Few Lines
Marc Kudisch has Detroit ties,
and some "Bye Bye Birdie" moves
that just won't quit.
KENNETH JONES
Special to The Jewish News
W
hen Elvis Pres-
ley was drafted
into the U.S.
Army in 1958,
few could im-
agine that the
nation's most
famous conscription case
would inspire the first hit
musical comedy of the next
decade.
Bye Bye Birdie, about the
drafting of a teen idol named
Conrad Birdie, arrived on
Broadway in 1960, and
although the title character's
name and flashy costumes
make reference to early Con-
way Twitty, the U.S. Army
angle is obviously drawn from
the front-page news of
Presley's farewell to civilian
life.
This was the musical com-
edy that gave us "Put On a
Happy Face," sung by Dick
Van Dyke as Conrad Birdie's
manager, and here, too, was
the first Broadway score to in-
tegrate — albeit gently and
satirically — a rock 'n' roll
sound.
"First and foremost," says
Mark Kudisch, the actor who
plays Birdie in the national
touring revival of the show, "I
don't do Elvis. That's out. I
don't do him, I don't touch
him."
The general response to his
performance is that he does a
great Elvis impersonation,
and that's frustrating, says
Mr. Kudisch, whose mother,
Florence Rosenthal, grew up
in northwest Detroit. The ac-
tor still has Detroit-area con-
nections that include long-
time family friends, cousins
and an aunt and uncle,
Jeanne and Arthur Fishman
of Oak Park.
Kenneth Jones is a Detroit
area theater writer and critic.
But isn't there a tendency
to play the twitching hips and
lips of The King of Rock 'n'
Roll?
"I try not to go over the top
with Birdie," explains Mr.
Kudisch. "I try to be as real
with him as possible in the
context of the show. He's just
Birdie."
Bye Bye Birdie, which will
play the Fisher Theatre in
Detroit Jan. 28-Feb. 9, is the
first high-profile show for the
25-year-old actor. Two of the
biggest names in American
theater are associated with it:
Tommy Tune stars in the Van
Dyke role, and the production
is staged by Gene Saks, one of
the most perceptive directors
of American comedy (he
stages most of Neil Simon's
work).
"The most important thing
to Gene is that these
characters be as real as possi-
ble," says Mr. Kudisch. "Our
set is kind of Tinker-Thy, the
costumes are all bright,
powerful primaries. We look
like a live comic strip. And he
wanted us to play it honest
and real. Even though it's a
comic book, and nostalgic,
you can still get involved with
the characters."
Mr. Kudisch earned a
theater degree from Florida
Atlantic University in Boca
Raton, an hour's drive from
his hometown of Fort Lauder-
dale. His parents, Raymond
and Florence Kudisch, live in
Plantation.
The actor says playing the
musical comedy equivalent of
Elvis Presley was a surpris-
ing challenge. Mind you,
we're not talking Shake-
speare, Ibsen or Arthur Miller
here — Birdie is a breezy
musical that takes a satiric
poke at youthful urges.
Still, an actor must discover
the truth in any role, even if
the character might be as
thin as the greasy sheen on
Marc Kudisch swivels in the new
production of "Bye Bye Birdie."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
59