Barry Ivan: NSMT's New Master of the House

Award-winning musical director and choreographer Barry Ivan will be filling some pretty big shoes when he takes over the reins as artistic director and executive producer of the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts this coming February. Ivan is being passed the torch by 25-year veteran Jon Kimbell who has led the venerable institution to become the largest non-profit producing theater in New England, entertaining approximately 300,000 patrons annually. Ivan is no novice himself, however. He comes to the 52-year-old company with New York theater, film and TV credits as well as extensive hands-on experience at the famed theater-in-the-round. Since early in the 1990s Ivan has directed and choreographed 20-plus musicals at North Shore, including this season's mega hit, High School Musical, and its celebrated finale, Les Misérables, now playing through November 18.

Ivan recently took time out of his busy schedule at NSMT to speak with BroadwayWorld.com about his vision for the landmark Boublil and Schönberg pop opera and about his plans for next season and beyond. His excitement was clearly visible as his eyes danced and his hands articulated the future he could see before him.

Giving them what they want – with a twist

"With theater being up against all the competition that is out there today, you have to know how to mix the artistic with the business in order to survive," Ivan says. "North Shore Music Theatre has done that very well, providing a spectrum of products that appeal to a wide ranging audience while also achieving artistic merit. I plan to expand on that formula, integrating education with production so that audiences can broaden their experiences."

The show roster Ivan has mapped out for his inaugural 2008 season illustrates his point vividly. Billed as a tribute to fellow director/choreographer extraordinaire Susan Stroman, the schedule includes three of her most acclaimed Tony Award-winning works: The Producers, the 1994 revival of Show Boat, and Contact. These productions will be joined by what Ivan calls a family show, a revival, and a sophisticated, smart and edgy new musical: The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Bye Bye Birdie, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

"I have long believed that what is important for the future of regional theater is for a season to have a theme," says Ivan. "So I have chosen to dedicate each season to someone who has changed or affected the industry by being innovative or by going against the odds. Susan Stroman is certainly one of those people. The three shows of hers that we will be doing are very different in nature. The Producers is a big blockbuster. Show Boat is a classic but it features Susan's great new choreography. Contact is a dance play that will be a new experience for many people. We are stepping outside the box a little, but I think audiences will be surprised and pleased."

Ivan also plans to launch a New Works Festival that will invite audiences to view and discuss projects-in-progress. Taking advantage of facilities that are typically in hibernation during the dark New England months of January, February and March, Ivan could very well turn the theater and its on-site educational center into a beacon for emerging playwrights, composers and choreographers starting in the winter of 2009.

"The festival will be a key to encouraging audience development through education," says Ivan. "Patrons will be able to hear a reading, attend a Q&A with the creative team, and tell me what they like through talk-backs and symposia. By helping me understand what I should be shaping for the main stage, they will feel a part of the process and already be invested in the season. Hopefully they will gain a greater appreciation for what goes into developing a new show and begin to take chances on seeing something other than the old familiars like Mamma Mia."

Going out with a bang

Something familiar, though, is exactly what is closing out the 2007 season and ending Jon Kimbell's tenure at the 1500-seat theater nestled in the Dunham Woods just off Route 128 in Beverly. Ivan promises, however, that his interpretation of the epic phenomenon Les Misérables is not simply a cookie-cutter version that rehashes all of the now iconic vocals and images that have leant themselves so perfectly to the parody of Forbidden Broadway. Ivan says that his production is, first and foremost, a show for and about "the people."

"When you think about it, the ensemble members are the title characters in Les Misérables," he states. "They represent the destitution, the political elements, and the opposing forces as students, laborers, prisoners, pimps, farmers, innkeepers, and travelers. They are the people who are the story. My goal has been to help them find the truth within the moments. You can't play the 'look' of the show. You have to play the reality."

To that end, Ivan has asked his cast members – including Fred Inkley and Jacquelyn Piro Donovan, who have played their characters Jean Valjean and Fantine many times on Broadway and on tour – to think of each song as a scene and the lyrics as either a monologue or dialogue. In this way he hopes they will approach the material as actors first and singers second. The result, he believes, will be a fresh take on characters and situations that will engage North Shore audiences anew.

"I know what the traps are in sung through musicals," says Ivan. "If the singing and dancing become too rhythmic, then each song ceases to be a scene and things become repetitious. For that reason I was hesitant to take on Les Misérables, even though I was one of only four regional directors approved by Cameron MacIntosh to do it. A lot of the endorsed versions were locked into a mode that kept losing me. I felt the show needed more purpose. It's not just about pretty voices singing beautiful songs. It's about values and morality and why people give their lives for a cause or for another human being. It's about good and evil and the gray areas in between. The questions it raises about right and wrong are what ultimately resonate with people. With all Valjean goes through, he becomes a messenger about life lessons and about doing something positive with what he's learned."

Ivan says that a big advantage of directing Les Misérables in the round is that it forces him to rethink the staging. In place of proscenium drops, the stage floor itself has become a background motif suggesting the streets and sewers of Paris. Windows, shutters and surrounds suspended around the theater invite the audience to become voyeurs who are looking into the lives of the characters before them. The outer circle of the built-in revolve spins around a fixed core not just to move furniture and scenes as it did in the original Broadway production but also to shift time and space as well as political opinions and sympathies.

"I'm using the revolve to support the cinematic style of the piece, allowing scenes to swipe and dissolve fluidly," Ivan explains. "People on the outside may spin to illustrate their changing emotions while others remain in place on the inside to show the forces that are in contrast with each other. The sense of scenes graying out instead of going from black to white also becomes a metaphor for light and dark. While the audience may not be consciously aware of this, they do feel the ambiguity of the blurring of good and evil."

Apparent in all of Ivan's comments is his commitment to bringing NSMT patrons truthful theatrical experiences. Whether entertaining audiences with beloved classics or challenging them with unfamiliar and innovative new works, he believes that every moment has to land.

"It's funny," he muses. "A marketing survey revealed that every person who comes to North Shore Music Theatre feels he or she has the best seat in the house. We want to keep it that way. No matter where a person is sitting, we want him or her to see all sides to every character's story. Truth is what engages an audience. In theater it can come in a variety of forms."

Les Misérables continues at NSMT through November 18. Tickets are priced from $75 to $40. Senior and youth discounts and rush tickets are available. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., matinees Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at www.nsmt.org, by calling 978-232-7200, or in person at 62 Dunham Road, Beverly, Massachusetts.

PHOTOS: Barry Ivan; Charlie Brady as Enjorlas with the ensemble of Les Misérables; Jacquelyn Piro Donovan as Fantine and Fred Inkley as Jean Valjean

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