. At 16, he tapped his way into the chorus of a summer stock production of "Anything Goes," starring Ann Miller, and got his Equity card. At 17, he was the understudy to Tommy Tune in a stock production of "Pippin," and in 1979 Tune "yanked" Calhoun out of Northwestern University to join a touring company of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

Soon after the tour he made his Broadway debut in the short-lived 1982 production of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Not long after, Calhoun left performing to concentrate on choreographing and directing and forged a long-running professional partnership with Tune ("The Will Rogers Follies," "Tommy Tune Tonight," and a long-running revival of "Grease," among other shows).

The partnership ended in estrangement in 1995, when the troubled "Busker Alley," in which Tune starred while Calhoun directed and choreographed, closed before it reached New York. Devastated at the time, today Calhoun says the experience was "part and parcel of the journey to where I am today."

"There was a time when next to my parents Tommy was the most influential person in my life. You couldn't ask for a better teacher. At a time when other young actors were waiting tables, I was in school with one of the best directors and choreographers."

He began his Tune-less life by choreographing the successful Broadway revival of "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Bernadette Peters (1999), and the less successful "Bells Are Ringing" (2001) and by accepting an offer from Deaf West to direct its production of "Oliver." ("Part of the healing process was Deaf West," he said.) The production was a smash, winning L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for adaptation, directing, choreography and best musical.

When he was asked to direct and choreograph a second musical for the nonprofit West Coast theater troupe, Calhoun agreed. The result was "Big River," which received a special Tony on Broadway.

"We're helping to educate people," Calhoun said. "You can't ignore the fact that there are people up there signing, but visually you have the same experience you have with any other show."

These days, turmoil behind him, Calhoun is riding high. A tour producer of "Big River," he produced, directed and choreographed the current Broadway production of the musical "Brooklyn"; directed "Himself and Nora," which opened March 24 in San Diego; and directed and choreographed a second production of "Big River," which opened March 23 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., for a 12-week-run. Pretty heady stuff.

"There's not a finish line in mind," he said at one point. "I want to bring young people into the theater, make people want to go back.

"Eight times a week people who disagree on politics, on philosophy, on virtually everything, enter the theater. The door closes behind them and there's a sameness, a bonding, a shared experience. I find that very enriching ... much like a church."

 

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Mark Twain "Signed," Sealed, and Beautifully Delivered

By Joanne Greco Rochman - Waterbury Republican American

Finally! A great big beautiful musical has arrived, and it's one that you're not likely to ever forget. "Big River" currently at the Shubert in New Haven is one show where stamping your feet and clapping your hands is "deaf-initely" not enough. You have to do something else to show your appreciation for this superb performance.

Based on Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" this musical is actually co-developed by Deaf West Theatre. It features deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing actors in a synchronized performance, which is rather incredulous for such a huge musical and large cast. Yet, no one on stage misses a beat, and no one in the audience misses a beat either.

At one of the most powerful moments in this extraordinary musical, the orchestra stops playing, the vocalists stop singing, and though silence fills the theater, the fluid signing continues on stage and the audience feels the music. It's simply a stunning moment that anyone within driving distance should hurry to experience.

The hearing actors sing and sign while the non-hearing actors perform brilliantly through sign and movement. Two actors take on the role of each character - with one actor speaking and singing, and one actor performing and signing. It's like watching mirror images. The title role is brilliantly and boyishly portrayed by Garrett Matthew Zuercher with Adam Monley as the Voice of Huck Finn. Monley also plays Mark Twain with just the right amount of wit and wisdom.

There are so many outstanding performances in this show that it's not possible to acknowledge them all individually. However, Jerold E. Solomon as Jim must have his due. His solos are so outstanding that he nearly brought the house down every time he sang. When Jim and Huck sing and sign a duet together, they do bring down the house.

So clever and complex is the staging that experienced theatergoers will immediately recognize how daunting the director's task must be. Yet, Jeff Calhoun, who co-developed the show directs and choreographs with an eye for precision and an ear for sheer pleasure.

Expect dancing, singing, gorgeous costumes, thunder and lighting and wickedly expansive special effects. Expect, too, a set that features bigger than life pages from Twain's book. The characters literally step out of the pages. See this show and you will be begging your friends and family to see it, too. You'll want to share the experience with anyone who will listen, or sign.

