Ghoulish Games
Danielle Georgiou Dance Group puts a spooky twist on 1960s musical variety TV with The Bippy Bobby Boo Show at Theatre Three.
In DGDG’s latest production, The Bippy Bobby Boo Show, co-creators Georgiou and Justin Locklear are using the structure of a ‘60s musical variety show to explore hot button issues surrounding sexuality, gender roles, cultural differences and even death.
To keep the mood from getting too heavy, the 15-member cast will address these themes through song and dance reminiscent of the era. Oh, and performers will be doing it all while portraying ghosts of former patrons and audience members of Theatre Three, which is where the company will be performing the show in the downstairs space, Theatre Too!, Oct. 25-Nov. 2
The script contains all the mirth and subtle sarcasm that we have come to expect in a DGDG performance, but Georgiou points out that the language has been toned down to fit within the parameters of what was deemed acceptable for T.V. during this time period.
“We are staying true to how shows were formed in the ‘60s. So the jokes are full of innuendos, but there are certain things that you couldn’t do or say in the ‘60s, and we are holding true to that because all of our ghosts are from that time period and don’t really know what would happen in 2019.”
Georgiou adds that even though the material addresses contemporary issues, we are still dealing with the same issues that we were dealing with in the ‘60s. With that said she does acknowledge that we have made advances as a society, but says historically we are still in the same place. “I’m not going to discredit the strides we have taken forward as a society, but universally we are still dealing with the same sorts of conceptual issues, including fear of the unknown, fear of different cultures and isolationism. So we are tackling those sorts of ideas in the show, but through, as we always do, a very comedic lens.”
She adds, “We also have the history of Theatre Three and the productions they have done in the past to be able to use theater as truly a mirror onto these ghosts and what they have seen throughout the 58 years of the theater.”
Georgiou goes on to explain that these ghosts have followed Theatre Three from each space it has inhabited over the company’s history from the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas and a car seat factory in Deep Ellum to the theater’s current space in the Quadrangle.
“We just imagined that some of the patrons are really in love with the theater and just decided that that’s where they wanted to spend their afterlife,” Georgiou says about the show’s premise.
“So they have decided that they can be actors too and every night they put on their own show for each other. But Bippy Bobby has this idea that all the alive people need to come and see the show and so he comes up with a plan to get what we call the pre-dead down into the basement to watch the ghost’s show.”
Even though the show is centered on these ghostly characters, Georgiou is quick to say that the show is not intended to be scary. “This is a comedy show, so it’s goofy gags and thrills and some blood, but it happens in a very comedic way.”
Locklear plays late-night show host Bippy Bobby, who is a combination of many well-known hosts from the era, including Jack Linkletter, Jim O’Neill, Roger Miller and Dean Martin. Georgiou says there is even some of Beetlejuice’s wackiness in the character. If Locklear’s performance is anything like the kooky narrator role he did in Donkey Beach, then audiences are in for a good time.
What about that title, which rolls off the tongue.
“Bippy Bobby Boo came from the fact that we knew we wanted to do a ghost story and also something that involved magic,” Georgiou says. “It also came from that Cinderella and Fairy Godmother moment because she basically gives Cinderella everything that she wants. So, we were trying to come up with names of a talk show host who hosted a late-night haunted variety show and we knew it had to be magical because this ghost character has a lot of powers and from there Bippy Bobby was born.”
As for the choreography, Georgiou says she is incorporating moves from well-known jazz choreographers making work in the ‘60s, including Bob Fosse and David Winters. “I wanted it to be what they would have made. So I watched a lot of Hullabaloo episodes and was heavily inspired by what those dancers were doing on that show.”
She continues, “Their movement was fast-paced, sharp, athletic and that’s a challenge because right now we are so contemporary dance-based and fluidity is what’s marketed as how dance is right now.”
For the last couple of years, Georgiou has been making choreography for and outside of DGDG that is solely jazz based. “There’s something that’s really beautiful and also incredible to watch as an audience member when you see 15 bodies doing exactly the same thing at the exact same time. Your brain doesn’t understand what it’s watching, and I’m interested in seeing if we can do it too.”
She adds, “I’ve spent the last seven to eight years doing one thing and I just felt like there is more that I want to explore as an artist. I also want to challenge myself too in what I’m making, and so this was, for me, the next step.”
>This preview was originally posted on TheaterJones.com.
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