Ginger Rogers: Dancer, Actress, Legend
Lynnette Barkley directs the musical biography Backwards in High Heels on the BRSC stage Aug. 29-Sept. 14

By Jeff Eason

This week rehearsals begin for one of the Blowing Rock Stage Company’s most ambitious and original productions. With music, dance and drama the new show will tell the tale of one of Hollywood’s true glamour girls and unsung heroes.

The BRSC presents Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Rogers Musical at the Mariam and Robert Hayes Center for the Performing Arts in Blowing Rock August 29 through September 14. The production is the second-ever for the new play, which had its world premiere during Florida Stage’s 20th anniversary season in West Palm Beach in 2007.

The BRSC production of Backwards in High Heels will be directed and choreographed by Lynnette Barkley, who conceived and developed the show along with Christopher McGovern. McGovern also created the book, original songs and musical arrangements for the musical biography.

According to Barkley, Backwards in High Heels follows Ginger Rogers’ adventure from the time she arrived in Hollywood as a 14-year-old aspiring starlet through 1940 when the 37-year-old actress won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Kitty Foyle. The play’s title comes from the oft-repeated quotation about Rogers being the best dancer in the world because she could do everything Fred Astaire could do “only backwards and in high heels.”

“I’m very excited about this production with the Blowing Rock Stage Company,” said Barkley. “I’ve worked with (BRSC producing director) Ken Kay before and I absolutely adore him. We had great success with this show in Florida when it first opened last year. Now we have had the opportunity to tweak some things, change some arrangements and make adjustments for this second production. So I think it will be better than ever.”

Barkley added that the Blowing Rock Stage Company production will feature an entirely new cast of three actors from New York and four from North Carolina.

“The two main actors portray Ginger Rogers and her mother, Lela, and the other four actors play all of the other parts, including the famous actors in Rogers’ life such as Jimmy Stewart, Ethel Merman and, of course, Fred Astaire.”

Barkley stated that she got the inspiration to write a play about the life of Ginger Rogers from remembering watching her old black and white movies with her mother when the films were a staple of late night television.

“It turns out there were two constants in Gingers’s life: dance and her mom,” said Barkley. “Her mother was a huge influence on her life and career. Show business was her life and she ended up doing it until she was in her eighties.”

Because so many of Rogers’ movies were presented in black and white, Backwards in High Heels utilizes a lot of two-tone set and costume designs.

“Most people think that Ginger was a bleach blonde,” said Barkley, “but in reality she was a strawberry blonde. One of the most iconic images of her is when she was dancing with Fred Astaire with a giant white feathered headdress and white gown. We try to capture some of that magic with our sets and costumes.”

Creating the play took meticulous research into the movies of the 30s and 40s and along the way Barkley discovered many surprising aspects of Rogers’ life.

“Before I did all of the research, I didn’t realize that Ginger Rogers was married and divorced five times,” said Barkley. “Another thing I discovered was that Fred and Ginger went on a date many years before they became Hollywood’s favorite movie couple. When they were both still working in Vaudeville they had gone on a date. There was even some necking going on. But it just so happens that Ginger’s mother took her to Hollywood the very next day…so that was the end of that, for a while.”

Tickets & Times

Tickets for Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Rogers Musical are $32 for the general public, $30 for seniors and $14 for students. The musical biography will take the stage at the Hayes Center for the Performing Arts in Blowing Rock on August 29, 30, September 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12 & 13 at 8 p.m., with additional 2 p.m. matinee performances on August 30, 31, September 4, 6, 7, 11, 13 & 14.

For more information, or to order tickets, call the Hayes Center Box Office at (828) 295-9627 or visit www.blowingrockstage.com.