The show runs through March 6. Tickets range from $67 to $15. Call tickets.com at (800) 228-6622.

Joanne Greco Rochman is an active member in The American Theatre Critics Association, and a founding member of The Connecticut Critics Circle. She welcomes comments. Contact: Jrochman@earthlink.net

 

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Ears, Errors and Orwell This Week: The tour of the Huck Finn musical is spoken, signed and much more

by Christopher Arnott - February 24, 2005

At Ramones concerts in the late 1970s, the band would play nonstop at top decibels for 45 minutes. Dee Dee Ramone's screeches of "1-2-3-4!" would kick off a new rapid-fire punk tune as the feedback from the last one was still ringing.

Then, near the end of the set, the Ramones would unleash a long pause during their cover of the Trashmen's "Surfing Bird." The wall of silence would hit you like a ton of bricks. Your head imploded. You noticed your ears like never before.

Big River has a moment like that.

In a sense, it has several. This transmuted musical, now at the Shubert on College Street in New Haven, comes at you so creatively and confidently that you feel exhiliratingly enlightened, thoroughly entertained. Yes, it's undeniably noble and touching and "good for you," but it's also staggeringly impressive and a hell of a lot of fun.

This Big River is that much-talked-about, much-signed-about Tony-winning show which mingles deaf and hearing actors in a revival of a straightforward musical based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . But the see-me/hear-me dichotomy is just one of the many soul-stirring challenges this show faces and overcomes. Big River marries small-theater wiles and Broadway resources. It revives a widely praised musical from 1985, replacing its original splashy stage design with a simple set of screens and platforms. It subdues the score, making it homespun and human, not bombastic.

As if it didn't haven't enough to bother with, this mesmerizing musical takes chances when it doesn't even have to. It sets out to solve a theater problem--how to translate a full-length musical into a different sort of performance language. Then, having demonstrated in its first few scenes how splendidly that "problem" can be solved, this big-deal Big River proceeds to show you many other ways it can be tackled. You get speaking actors providing voice-overs for deaf actors' physicalizings. You get a pair of actors, identically dressed, playing the same role at the same time. You get deaf jokes drawn straight from the plot. You get lot of sight gags, but also some inspired sound gags.

Big River 's original script and score do not just hold up well--they're improved by this eclectic staging. William Hauptman's script is true to Twain's sharp-tongued satire, pubescent adventurousness and social consciousness. Country legend Roger ("Dang Me") Miller's songs prove infinitely adaptable for this wide-ranging cast, who bend the tunes into folk-meek, gospel-grand or pop-smart.

Connecticut is better prepared than most regions for a show like this. Our state has been home to the National Theatre of the Deaf for nearly 40 years, so the concept of adapting plays for a combination of American Sign Language and spoken dialogue is nothing new. And Connecticut is where Twain's alter ego, Samuel Clemens, lived from 1870-91 and wrote Huckleberry Finn ; Clemens' Hartford home is now a museum.

But even Connecticut, which has hosted many a Twain musical ( Tom Sawyer 's pre-Broadway try-out at the Shubert, a megaflop Russian-rooted Twain pageant in Hartford, one-third of The Apple Tree at the Goodspeed), can't be fully prepared for the jaw-dropping wonders of Big River. I caught the Big River tour in November, when it stopped at Boston's Wang Center. As it happened, I saw the understudy, Adam Monley, go on in the central role of Mark Twain; the same actor also does the spoken voice for Huck (who's physically embodied by the appropriately dazed and wild-haired Tyrone Giordano). Monley has now permanently taken over the Twain/Huck parts and performs them at the Shubert this week.

Monley's a youthful, energetic Twain. He's wry and twinkle-eyed in the classic mold set by Hal Holbrook and other Twain impersonators. But he's also spry and wiry--jumping around, even playing along with the band on guitar, banjo, harmonica, ukulele--"and I'm still working on the mandolin," he said in a phone interview last week. Another skill Monley picked up expressly for this show? Sign language.

"I was one of only three or four actors who started with this tour," he said. "Everyone else had been in the show on Broadway or in California," where the production began at Deaf West Theatre in Northern Hollywood. "It was daunting at first, but the deaf actors really helped us. The reception has been wonderful--from the deaf communities, from everyone. I've never been so proud to be part of a show."

