Gender bender I have 10 costume changes! I think that's the hardest thing -- that and the lifts when they pick me up," Cathy Foy says. She has the title role in Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Victor/Victoria" and that means she's playing a woman who decides to pose as a female impersonator, making her character a male impersonator. Got it?
Cathy Foy stages
By John Berger
a cross-dressing coup
Star-BulletinFoy has been working with Greg Howell, who has a role in the show but also does makeup at Paul Brown, to create her character's male alter ego.
"Greg and I had to create (our own) Victor. The role is so strongly identified with Julie Andrews, and people may be more familiar with the movie version, and that makes the role a challenge in itself. I'm not Julie Andrews and this isn't the movie, but it's an honest-to-goodness good-fun feel-good musical."
The story by Blake Edwards, with music by Henry Mancini and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, is about Victoria Grant, a down-on-her-luck singer, who is persuaded by a cabaret emcee to let him present her in his club as Victor, a man performing as a woman. It isn't long before Victor/Victoria becomes the toast of the Paris nightclub circuit.
The dual roles of Victoria and Victor have intrigued Foy for years.
"I've always thought it would be one of the most difficult roles to do because it demands so much from you. It's not just singing and acting. It's being two different people and being convincing enough that you even have the audience guessing sometimes."
Foy's preparation for the role has included watching local female impersonators in "boys will be girls" shows and getting some tips on what men focus on when they're impersonating women.
"Attitude is extremely important," she said. "Their hand movements are much larger and more grand, their make-up is more glamorous than most women wear, and your eyes have to have that focus and intensity that you see when a female impersonator in performing. They have incredible focus."
"They have (male impersonators) in Japan with the Takarazuka review where women portray men. The thing is figuring out how a man would do a certain gesture or how a man would walk. I have to be convincing as a man and that's really difficult. I don't do many guy things."
She hasn't found any male impersonators here, but her male friends have been teaching her "100s of details" about how men move, dress themselves, act and think. Some of things are as simple as remembering to check out another woman when she walks by or to sprawl rather that "sit like a lady."
Charles Degala just smiles. Foy has the costume changes to worry about. He doesn't, playing King Marchan, a Chicago mobster who falls in love with Victor/Victoria.
"It's great to be back on stage, especially playing opposite Cathy. She's got a great voice and we blend together," he says.
It's been a long time since Degala had the time necessary to do community theater. He performed in Tommy Aguilar's 1984 production of "A Chorus Line," but found that his career in the hotel industry was too time-intensive. That changed when he became director of cruise services for Navatek.
"Navatek is allowing me to go out and do theater again, and my passion for theater is still there. When I did 'Chorus Line' I was more classified as a dancer, so it's great to be singing and great to be back on stage."
Degala returned to the stage in a big way earlier this year with a strong performance as Emile De Becque in Army Community Theatre's production of "South Pacific." Now he has another great singing role and character in King Marchan.
"King Marchan is very meticulous and attentive to detail and that's how I am on the boat so sometimes I think I'm at work. It's a fun character, too, and I've got some great moments in the show. Plus he had a demanding song that involves singing and acting and choreography and you have to be perfect. Our musical director, Emmett Yoshioka, has helped me a lot with it."
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