Cappies Review: Bye Bye Birdie Cast Full of Energy, Enthusiasm

By Sarah Paez of T.C. Williams

The jaunty music swelled, and a chorus of girls chanted, “We love you Conrad, oh yes we do-o!” Images of I Love Lucy, Ed Sullivan, Captain Kangaroo, and finally, Conrad Birdie himself, flashed across a screen in the middle of the stage. And Conrad Birdie was the focus of this catchy classic—West Potomac’s Bye, Bye Birdie.

Bye, Bye Birdie, directed by Gower Champion, opened in 1960 on Broadway. It ran for 607 performances before closing in 1961. The show brought home the Tony for Best Musical and spawned many hit singles.

The story begins with Conrad Birdie (Graham Dickerson) being drafted in the army. Albert Peterson (Burke Solo), a record exec, and his girlfriend Rosie Alvarez (Amanda Alves) come up with a publicity ploy to have Birdie record a single called “One Last Kiss,” and kiss one lucky girl before going off to war. That one lucky girl is Kim McAfee (Madeline Weisblatt), who lives in Sweet Apple, Ohio and is president of the Conrad Birdie Fan Club. The drama that ensues after the rock star, Conrad Birdie, arrives and stirs up tension in the small town—especially with Hugo Peabody (Joe Quinn), Kim’s boyfriend.

The full cast numbers were the strongest, because the ensemble was always completely in character and committed to their roles. “Put On A Happy Face” was a delightful, well-choreographed number, and the sad girls were well balanced by Albert’s over enthusiasm and impressive dancing skills. “Honestly Sincere” was full of energy and girlie screams, and when Birdie turned up the charm, causing everyone in the onstage audience to faint, laughter quickly follwed.

Amanda Alves took on the part of Rosie with attitude and grace. She offset her singing with amazing dance ability, mostly shown in the number “Spanish Rose”. She and Albert had evident chemistry, shown especially in “Rosie”. However, Albert’s mother, Mrs. Peterson, played by Maggie Solo, stole the show on many occasions, with her “New Yawk” accent and stereotypical “sonny boy” quips. Also notable was Mr. McAfee, played by Connor Chilton, who perfectly portrayed the disgruntled dad figure who really just wanted to read the paper and appear on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show. Ben Roberts, as the nerdy Harvey Johnson, was endearing and funny at all the right times. He was especially hilarious when his voice would crack during “Telephone Hour” and also during scenes where he, also, swooned over Conrad Birdie.

There were sound problems throughout the show that often distracted from the action on stage. Many mics went in and out, making dialogue hard to understand. There were some characters that did not act while they sang, and the run crew was visible many times. However, the cast handled these problems with high energy and amazingly synchronized dancing.

As Randolph McAfee, Kim’s younger brother would say, “Kids these days are ridiculous and so immature!” and maybe they are, but one thing Bye, Bye Birdie should teach you is you’ve got “A Lot of Livin’ to Do”!

Sarah Paez  is a member of the Cappies, "Critics and Awards Program,"  an educational program that trains high school theater and journalism students to be critics so that they can write reviews of other school's shows for local newspapers.