 

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'Big River' a high-water mark for Shubert

By E. Kyle Minor
3/3/05

NEW HAVEN - Mark Twain's classic novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is perhaps most appreciated for its simple, unpretentious truth. Deaf West's touring production of "Big River, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, is equally unaffected in its storytelling and just as refreshing.

"Big River," which opened Tuesday and continues through Sunday at the Shubert Theater, is special in many ways - all happily so. It's most distinctive aspect is that the entire musical is communicated in both spoken (and sung) words and American Sign Language, creating a unique eloquence rarely witnessed by musical theater audiences.

Ray Klausen's fanciful scenic design, far from realistic, is another delight. Finally, Calhoun's seamless weaving of words, sign language, music and movement make Twain's social satire and compassion a genuine example of prose in motion.

The show, which initially ran on Broadway in 1985 for a 1,005-performance run as a strictly spoken-sung performance, is the handiwork of composer-lyricist Roger Miller and bookwriter William Hauptman.

Miller's score is authentic in voice, period and style to the characters, time and setting of Twain's novel. The music is composed mostly in the traditional - some call it "roots" - acoustic style of rural, 19th-century America (there are three strong gospel songs as well), all performed exquisitely by musical director-pianist Steven Landau and his six-person band.

Unless you are a fan of the relatively obscure Eudora Welty-inspired musical, "The Robber Bridegroom," you've not heard such music from the Broadway stage. The music perfectly frames the story of runaways Huck and his slave companion Jim in the novel's context, as does Klausen's set, comprised entirely of larger-than-life pages and illustrations from an early edition of the book, hanging over and popping out of a multi-level stage.

Hauptman's book includes all the memorable scenes of the source material as Huck and Jim flow in and out of trouble as they roll down the Mississippi. Such colorful and menacing characters as Huck's Pap, Miss Watson, Duke and King keep Huck and Jim on the run, each seeking his own, different freedom.

The performers, who all sign their performances regardless of whether they are deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing, all capture the vernacular of the book and look their parts in David R. Zyla's period-perfect costumes.

Garrett Matthew Zuercher is an engaging, puckish Huck Finn, whose mute performance transcends mere articulacy. He is superbly complemented by Adam Monley, who doubles the voice of Huck Finn and narrator Mark Twain. As if this dual responsibility isn't enough to keep Monley's hands busy, he also plays guitar, banjo, harmonica and mandolin.

Jerold E. Solomon is an equally expressive Jim, especially when his rich baritone cuts loose on "Muddy Water" with Huck and in his rousing eleven o'clock solo, "Free at Last." Together, Solomon and Zuercher create a genuine spark of friendship.

Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine are as deliciously villainous a pair as you could hope to find in a musical comedy. Together they play Pap (Devine is the "voice" part) and, through Calhoun's spiffy staging, the actors mirror each other so impeccably that Chico and Groucho Marx would applaud from their graves. As King (Devine) and Duke (Kotsur - with James Judy lending his rich voice), they portray the sort of nefarious charlatans that audiences love to hiss.

The rest of the ensemble is outstanding, including Benjamin Schrader's Tom Sawyer, Cathy Newman's Widow Douglas, Phyllis Frelich's Miss Watson, Ryan Schlecht's Young Fool, Gwen Stewart's Alice, Christina Dunams' Alice's Daughter and Melissa Van Der Schyff's Mary Jane Wilkes. A personal favorite bit is their spirited depiction of a pack of ravenous dogs, all of them ferociously barking and slathering in both voice and gesture.

Everything about Deaf West's production of "Big River" is inspired, accessible, expertly performed and visually arresting. Since anything quite like it may be years away, fans of Mark Twain, musical theater and multi-faceted storytelling won't want to miss it.

 

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'Big River' blends sign language, song and dance
Thursday, March 31, 2005
BY LI WANG

For deaf actor and playwright Garrett Mathew Zuercher, playing Huck Finn is a matter of finding and conveying the truth and emotion of Huck's journey.

But the upcoming production of "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" at Hershey Theatre Tuesday through April 10 is not the usual stage adaptation of the Mark Twain novel.

The show, directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, adds sign language and has deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing actors performing each role in a harmonious merging of speaking, signing, gesture, song and dance.

"Many don't know how to respond to a play like this because they've never seen a deaf musical or even sign language onstage before," Zuercher said. "It's a brand new genre that's forming, a radical type of show."

