At Playhouse on Park, you can see “Singin’ in the Rain” as you’ve never seen it before — and that includes the singing and the rain —from July 16 through Aug. 17. In this rethought version of the musical classic, a bunch of movie fans turn up for a screening of the original 1952 film of “Singin’ in the Rain,” but the showing is abruptly canceled. The musical geeks get over their disappointment by re-enacting the movie live onstage. The show’s director, Evan Hoffmann, and its choreographer, Robert Mintz, worked up this version for the NextStop Theatre Company in Virginia, where Hoffmann was the artistic director from 2013 until last year and where Mintz worked frequently. Besides choreographing “Singin’ in the Rain,” Mintz also plays the key sidekick role of Cosmo Brown in the play, just as he did at NextStop Theatre. The failed screening concept adds a “meta” quality to the tale of silent movie star Don Lockwood, his frantically funny best friend Cosmo Brown and hopeful starlet Kathy Selden as they maneuver the new world of “talking pictures” in 1920s Hollywood. Obstacles include Lockwood’s shrill, untalented co-star Luna Lamont and clueless movie execs who are unprepared for a creative and technological revolution of movies with soundtracks. In other productions of “Singin’ in the Rain,” the romantic couple Don and Kathy and the wacky Cosmo are characters in a story. But at the playhouse, the cast represents regular folks in the present day who are re-enacting scenes from one of the most famous movie musicals of all time. The production is an acknowledgement that most small theaters don’t have the resources to stage the lavish spectacle that most productions of “Singin’ in the Rain” are. After all, “Singin’ in the Rain” was a Hollywood blockbuster first and wasn’t adapted to the stage until it had been around for 30 years. The first stage version was in London in 1983, directed by and starring pop singer Tommy Steele. A Broadway production in 1985, directed and choreographed by the innovative dance artist Twyla Tharp, became famous for its staging-drenching thunderstorm effect used for the show’s title song. “These are people who come together over their love of this movie,” Mintz said. “They arrive at Playhouse on Park for a screening of the film. The audience ends up banding together. The audience knows the movie and loves the movie just as we do. We honor it, and we also poke fun at it.” Both Hoffmann and Mintz are lifelong fans of the movie. “I had a ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ poster in my room as a kid,” Hoffmann said. The seeing-a-movie framing device isn’t the only big change Hoffmann and Mintz have made for this “Singin’ in the Rain.” There are just eight people in the cast, all performing multiple roles. By comparison, a 2007 production of “Singin’ in the Rain” at the Goodspeed Opera House had around 20 people in it and the 1980s Broadway production had over 30. The size of the live band has also been reduced to just keyboards (played by frequent Playhouse on Park music director Melanie Guerin) and drums, augmented by vocal tricks by some of the actors. While this may not be MGM’s or Twyla Tharp’s or anyone else’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” it’s also a reasonable creative interpretation of a well-known script. No dialogue has been added and the changes that were made in the 1980s, when “Singin’ in the Rain” became a stage show, are included and respected, Hoffmann and Mintz said. In addition, Mintz insists that “the audience will believe it has rained onstage. “There’s some kind of rain, we’ll put it that way,” he said. Hoffmann said he hopes people “will be talking very enthusiastically about how we made it rain.” Likewise, “we don’t have a lamp post” for that same iconic song and dance number, Mintz said, “but you’ll see the image in your head.” The musical’s score contains some songs that aren’t in the movie but are by the same legendary songwriting team of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. “When you do a musical that’s based on a movie one of two things tend to happen: You try to duplicate the movie as much as possible or you assume the audience is unfamiliar with it,” Hoffman said. “‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is such an iconic film — many people would say that it’s the greatest movie musical ever made — that you can’t ignore it.” “In this show, we can poke fun at what a big movie it is: ‘Wow, what a beautiful dream sequence. Where did that come from?!’ We acknowledge that we are not the film in a way that other productions can’t,” Mintz added. “Here, there is a movie called ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and we know that. It allows us to try new things.” It also means that the actors aren’t subject to direct comparison between them and larger-than-life movie icons like Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor. “I honor the classic moments of Donald O’Connor’s performance without having to duplicate him,” Mintz said of his Cosmo Brown role. “My personal hot take is that Cosmo Brown is queer-coded. He evades Hollywood starlets with a laugh. He has all these snide putdowns of Lena Lamont. In the end, the show’s about friendship and community. Don and Cosmo create this bond of friendship and bring Kathy into it.” A setting which finds the performers recreating the movie’s dances on the spot also gives the director and choreographer some special freedom. “Famously, in his ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’ song, Cosmo Brown runs up walls,” Mintz said. “Well, we don’t have walls, so we have to find something else to do. But I do get to flip upside down.” Mintz moved to Connecticut a few years ago and quickly found a creative home at Playhouse on Park, where he directed and choreographed “The Prom” last year, co-choreographed “Bandstand” with Playhouse on Park co-founder Darlene Zoller the year before that and also helmed the children’s theater show “Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical.” He also directed the musical “Baby” for the University of Hartford’s Hartt School. “I travel hither and yon, and I’m lucky to have found a home here at Playhouse on Park,” said Mintz, who has also been part of recent productions of “Frozen” and “Young Frankenstein” in the Washington D.C. area. “Evan and I thought it would be fun to take another stab at ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ so we brought this concept here and the theater’s leadership wanted to do it.” Playhouse on Park’s “Singin’ in the Rain” will be very different from NextStop Theatre’s six years ago. “This is very much a new production,” Hoffmann said, “but we’re borrowing some good stuff from the other one.” Due to the playhouse’s unconventional long-thrust floor-level stage area, Mintz had to come up with all new choreography. “The tap dancing is spectacular,” he promised, well aware that the playhouse has a history of powerful tapping thanks to Zoller. Mintz is also one of just two performers to have been in both productions. The other is Carolyn Burke, who’s worked numerous times at both Playhouse on Park (in “The Prom,” “Chicago” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and as a member of the stop/time dance theater) and at NextStop Theatre (in the modern musicals “Catch Me If You Can,” “Shrek,” City of Angels” and “The Wedding Singer”). Burke plays the hilariously annoying Lina Lamont. Daniel Plimpton, who has been in Broadway musicals that have toured through Connecticut, stars as Don Lockwood. Lindsay Gloriana Bohon, who like Plimpton is making her Playhouse on Park debut, plays Kathy. Parker Joh, Julia Solecki, Juno Brosas and Patrick McLennan round out the ensemble cast. We created a totally new concept around this,” Mintz said. “It’s based on the practical magic of theater.” “What we do is bring the audience into it,” added Hoffmann. “Even as the Playhouse on Park audience comes into the theater, it’s as if a film is going to start. People come out of the audience and do it themselves. They don’t have costumes or props. The story is what it was, the one everyone knows and loves. We love it and we build upon it. This is what theater does best.” “Singin’ in the Rain” runs July 16 through Aug. 17 at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays at 2 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., plus an added Thursday preview performance on July 17 at 7:30 p.m. $45-$55, $42.50-$52.50 for seniors, students and military; $25 for preview performances on July 16 and 17. (fb)

Check out what's going on in July at the Playhouse! Click the link below to learn more: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/July-Happenings-.html?soid=1102694216968&aid=F3w9gpdd8Ss (fb)