Randy Wyatt bends genders in 'Moby Dick! The Musical'
GRAND RAPIDS – It won't be a merry band of men swabbing the decks of the Pequod in the Circle Theatre's upcoming production of "Moby Dick! The Musical." Rather, it will be the girls of St. Godley's Academy for Young Ladies who chase the killer whale, a gender-bending twist to the classic tale that director Randy Wyatt finds quite appealing.
"Apparently, everybody on the [theater's] board thought it was a perfect match for me – and I'm not sure what the hell that means," laughed the affable Wyatt, who has been involved with the popular West Michigan community theater for nearly 14 years. After seven seasons directing children's shows for the group, "Moby Dick" is Wyatt's first main stage production. "They apparently – finally – trust me enough," he chuckled.
The brainchild of Robert Longden and Hereward Kaye, "Moby Dick! The Musical" is a wickedly funny comedy about a group of Catholic school girls who stage the musical as a fundraiser to save their failing academy. Because it's an all-girl's school, however, every role is played by a female. Except for that of Captain Ahab, who is played by the headmistress – who happens to really be a man. "So it's a guy playing a girl playing a guy," Wyatt explained. "And by the end of the show, you've lost interest in gender at all. It doesn't matter who's playing who anymore, because all of the rules have been obliterated. And it's done so sneakily – I really enjoy that aspect of it."
The musical was rather risque when it first hit the stage in London's West End in 1993. Wyatt, however, is taking a different approach for its West Michigan premiere. "I'm making it more cartoony, just because I think it works better. It's much funnier if people are sort of silly about the whole thing. But that might be my children's theater roots shining through."
A Massachusetts native, Wyatt originally came to Michigan to get his bachelor's degree in Speech and English from what is now Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids. While there, he founded his own company, Lost in the Cove Productions, and worked with various local theaters. Wanderlust eventually struck, and Wyatt left for Texas. He returned to Michigan this past May after earning a master's degree in directing from Minnesota State University. "So now I'm out of school and looking to see what happens next," he said.
So far, Wyatt has had little time for boredom. A published and nationally produced playwright with seven full-length plays and five children's scripts already in his repertoire, Wyatt recently guest directed a collection of his short plays, "Said and Meant," for Kalamazoo's Whole Art Theater and Crawlspace Eviction, and another short play will be featured at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in August. Then he'll return to Cornerstone University to direct "The Tempest" and to Minnesota State to workshop his award-winning one-act play, "Mint."
But for now, the successful playwright/director is focused on "Moby Dick! The Musical" – and he's loving every minute of it. "When I first heard the show, I was like, 'Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me!' But I've just fallen in love with it. It's a ball. I get to throw inflatable fish at the audience, go ridiculously over-the-top patriotic and I get to direct this nice, bearish guy in drag. I mean, what else can I possibly do in one show?"