The show is being described as forming a "third language," one that extends the range of American Sign Language through artistic storytelling devices such as dance made accessible through theater.

The production was originally developed at Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood, Calif., in the fall of 2001. After getting attention by earning several awards, the show was developed at the Mark Taper Forum stage, an offshoot of the Central Theater Group in Los Angeles, in 2002. During the 2003-04 season, the mixed-medium version of "Big River" became a Broadway show at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York as a co-production between Deaf West and Roundabout in association with the Mark Taper Forum.

For actor Zuercher, performing is only one of his creative outlets. Besides acting in "The Fantasticks," "The Tempest" and "The Taste of Sunrise," he has written and directed three plays. The play "Quid Pro Quo," a story about his personal experiences, won him two national playwriting awards.

"It had been a lifelong dream of mine to do theater, and with this show, I was finally able to start feelinglike a success," Zuercher said.

Currently, Zuercher is focused on conveying the transformative journey of Huck, who escapes from his drunken father and meets up with Jim, a runaway slave. The pair take a raft trip down the Mississippi River in the 1840s.

"Even though the book was written over a hundred years ago and takes place equally far in the past, I didn't feel I had to reach back too distantly to find Huck," Zuercher said. "Huck's journey is universal anthe truths he discovers along the way are just as true today as they were then."

LI WANG: 255-8168 or lwang@patriot-news.com

 

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Hershey musical will be treat for deaf and hard of hearing
Monday, March 28, 2005
BY DIANA FISHLOCK

The last time Victoria Finch saw an actor using sign language was back when she watched "Sesame Street."

"I was wishing that sometime they would have a play that would have deaf actors. And now look, my wish has come true," said Victoria, 15, a hard of hearing ninth-grade student at Susquehanna Twp. High School.

Victoria and other midstate residents who are deaf and hard of hearing say they are looking forward to seeing "Big River, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The musical, which opens next month at the Hershey Theatre, weaves English and American Sign Language.

The Deaf West Theatre show features actors who are deaf, including Garrett Matthew Zuercher, who plays Huck.

"I grew up going to the theater with my family ... but it was discouraging because I never really was able to enjoy it on the same level as my hearing family," Zuercher said.

Scores of midstate residents who are deaf or hard of hearing plan to attend.

"I've gotten e-mail from just about everyone that is anyone in the deaf field," said Tammy Mitchell, a former president of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, a support group. "It's new, and we are excited about it."

The Capital Area Intermediate Unit has about 65 people attending, said Jane Freeman, an educational consultant for the unit's deaf and hard of hearing program. The group includes students, staff and their families from Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry and northern York counties.

"This is a professional theater group, and the opportunity to see a show of this caliber in our area doesn't happen very often," Freeman said, adding that it's rare to have shows featuring deaf actors in the midstate.

The tour travels with 10 hand-held dialogue machines that include the lyrics and dialogue in several languages. The Hershey Theatre has infrared listening devices available for hard of hearing patrons.

Unless Barbara Beard sat at the front of the theater where she could read lips, she wouldn't get the point of a play, said the Hershey woman, who is clinically deaf.

"That's the main reason I am so thrilled they are having these caption machines," she said. "If they had these caption devices, I would go to the theater more often."

Zuercher said he's thrilled to be part of a show that gives deaf people the chance to enjoy a production side by side with hearing viewers.

About a third of the cast is deaf, he said. Everyone on stage uses sign language. Hearing actors provide the voices for deaf performers.

"American Sign Language is an extremely expressive language, using the body and face instead of the voice to convey what you want to say," Zuercher said. "And if you're going to put it on stage, the expressiveness is going to go along with it."

That expressiveness will be fun to watch, Victoria said.

"I'm excited to go to see what it's like," she said. "I never experienced a deaf play. I can't wait."

DIANA FISHLOCK: 255-8251 or dfishlock@patriot-news.com

 

 

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'Big River' Keeps Rolling Along With Delight

By Amanda Henry of The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 30, 2005

TAMPA - 'Big River,' with its bluegrass- and gospel-tinged score by Roger Miller, was a Broadway anomaly when it opened there for the first time in 1985. The version that made it back to the Great White Way in 2003 was even more exotic: a musical performed in American Sign Language. That production, created by California-based Deaf West Theatre, arrived at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on Tuesday. One thing came through loud and clear opening night: This is no novelty act but a fresh, charming piece of musical theater to delight any audience.

