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'Tintypes' tours America's
By Tim Ryan
'Yankee Doodle' past through
the songs we sang
Star-BulletinAS we enter the new millennium, perhaps it's time for Americans to take a good look into the mirrored eyes of history. "Tintypes," a musical review opening tomorrow night at Hawaii Pacific University Theatre, provides audiences with that opportunity, reliving through music the vivid characters, history and hopes; who we were, where we came from, and where we thought we were going.
"The story, the history of America, is told through dozens of songs of that era -- 1890 to about 1917 -- with five distinct and vivid characters," said Joyce Maltby, co-director with Brad Powell. "The songs are so upbeat; even though they are of a bygone era, there is incredible musical appeal."
There's no argument that at the turn-of-the-19th century America had the beginnings of all the technological and economic growth the country capitalizes on today.
TINTYPES, A MUSICAL REVIEW
On Stage: Tomorrow-Sunday; Feb. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27
" 'Tintypes' transforms the audience on a tour through life at the turn of the century," Maltby said. "The audience sees historical figures emerge from prototype characters and you experience historical events through popular songs of the time."
As the characters evolve and events unfold, the stage itself becomes a vaudeville scene, exposing the hopes and dreams of each character and capturing the mood of the time.
Actors in the HPU production include Paul Beck, Rosemarie Barbee!, Karen Valasek, Ryan Lympus and Becky Maltby. They portray a host of characters, including President Teddy Roosevelt; Ziegfeld performer and Russian immigrant Anna Held; anarchist Emma Goldman, who wanted to awaken the American worker to labor struggle and revolt; and actor Charlie Chaplin.
The characters also play immigrant "girls," a factory foreman, and society women, Maltby said.
"Tintype" songs reflect the new inventions of this era.
"Come Take a Trip in My Airship" was inspired by the successful flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk; "In My Merry Oldsmobile" was written in 1905 shortly after the car won the first transcontinental auto race.
Also in the play: "Yankee Doodle," a popular song of pre-Revolutionary War America, as well as "Meet Me in St. Louis," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," "Shortnin' Bread," "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," "Stars and Stripes Forever."
"Tintypes" opened on Broadway in 1980.
"There was so much happening in society during this period, from inventions to politics," Maltby said.
The play was named after a popular style of photography used in the second half of the 19th century. But the theme, Maltby said, is simple.
"It concerns the ability of the downtrodden and oppressed to assimilate with equal opportunity" in the "Land of Freedom."
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