Bye Bye Birdie

Allie Trimm is Kim MacAfee and Nolan Funk plays Conrad Birdie.

Photograph: Imogen Brown

There may always have been a generation gap, but when Elvis Presley swiveled his hips on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, the chasm between teens and their parents cracked open wider than ever before. That disparity is the theme of the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, which returns to Broadway this month in a production starring John Stamos, Gina Gershon and Bill Irwin. Birdie’s plot was inspired by yet another memorable Elvis moment—his induction into the army in 1958. When a New York songwriter, Albert Peterson (Stamos, in Mad Men mode), finds out that rock star Conrad Birdie (played by Nickelodeon heartthrob Nolan Funk) has been drafted, he cooks up a publicity stunt: He’ll have Birdie smooch one small-town teen on national TV before singing a song and shipping off.

The story is definitely retro. But, says the revival’s choreographer-director Robert Longbottom, “We’re going to put as fresh a spin on this as we can and hopefully make it accessible to the great parent-teenage divide.”

One innovation is a reimagined, more realistic 1950s aesthetic. Longbottom says the design team has purposely avoided “poodle skirts and bobby socks and that whole catalog of items that have been used over and over again for this era.” Another is the casting of the high-schoolers. Playing the lucky 15-year-old, Kim MacAfee, is freckle-faced charmer Allie Trimm. At 14, she is much closer to the character’s age than 21-year-olds Susan Watson and Ann-Margret were when they played the part on Broadway and in the film, respectively. Trimm, a San Diego native who made her Broadway debut in last year’s 13: The Musical, is quick to point out that she’ll turn 15—Kim’s exact age—by the time the new production opens on October 15 (previews begin September 10).

Longbottom appreciates the youthful perspective Trimm brings. “I looked for young performers who hadn’t been in 16 Broadway shows,” he says. The goal is to “present these kids without any irony at all,” to create “a time when everything was genuine, when not everything was in italics or air-quotes.”

Indeed, Trimm confides that the show strikes a chord with her—despite its age. One doesn’t have to look far to see the parallels between Ed Sullivan and American Idol. And the chatty chorale “The Telephone Hour,” in which teens trade gossip over the phone from their respective bedrooms, reminds Trimm of herself and her friends. “We’re always video-chatting; it’s the same thing, just a different technology,” she says.

Ah, kids! As long as the generations misunderstand each other, we won’t be saying goodbye to Birdie any time soon.

Bye Bye Birdie begins previews Sept 10 at Henry Miller's Theatre.

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