The magic of ``Big River' comes partly from its source, ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' With its episodic rhythm and colorful characters, Mark Twain's yarn about boyhood along the Mississippi River transfers beautifully to the stage, in more ways than one. Scenic designer Ray Klausen fills the stage with sepia- toned pages from the novel that are somehow more transporting than a realistic set.

The show's other great asset is the direction by Jeff Calhoun, who blends the spoken and signed performances with wit and grace. In the musical numbers, the hand motions play like part of the choreography. When a hearing actor voices lines for a deaf performer, the doubling is either seamless or dramatically appropriate, as when Huck's volatile Pap (Troy Kutsur and Erick Devine) demonstrates a personality that is literally split. Most fitting of all is the way that Mark Twain (Adam Monley), the onstage narrator, speaks and sings for Huck (Garrett Matthew Zuercher) - who is, after all, his creation.

The acting is excellent on both sides, physical and vocal. Zuercher manages to be innocent and impish at the same time, while David Aron Damane makes a dignified Jim, with an undercurrent of anger and sorrow. The lead vocals, especially by Monley, Damane and Gwen Stewart (Alice), are rich and expressive.

Having an on-stage band reinforces the earthy quality of the music, a welcome contrast to the synthetic sound of most modern musicals.

In the end, ``Big River' doesn't succeed in spite of using sign language, or solely because it does. It's just a lovely night of theater with lots of heart, and that comes through in any language.

Reporter Amanda Henry can be reached at (813) 259-7569.

Spoken English and American Sign Language mix with song and dance in this adaptation of ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' which earned a 2004 Tony for Excellence in Theater; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; (813) 229-7827

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Musical packs Tampa arts center with singing, signing

Big River runs through Sunday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. $30.50-$66.50. 813 229-7837 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045; www.tbpac.org
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published March 30, 2005

TAMPA - Maybe all musicals should incorporate American Sign Language into their performance. That's one message you could take from Big River, the Deaf West Theatre revival of Roger Miller's musical adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which opened Tuesday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

There's a fascinating energy that comes with director Jeff Calhoun's approach to telling the story through a combination of speech, singing and signing. It demands tremendous teamwork by the cast of eight deaf actors and 14 hearing actors. For example, Adam Monley, who plays Twain, the narrator, also provides the audible voice for Huck, played by the signing deaf actor, Garrett Matthew Zuercher.

The signing, also done by hearing actors, adds a useful layer of expressiveness, without especially drawing attention to itself after about five minutes. In a way, it's like the masks and puppets of The Lion King, deepening the sense of theatricality.

Big River is inspired because the deaf-hearing divide mirrors the dualities that run through the play: black and white, good and bad, civilization and wilderness, slavery and freedom. In a deft enactment of the theme, the two actors who play Huck's drunken Pap, Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine, turn up later as a pair of con artists, Duke and King.

There are times when signing does seem to take focus away from an actor's singing, such as in Devine's rendition of Pap's comic blues, Guv'ment, which was barely understandable. David Aron Damane, who plays Jim, had an uneven opening night, with some of his songs lacking power, but he came through soaringly in Free at Last.

The portrayal of Huck by Monley and Zuercher is virtually seamless. Zuercher is a charming, rawboned talent who has an uncanny ability to fit into musical numbers with no visible cues. Monley sings well and plays guitar, banjo, ukelele and harmonica.

Phyllis Frelich, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sarah in Children of a Lesser God, plays that "tolerable slim old maid," Miss Watson. Melissa Van Der Schyff, as Huck's heartthrob, Mary Jane Wilkes, has a classic country weeper, You Oughta Be Here With Me. Gwen Stewart, playing the slave Alice, is a powerful gospel singer.

Fittingly, a memorable moment in the show is silent, when the last few bars of a reprise of the rousing Waitin' for the Light to Shine is signed.

Ray Klausen's storybook set is a marvel of versatility. Steven Landau conducted the small but resourceful orchestra from above the stage.

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Signs Of Success

By Amanda Henry of The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 27, 2005

TAMPA ªE""Big River,' which opens Tuesday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, is Broadway's first all- singing, all-dancing, all-signing musical. Roger Miller's country and gospel-inflected musical take on the Mark Twain classic ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' won seven Tonys on its first trip to Broadway in 1985. The current revival, a Broadway hit in the 2003-04 season, introduced a new element: American Sign Language.

