By Harry Haun
11 Jul 2007

Doffing his hat to another screen moment, the then-68-year-old Kelly donned roller skates — and "It's Always Fair Weather" all over again — but Tony Roberts, who plays McGuire (and doubles, in a pinch, as Zeus) and is a year younger, eschews the skates.

"I couldn't skate when I was 11," he confessed. "I could ice-skate a little bit, but I only went to the ice-skate outings for the girls. I would sit and say 'Hi' as they skated by. It's not my thing. Also, I didn't think I should cost the state taxpayers' money and workman's comp, and that's the reason that I had it put in my contract: 'I don't skate.'"

Roberts owned up to having seen the film — kinda. "After I got the part, I looked at the movie, but I did a little skipping forward because life is short, and that's a movie without a plot, so it's hard to stay with it, but the songs are so wonderful. They still are wonderful."

Originally, he said, "Xanadu" was to have been a straight roller-disco flick, but when Kelly entered the picture with his forties baggage, everything changed, and things got off in all directions. "He had the permission of the producers to do anything he wanted to the script. What Douglas Carter Beane came up with is so entertaining, so make-believe, that you can't resist it. You have to be crazy if you can't have a good time with this. It's pretend, in the best sense of that word, for theatre. I'm just judging from the reactions. Every audience in this seven weeks of previews is weeping and hollering and carrying on. It makes me feel like I'm in a rock concert. This is as close to Sting as I'll ever get."

Prominent, as usual, in Roberts' rooting section is Penny Fuller, a pal since they played young marrieds in the original production of Barefoot in the Park. Her upcoming gigs? "I'm doing my cabaret at the Metropolitan Room, and I'm doing the new Horton Foote play at Primary Stages [Dividing the Estate, opening Oct. 2, co-starring Elizabeth Ashley and Gerald McRaney, directed by Old Acquaintance's Michael Wilson]."

Weathering the evening with a set smile and crutches was James Carpinello, the show's No. One Sonny, who was sidelined by a roller-skate mishap. "I broke my ankle in two places and my tibula," he said. "It was a silly fall. It wasn't anything spectacular."

He made it up the winding stairs of Providence to the press room by doing "a little dance" (it looked like the bunny hop) and became the center for well-wishers. But it was a tough night for him: "Oh, it was terrible. To spend so much time working on something and not be able to do it! But I'm glad I'm here, and I'm going back in the show as soon as I can."

Meanwhile, the role usually played by James Carpinello is being played — clearly, this is a job for Superman — by Cheyenne Jackson, who, in point of fact, was appearing in It's a Bird . . . It's a Plane . . . It's you-know-who at the York Theatre when he got the S.O.S. to join the show. Two-and-a-half weeks later, he owns the part — a real trouper's turn. Of course, the rush reduced his research time. "I wouldn't call it research, but, yeah, I did see the movie. My parents were ex-hippies from California, and they could never get through it."

Kerry Butler had the uncomfortable star-spot of the evening, playing Olivia Newton-John with the lady herself in the audience. "Yes, I was very nervous," she admitted. "I was so nervous that she wouldn't like the accent or breathy thing, so I thought I was a tiny bit rocky because I was just thinking about her. But she couldn't have been nicer to me. She said she's never laughed so hard. She said, 'You even got the way I move my body.' I said, 'I wasn't going for that, but thanks.' I was channeling or something."

Most of the hilarity of the evening was centrally located on Beane bags — Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa, onstage at the same time, passing for Greek chorus but screaming contemporary. Happily, and as you might well suspect, it is a Mutual Admiration Society.

"We have a great time together," Testa said. "It's a pleasure to work with her because she is as funny as hell. She's a dreamboat, and I adore her. We are good friends now."

Hoffman returned the serve, but first she had to tear herself away and put her mother in a limo — a caring, loving gesture. "There'll be stars in your crown," she was told when she returned. "Yes," she said. "And it's never enough. If you're Jewish, it's never enough."

Best gag of the night occurred in the doorway of the theatre where Cindy Adams had taken shelter from the swelter to greet the arrivals. She oohed and aahed over an aqua necklace Liz McCann was wearing, prompting the producer to say, "Do you know how often I get admired for junk jewelry? This is table decoration from the Tony Awards!"

Top: The company of Xanadu takes its opening-night bows; Bottom: John Farrar and Olivia Newton-John join Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson and Tony Roberts for Xanadu's opening-night bows.
photo by Aubrey Reuben

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