‘Bye Bye Birdie’ opens at Brundage Park

“What’s a telephone receiver?”

Director Ray Gelpke of Randolph knew he would have to deal with questions from young people in the cast of “Bye Bye Birdie” which opens at Brundage Park Playhouse tonight.

Set in 1958, “Bye Bye Birdie” centers on a hip-swiveling rocker named Conrad Birdie, who has been drafted into the Army.

Before he goes off to training, Birdie agrees to kiss a “typical American girl” on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Gelpke had previously directed “Birdie” in 2012 at Cornerstone Playhouse in Sussex.

So he anticipated that he would have to explain who Ed Sullivan was and why appearing in his TV show was a big deal.

But the question about the telephone receiver threw Gelpke.

It was raised during a rehearsal of “The Telephone Hour,” the opening number sung by a group of teens.

“We’re dealing with a different generation,” says Gelpke. “They had no idea what a telephone receiver was. It’s almost like a history class for them.”

(Actually, parts of the book by Michael Stewart may puzzle some adults. For example, Henry Luce, founder of Time magazine, is mentioned with no explanation.)

Still, the fact that “Birdie” takes place nearly 60 years ago is one of its attractions to younger people. “Kids think it’s cool to dress up in the 1950s,” Gelpke says.

But nostalgia only partly explains the attraction of “Birdie,” he says.

“It’s light entertainment,” says Gelpke. “You’ve got some great dance numbers.” (He credits his choreographer, Olivia Davis of Newton, for her work on the current production.)

Gelpke points out that, for all its familiarity, some casual playgoers may have misconceptions about “Birdie.”

For instance, the character of Conrad Birdie is not exactly Elvis Presley.

Birdie (played at Brundage Park by Manny Lopez of Randolph) is as much a take-off on country singer Conway Twitty, who started as a rockabilly act and a rival to Elvis in the 1950s.

The songs in “Birdie” by lyricist Lee Adams and composer Charles Strouse have little to do with rock ’n’ roll, Gelpke says. Numbers like “Kids,” “Put on a Happy Face,” and (Gelpke’s favorite) “Rosie” are straightforward Broadway show tunes.

In addition, though Birdie is the title character, he is not the star.

The protagonist is really his manager, Albert Peterson (Kenny Roggenkamp of Dover), and his romantic relationship with his secretary, Rosie (Lanea Odenbrett of Parsippany).

That relationship is complicated by Albert’s overprotective mother, Mae (played by Anna Gelpke of Randolph, Ray Gelpke’s wife).

The Brundage Park production is a mini-reunion; both the Gelpkes and Roggenkamp were involved in the same capacities of the Cornerstone version of “Bye Bye Birdie” two years ago.

“Sometimes it’s just as hard to do a show you’ve done before,” Ray Gelpke says. “Every combination of actors is different. I have to let the actors do what they do.”

Roggenkamp says he enjoys the combination of working with new and familiar faces.

“It’s fun to be able to play against the same (actress playing) Mama,” he says. “But I also like working with Lanea as Rosie.

“This time, I notice more about the way Albert is trying to please both his mother and Rosie,” Roggenkamp continues. “He’s dancing around them both.”

Odenbrett says that she has had no problem fitting into the cast.

“I know in the back of my mind that this is Kenny’s second time around. But I think we have our own way of playing the characters. I don’t feel like I’m being compared to anyone else.”

She adds that she is pleased to be part of the show.

“This is such a classic,” she says. “It’s a show that everyone knows. Even people who don’t usually go to the theater know it, and I’m happy to be doing it.”

BYE BYE BIRDIE

WHAT: The perennial favorite musical returns. The story (with book by Michael Stewart and songs by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse) is ostensibly about an Elvis-like rocker being drafted into the Army. But the real protagonist is Albert, the singer’s manager, who is torn between his desire to please his nagging mother and his love for his secretary, Rosie.

WHEN: Oct. 10 to 26. 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. (There is no performance on Friday, Oct. 24.)

WHERE: Brundage Park Playhouse, 2 Bungalow Lane (off Carrell Road), Randolph.

TICKETS: $20, $15 for children under 12 and seniors.

INFORMATION: 973-989-7092 or www.brundageparkplayhouse.org