Review - Donna Lynne Champlin's Dressing The Part

Back in the day, the great ladies of the theatre were known to provide their own dresses and gowns as they toured the provinces in contemporary dramas and comedies. And while today's Off-Broadway productions generally have costume designers to handle such matters, at least one Obie-winner, Donna Lynne Champlin, is doing her part to keep that tradition alive in Transport Group's enchanting production of See Rock City & Other Destinations. And as the newlywed actress explains, the gown she wears in the musical's final scene isn't the only item that had previously played a starring role in her wedding ceremony...

"When Andy and I decided to get married, we really wanted the ceremony performed by someone we knew and someone who was an interfaith minister. I sent some emails out to friends and even though Jonathan Hammond and I have known each other for years - I think this is actually our 4th or 5th show together - I had no idea he was an ordained interfaith minister until Jack Cummings III (Transport Group's Artistic Director) wrote me back and said he could do it."

"Jonathan graciously agreed to marry us and he then sent us questionnaires to fill out by email. We answered them separately and he used our answers to formulate our entire ceremony and until our wedding day we had absolutely no idea what we were going to say! It was fantastic because we trust Jon implicitly and everything was such a marvelous, touching and sometimes hilarious surprise during the ceremony. We couldn't have been more thrilled and everyone who came to the wedding marveled at what a personal and fantastic ceremony Jon had created."

But the fun was just beginning...

"Just a few weeks before the wedding I was working at The Actors Theatre of Louisville when Jack called and asked me if I could do See Rock City because the brilliant and talented Jill Abromowitz, who was supposed to play the bride, had become pregnant. I had seen the workshop a year before and loved it, and then Jack told me that Jon would be my scene partner so I said 'yes' immediately and hung up the phone."

"I didn't really recollect the actual plot of our scene from the workshop. I remembered it was about a bride and Niagara Falls and since I was in the middle of a show at ATOL and planning a wedding that was a month away I didn't think much past that funny coincidence about the 'bride' thing. Then they sent me the script, and I was taken aback by the true parallels in our lives. Jon was not only going to be our spiritual guide for our wedding and to me as a bride but in our scene together he has a similar role as the 'Tour Guide' to my bride."

A further coincidence occurred at the end of this past theatre season when Hammond was awarded an Obie for his performance in Transport Group's The Boys In The Band, making him and Champlin the only actors given Obies for one of the company's productions.

"And then we got into rehearsal, which was only two months after the wedding, and things just got even weirder. I offered to use my wedding gown as my costume (much to my poor mother's chagrin), figuring it had already served its purpose and this would be a fantastic way to get my money's worth out of it. Plus, I obviously love it (or I wouldn't have gotten married in it), it still fit (thank God) and quite honestly our reception was a crazy Mardi Gras party so the dress had already taken quite a beating already."

"My poor mom actually came to our first preview and I hadn't really thought about it but I have to do some physical things in the dress and because she was there in the audience I became hyper aware of everything I was doing. In rehearsal you just think, 'You want me to do that? In a wedding gown? Umm... ok!' But when you get out there with the dress it's a totally different ballgame. And it's like I could psychically feel my mom having minor panic attacks from across the room every time I had to jump over a wire, or climb a moving piece of scenery, poor thing. But everything we're doing is very safe. Well, at least for me. Maybe not so much for the dress. But what can you do? It's the theatre!"

But Mama Champlin need not fear too much for the preservation of this potential family heirloom as Transport Group's frequent costume designer, Kathryn Rohe has graciously offered to repair and clean the gown at the end of the run.

"In reality, my dress will look better at the end of this run than it did at the end of my wedding day. I swear to God, Ma... it really will!"

Top photo by Ryan Jensen: Donna Lynne Champlin and Andy Arrow being wed by Jonathan Hammond.

Bottom photo by Carol Rosegg: Donna Lynne Champlin and Jonathan Hammond in See Rock City & Other Destinations.

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