Jack Firneno, the Wire
The plot of National Pastime has to do with a failing small-town radio station in 1936. One owner wants to sell; the other hatches a scheme involving a baseball team to save the station.
The plan’s not completely on the up-and-up, but, according to director Hunter Foster, that’s not really the point.
“It’s about faith: what the team means to the characters and how the idea of it can revive the community,” he explained.
Foster often strives to find a single word that encapsulated the production he’s working on. For National Pastime, itself a new and relatively untested play, that word turned out to be “faith”: Specifically, the idea of believing in something whether or not you know it actually exists.
The word kept coming up, Foster noted, and even worked its way more than once into script rewrites.
It’s an idea that’s relatable to the production itself, the real-life communities not far from the theater, and even an antique piece of machinery the theater revived just in time for the first show.
While it’s been mounted as a developmental production around the country over the last few years, the nostalgic screwball comedy and musical National Pastime had its formal debut at the Bucks County Playhouse last week.
Over the past six months, Foster and the cast worked with playwright Tony Sportiello and Albert Tapper, who wrote the music and lyrics, to make changes for the debut.
“We’ve been able to really create and mold it,” he said.
One of the most significant changes was the decision to stack two songs at the end of the first act. The result is a one-two punch that kicks off with the upbeat Carpe Diem. An energetic jazz dance number, it allows for both a large ensemble dance and solo turns by a few of the actors as the characters celebrate their plan to save the station.
That piece transitions quickly into the ballad Somewhere Somehow, which addresses a budding romance in the story.
Putting the two together, said Foster, not only calls to mind the classic Broadway musicals that National Pastime seeks to evoke, but puts a satisfying cap on the plot developments thus far.
“It’s more of a challenge putting on a new production, but it’s creatively satisfying. We’ve all sort of created this brand new thing.”
And, while that “brand new thing” may take place nearly eight decades in the past, the idea of a community rallying to revive itself is just as relevant in 2015 as it is in the wake of the Great Depression.
To Foster, it’s easy to recognize the similarities between that time and today, where he sees the country as still “climbing out” from under the effects of the 2008 economic crash and resulting recession. And, it’s an idea that’s certainly at home near the Playhouse, where communities across the county are mounting revitalization efforts.
Nearby towns, from Northampton to Levittown and Bristol Borough, for instance, have all recently launched projects like adding sidewalks, renovating or building new commercial spaces. They’re also creating promotional opportunities and tax breaks to attract new businesses and invigorate local merchants.
“You’re starting to see things like this happen, and you have to hope that it will all turn around,” said Foster.
And, that’s not the only thing that’s turning around when it comes to National Pastime. Audiences for the new musical will also get to see something the Playhouse hasn’t had since the ’60s: a rotating stage.
Just in time for the first show, the Bucks County Playhouse restored the stage’s large, built-in turntable. It allowed the crew to build the three sets — the inside of the radio station, reception area and outside facade — as one piece.
The set rotates during musical numbers and between scenes without pauses in the action for changes, keeping the energy high throughout the play.
“It’s very cinematic,” said Foster, who initially lobbied to rent a turntable for the production.
The Playhouse instead took the request as an opportunity to restore the historic turntable for this and future shows. It was an idea that excited Foster, even if he had some initial concerns.
“I thought maybe it’d be clunky or noisy,” he admitted.
But the turntable turned out to be in remarkably good condition. In fact, it’s now operating using the original 80-year-old castors. And, it’s working smoothly and silently.
“Remarkably well,” said Foster.
Of course it is. He just had to have a little faith.
National Pastime is running at the Bucks County Playhouse 70 South Main St. in New Hope, through April 19. For information or to purchase tickets, call 215.862.2121 or visit www.bcptheater.org.