That's in keeping with the mission of Deaf West, which premiered this version of ""Big River' in Hollywood in 2001, with a cast evenly divided between hearing and deaf actors ªEall of whom sign on stage. For the hearing actors, it meant learning their lines in a foreign language. Deaf and hard-of-hearing cast members had to memorize complicated song and dance numbers, set to music they couldn't hear.

Blending the two languages and cultures into a Broadway- ready musical fell largely onto the shoulders of noted director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun, whose Broadway credits include the revival of ""Grease' and the current musical ""Brooklyn.'

Calhoun spoke with the Tribune by phone last week.

Q. Why this show?

A. When you pick a musical that's about an outcast, or that's about relationships between people and communities, there is this sort of subliminal effect you get that speaks louder than any comment we could make. It seemed like it deepened the cultures ªEnow it's not just a white boy and a black man on a raft; it's a deaf boy and a hearing man. We have three cultures telling the story: black, white and deaf.

Q. The show has been described as combining spoken English and American Sign Language with music and dance to form a new, third language. In what ways does ""Big River' go beyond traditional expressions of both spoken English and ASL?

A. Usually you see theater for the deaf as plays. To my knowledge, we're the first to do actual musicals. It almost becomes a ballet in some ways. In normal theater, there's talking and then all of a sudden you break into dance and song ... in this show, there's dancing even in the dialogue because of the ASL, so it feels like a ballet from the beginning to the end.

Q. How much experience did you have with hearing-impaired people prior to directing ""Oliver' (Deaf West's first ""deaf musical') and this show? What accommodations did you need to make as a director?

A. I had never met a deaf person until I met Ed Waterstreet, who runs Deaf West. I wasn't really prepared for how difficult it was going to be ªEI think if I had known more, the fear would have stopped me.

Basically, I had to throw away all of my experience as a director and start from scratch, and just solve every problem as it came along. It was all very ""Waiting for Guffman' at first.

First of all, you're going through an interpreter. Then Huck has to have a fishing pole ªEbut he can't hold a fishing pole and sign. And then someone comes to the door and knocks, and you can't hear the knock. Look out the window while you're having a scene with someone in the kitchen ªEoh wait, you have to face each other. Not to mention the obvious: when the music starts and how you keep them with the music.

Q. Was there resistance, from a commercial standpoint, to the idea of a Broadway show using sign language?

A. I think we're still up against that, even though Deaf West has come a long way to educate people about deaf culture and ASL. We got the best reviews, but, of course, it was only a limited engagement because I think people hear the word deaf and think, if they're hearing, ""Oh, that's not for me.' And that's what I really want to express: If you love musical theater, you will love this show. The signing enhances the show; it doesn't take away.

Q. What does a hearing audience gain from the signed portions of the show and vice versa?

A. The deaf audience gets to see music for the first time onstage in a show. Usually we put a signer on the side of the stage, and they spend their time looking at that signer, and they miss the show. It's very patronizing. With this, they're looking at the action.

And for the hearing audience, it's like dance, when you use your body to communicate. ... It creates a visual art form that we really aren't used to seeing. It does take a few minutes to get acclimated. But by the end, you forget who's deaf and who's hearing.

Q. Does Deaf West have plans for another hybrid musical?

A. We talk about it every day. We have a short list right now, and we will soon announce what our next show will be. We'd like to do one more revival, and then an original. I think we're one show away from doing an original.

Reporter Amanda Henry can be reached at (813) 259-7569.

Spoken English and American Sign Language mix with song and dance in this adaptation of ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' which earned a 2004 Tony for Excellence in Theater; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; (813) 229-7827

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The actor: 'Big River' succeeds in sign and song

Garrett Matthew Zurcher, who portrays Huck Finn, says signing can help hearing members of the audience better understand the production.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published March 27, 2005

Garrett Matthew Zurcher has been Huck Finn in Big River since February, having understudied the role while playing Simon (a boy in Tom Sawyer's gang) and one of the Slave Traders. Born profoundly deaf, Zurcher, 25, grew up in Wisconsin and is a 2003 graduate of Marquette University, where he majored in theater. Here's an edited transcript of an interview with him via e-mail.

