DAMES AT SEA: Rescued From A Garbage Can And Opening On Broadway

Nearly 50 years after first delighting audiences with its affectionate spoofing of the 1930s movie musicals of Ruby Keeler and Busby Berkeley, Dames at Sea has finally made it to Broadway. But just like the musical's spunky heroine, who goes from fresh-faced newcomer to glamorous Broadway star in just one day, the show's original one-act version, with music by Jim Wise and book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, had to be discovered from humble beginnings.

"It was in the garbage can at Caffe Cino," says Robert Dahdah, who directed its premiere production in 1966. "Joe (Cino) had been cleaning out his files and it was on the top, yellow around the edges. It had been submitted a year before and I picked it up and said 'What's this?' and he said 'Probably nothing.'"

"Probably nothing" turned out to be the biggest hit ever staged Joe Cino's coffee house turned playhouse.

In the early 60s, the eccentric theatre pioneer opened the doors to his Caffe Cino, now regarded as the birthplace of both the Off-Off Broadway movement and the American Gay Theatre movement, to playwrights willing to mount productions on his tiny stage. Among them were Lanford Wilson, Tom Eyen, Doric Wilson, Sam Shepard, William Hoffman, John Guare, and Robert Patrick. Cino didn't even read the scripts. Most of the time he would ask the playwright his astrological sign and if he liked the answer an opening night was set.

The Cino location at 31 Cornelia Street is now the Po Restaurant and at its entrance is mounted a bronze plaque commemorating the building's historic significance.

As he read what was then called Dames at Sea OR GOLDDIGGERS AFLOAT, Dahdah envisioned a production dressed in glittery black and white. He already had the perfect costumes.

"A friend of mine who was an opera singer had died and they left all her costumes outside the building."

As for scenery, Robert Patrick, who also worked as the Cino doorman, explains, "All of us at the Cino participated in making decor for it. The show was done all in black and white. We made dangling stars, lightning bolts, and hearts out of cardboard covered in aluminum foil to hang from the ceiling."

Choreographer Don Price was suggested by a mutual friend of Wise's.

"The stage was eight foot by eight foot," says Price. "There wasn't room for a big cast so we tried to make it look like Busby Berkeley with six people. Everybody played their part and was in the chorus."

Judy Gallagher was originally cast in the lead role of Ruby but bowed out during rehearsals.

"She told me, 'I can't sing, dance and act at the same time.,'" the choreographer explains. "So I brought in Bernadette Peters. I did a show called RIVERWIND with Bernadette in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania."

But the teenage future Broadway legend still had to audition and win the role over one other actress.

"At one o'clock Bernadette showed up and at five after one I knew she was right for the part," says Dahdah. "Luckily, the girl who was supposed to show up at 1:30 was late, so I didn't wait that long."

Originally set to run for two weeks, DAMES AT SEA ran for a dozen more. When word got out, the locals in the audience soon found themselves seated among swells who arrived from uptown in limousines.

Composer Wise played piano for nearly all performances, but when he wasn't available, a fellow named Barry Manilow filled in.

When Peters left the show for new opportunities, her sister Donna Forbes played Ruby for the rest of the run, but she returned to the role in 1968, to star in an expanded, two-act Off-Broadway production that opened at the Bouwerie Lane Theatre before moving to the Theatre de Lys, now the Lucille Lortel.

That Off-Broadway production became a sore point with the original director and choreographer. Dahdah notes that he added material to the original script and was never compensated or credited.

"I was supposedly going to direct and choreograph but that didn't work out," says Price. "It was one of those real ugly things."

"The Caffe Cino was not mentioned in the credits for the published script," adds Patrick. "When I asked George Haimsohn why, he told me that the show couldn't afford to be associated with a place associated with drugs and homosexuality."

Sadly, DAMES AT SEA's three authors are now deceased, but the musical's new-found success can be enjoyed by the people who nurtured the show in its infancy.

Thanks to Robert Patrick for images.