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'Bye Bye Birdie' At Miller Park Recalls The Early Sixties

goldstar.com

The Twin Cities outdoor musical theater season comes to a close this weekend with a quintessential show about adolescent angst.

Tony-winning "Bye Bye Birdie" is on stage through Sunday at  Bloomington's Miller Park.

The show opened on Broadway in 1960, a time when teens didn't "hook up," they "went steady." They telephoned instead of texting.

Director Tricia Stiller says despite many changes in culture, some things don't disappear, including the longings and insecurities of adolescence, the struggle to fit in, and clashes between teens and their parents.

Those are the timeless themes Stiller said the current Miller Park production celebrates.

She acknowledged, however, that the under-50 crowd may need a glossary of terms to get all  the retro-Sixties references in the show - like who's Ed Sullivan, and who was "The Shadow?"

Stiller said she made a deliberate decision not to try to update the production, but present if firmly in its time period.

"This is about relationships and dynamics between parents and their children," Stiller said. "We're going to do it as it was intended and I hope people will  enjoy traveling back in time and seeing how far we've come, or hopefully how far," Stiller said.    

"Bye Bye Birdie" is playing Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30. There is a rain date of August 6.

The original Broadway production starred Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera and Dick Gautier. The musical was made into a film in 1963 that launched the career of Ann Margaret. The show contains songs that have become pop classics, including "Put On A Happy Face," "Kids," and "Lot of Livin' to Do."