I'm looking forward to seeing Big River, but I'm having a hard time imagining what it's like. Singing, signing, speaking . . . a musical with deaf performers. What do you tell people to help them understand it?

Big River is a multilingual musical that seamlessly combines voices both spoken and sung with sign language to create a theatrical experience that both hearing and deaf audiences can enjoy together. It's visual music with the sign language choreographed to give deaf people a representation of the music. It was created to allow deaf people equal access to musical theater, but with the ability for hearing people to enjoy as well.

Do you think the approach Deaf West Theatre has devised for Big River and, previously, Oliver!, would work for any musical? Or is it fairly show-specific? Director Jeff Calhoun thought Sondheim musicals might be hard to adapt since the language is so quirky and perhaps not easily translated to ASL.

I think it can work with any show. However, it is true that some productions might be much more difficult to translate into sign language such as the ones by Stephen Sondheim, due to the speed and complexity of his music, as well as the multitude of lyrical puns. Yet, I think with a bit of perseverance and work, it could be done. A particular show I think would be great for this format is Man of La Mancha with Cervantes as the narrator and voice of Don Quixote. This would be a great new show for Deaf West to do, except for the fact that it was recently revived on Broadway, limiting its chances of going there any time soon.

In a review, I read an interesting remark that the deaf-hearing divide in the production rather artfully mirrored the racial divide in Huck Finn. Does that make any sense to you?

Yes. Big River was chosen so that it could have a strong deaf protagonist who had to struggle with two different cultures (black and white), enabling it to mirror and complement the struggle between the deaf and hearing worlds. This is most strongly evident in the song, Worlds Apart, where Huck and Jim, deaf and hearing, white and black, sing about being friends in different worlds.

As a deaf performer, what do you feel during the musical numbers?

I can hear some of the music, albeit very little. It's enough, though, to give me an idea of the tempo and quality of the music and, since I have memorized the lyrics, I can match the words I know to the sounds I hear. Then, while I'm singing (signing) the songs, I sing to myself in my head to enable me to "feel" the music better and express it more eloquently. I'm certain that what I hear in my head sounds nothing like what it really does, but if it matches well enough, it works. Essentially, music is really all about the emotion that is being expressed and if I'm able to find the right motivation, I'm able to hit the right "note," so to speak. However, I have to clarify that this is my method since there are other deaf actors in the show who have never heard the music. They required a great deal of practice to get the rhythm in their bodies, but now they get it perfect every night. I don't know exactly how they do it, but it is beautiful.

I have seen plays and choral concerts that have someone doing ASL off to the side. Some theaters have a night set aside during a run when signing interpreters are provided. How helpful do you think this is in getting deaf people to shows?

It's not very helpful because if we're going to pay for tickets, we want to see the performers themselves, not the interpreters doing their own version of the performers. Ideally, theater should be captioned like television so we can watch the performers themselves and know what they're saying without having to constantly watch the sides of the stage and miss everything that's happening in the middle.

The signing is often very attractive in its own right, almost like a dance, and I sometimes wonder if that is an aid or a hindrance to understanding.

In this show, though there is little of what you would normally call dancing, there is a great deal of choreography where the signs are actually like a dance, artfully and precisely choreographed to present visually the songs and the lyrics that are being sung. It's definitely an aid in this production.

How different is the signing for dialogue and for music?

The signs for the songs are designed to match the music that the song is set to so that we can express what it sounds like through the signs. If the music is fast, the signs are fast, and vice versa. Also, the emotional state of the signs become heightened in song, just like words do for the singer. It's all about emotion.

Having been born deaf, does that mean you think in ASL or in English?

My mother was determined to teach me to read and write and speak at an early age, and I was somehow hooked. Because of this, as a child, I always had my nose in a book and believe that is why my English skills are so good (I have an English degree in creative writing in addition to my theater degree). As a result of this, I think and speak English, which is my first language, but I do also speak ASL.

What's the job market like for you?

There's not many roles out there for deaf actors, but it is improving, especially with the success of this show and the increased visibility and recognition of deaf actors. There are never sufficient opportunities for any actor, deaf or hearing, unless you're a major A-list star in Hollywood, but if you love the craft and the art, you pursue it with your heart and find a way to be successful. You just have to keep trying and never give up.

Has Big River opened up employment opportunities?

