Sun City Community Theatre’s production of ‘Ballroom’ dances through loneliness to love

Sometimes you just have to take a chance, and that is the premise of “Ballroom,” the latest Sun City Community Theatre musical production that opens June 23 in Magnolia Hall.

Bea Asher finds the dreary emptiness of her Bronx home constricting. It’s been a year since the death of her beloved husband, and her social life is nonexistent, her friends are few and her family likes it that way.

“I think she is a person who had a very happy marriage,” said actress Barbara Sweasy, who plays Bea. “She lived a very quiet, common life and raised two children. They probably had a few ups and downs, and all of a sudden her husband is gone and she’s lost.”

Esther Rosen directs the Sun City production, with musical direction by Art Hansen and choreography by Armando Aseneta.

Michael Bennett, who also did “A Chorus Line,” directed and choreographed the musical during its short Broadway run in 1978. The music and lyrics are by the Academy Award-winning team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The story comes from a made-for-TV movie called “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” by Jerome Kass, who based it on his widowed mother’s life that he learned about after her death.

“When I chose it, I originally recommended it because I thought it was age-appropriate; it’s the kind of piece that would appeal to people,” Rosen said.

The dancers aren’t actors but members of the community’s Ballroom Dance Club chosen by Rosen to be in the show. It was one of the more difficult aspects of casting, but the director is ecstatic about the outcome.

“The ballroom club members — they’re so dedicated to the show and so wonderful,” Rosen said. “They want to be so terrific that they have scheduled extra rehearsals to get the music. There are 13 different dances, including the foxtrot, lindy, samba, Viennese waltz. Most of them have never been on stage, so I not only had to teach them how to move on the stage but how to act as well. But they’ve done a lovely job, and they look beautiful.”

In the story, Bea’s friend Angie persuades her to step out of her four walls and the little shop she opened after her husband’s death.

“Angie works at a diner, and Bea sometimes goes there to eat,” Sweasy said.

“Angie tells her ‘Come to the ballroom. You’ve mourned long enough. Go have a life. It’s better than having dinner with ‘Jeopardy’ and going to bed with Brian Williams.’ So, she takes a chance.”

Sweasy said the staging is different from most shows.

“I think it’s a very interesting way that Esther and Art have put this together,” she said. “There’s this kind of fantasy sense of the ballroom throughout the whole show.”

Unlike most musicals, the dancers are the “chorus.” The only singing is done by Sweasy and actor Jim Bruner, who plays ballroom love interest Al Rossi, and band singers Bill Smith and Cynthia Van Savage. This is also the first time the band is on stage as an integral part of the performance.

As a side note, the late Lynn Roberts, a Sun City resident, played the band singer in the Broadway production alongside Bernie Knee, and Rosen has written a dedication to Roberts in the program.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. June 23, 24 and 30 and July 1 and at 2:30 p.m. July 2. The show is open to nonresidents. Tickets are $23 and are available at the Magnolia Hall Box Office, by calling 843-645-2700 or visiting www.suncitytheatre.org.

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Sun City Community Theatre’s production of ‘Ballroom’ dances through loneliness to love."