Yes, I have had several offers from people and organizations who would like to work with me from the exposure I am getting with this show, including with the Australian Theater of the Deaf.

Whatever happened to the National Theatre of the Deaf? Last time I saw anything by them was Peer Gynt on tour but that was some years ago.

They're still up and running. Some friends of mine are touring with them in Alice in Wonderland under the banner of the Little Theater of the Deaf.

What are the sort of roles you aspire to?

My two dream roles are Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Toby in Sweeney Todd.

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The director: 'Big River' succeeds in sign and song

Jeff Calhoun says one of his main challenges in staging Deaf West Theatre's musical is to choreograph singing and signing.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published March 27, 2005

It sounded like a crazy idea when Jeff Calhoun got a call to direct a show.

Calling Calhoun made sense: The veteran director and choreographer was fresh off choreographing Broadway revivals of Annie Get Your Gun and Bells Are Ringing.

The crazy part was that he was being asked to direct a musical in which half the cast would be deaf. For a small company far from Broadway.

"You can imagine my reaction," says Calhoun, who had never met a deaf person. But Deaf West Theatre, a Los Angeles company, persuaded him to give it a try.

"It appeared to be a sort of demotion, to go to a little theater in Studio City," Calhoun says. "That's how naive and arrogant I was at the time. I'm ashamed to think that ever entered my mind, because it has been the greatest artistic experience I've ever had."

Calhoun's first show with Deaf West was Oliver!, and the production combining spoken English and American Sign Language was so successful that the company asked him to do another one.

"I was very reticent," he says. "I actually said no. I really felt like we had fooled people and gotten away with something with Oliver!. I wasn't sure we were able to re-create that. But you can't put the genie back in the bottle, so I took a deep breath and said, all right, let's do it again."

The rest is theater history. Calhoun's second Deaf West production, Big River, a revival of Roger Miller's 1985 musical version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was such a hit that it eventually landed on Broadway, where it won a special Tony Award. The tour arrives at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this week.

Calhoun realizes that people who haven't seen Big River have a hard time conceiving how it is performed. "There is really no way to educate you prior to seeing it. It's one of those things you need to experience," he says.

The cast has eight deaf actors, who communicate with sign language, and 14 hearing actors, who provide the show's speaking and singing voices.

"Every moment of the play is voiced as well as signed," Calhoun says. "So you're getting every line and every note of music. For the theatergoer, it's an enhanced experience."

With all the signing, Calhoun says, "the whole thing seems to dance. It takes about five minutes for the audience to get acclimated, but by the end, they forget who's deaf and who's hearing."

Calhoun came up with an ingenious solution for the roles of Huck Finn and Mark Twain, played by Garrett Matthew Zuercher and Adam Monley, respectively.

"Mark Twain, of course, is the voice of all of his characters, but it just made sense to me that he should be the voice of Huck Finn," Calhoun says. "Although a deaf actor plays the role of Huck Finn, Mark Twain, from the peripheral - or sometimes not so peripheral - voices for Huck."

Big River demands a lot of the cast. "The hearing actors have to learn to sign, and most of the time spent with deaf actors in a musical is figuring out ways to keep them with the music," Calhoun says. "It's done through visual cues. But we don't want the audience to see the visual cues. That's what makes the magic. You just marvel at how they can be staying with the music."

Calhoun, under the tutelage of Deaf West founder and artistic director Ed Waterstreet, took pains not to patronize deaf culture.

"When I first started working with Deaf West, it forced me to deal with my own prejudices," Calhoun says. "You do think of people signing, not talking or hearing, as different than yourself. Unfairly, but that's just instinct, human nature. I found I was prejudiced without knowing it. It became clear to me that part of this experience was going to be, for me, educating the public about the sameness of all of us. Just because someone speaks and someone doesn't speak doesn't make us different."

Leah Hager Cohen, author of Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World, lauded Big River's evenhanded approach in the New York Times, saying that it "celebrates the artistic possibilities of sign language without glorifying it, without ever making it seem too-too precious or maudlin. One never has the feeling that sign language was layered on gratuitously as a gimmick; it really works within the story."

Calhoun says the "unsung heroes" were the interpreters who translated the dialogue and lyrics of Big River into ASL.

"It's a challenge to have the voice match the signing. Sometimes you can have a sentence with 10 words in it but th