Ticket

‘Godiva’ unveiled

Even though it's been open less than a year, Robert Dennick Joki is no stranger to The Playhouse Downtown.

He directed at least a dozen shows at the performance space on the third floor of the Morley Arts Building in downtown Youngstown when it was home to the Oakland Center for the Arts, and the founder of Rust Belt Theater Company will stage "Godiva: A Burlesque Musical" there for three performances this weekend.

"I hadn’t been in that building for a decade, so it’s nice to see that they’ve made some improvements," Joki said. "It’s nice to see that the roof no longer leaks. It’s bittersweet being back there, because that’s kind of where I grew up theatrically. It’s where I wrote 'How the Drag Queen Stole Christmas,' and I always wanted to do some of my other original shows there, but that was just not something, at the time, that the board was interested in. What made me start the Rust Belt Theater Company was so that I could have a place where I and other people could produce locally written material."

"Godiva" is one of those shows. Written by Joki and Josh Taylor, the musical is about a group of women who want to stage a burlesque show in their small town. They all have different reasons and motivations for participating, and the show was inspired by Alfred Tennyson's poem about Lady Godiva, who is forced to ride through town naked as punishment for disobeying her husband.

It includes the original songs "Burlesque," "Grin and Bare It," "Betty’s Back Door," "My Eyes Are Up There," "Cakes and Pies," "The Happiest Family in Town That Everyone Hates," "A Pretty Nice Place to Live," "Big Girls Don’t Move Like That," "Remind Me How To Dance," "Bonfire" and "Let Down Your Hair."

It was first staged in 2016 when Rust Belt called the Calvin Center home, and this is the first production since 2019.

"It’s a harder show to cast because it’s a little bit bigger than the cast than we usually do, and some of the roles are body specific," Joki said.

"You need a large, talented group of women in order to make the show happen, and I was just not getting the numbers at auditions to cast a show like this. I was waiting until I thought I had a group of actors that I could pull from to do it again, and that finally happened."

The cast features Nicole Zayas, Caitlyn Murphy, Rachel Myers, Rachael Kerr, Eric McCrea, Christopher Hartman, Charity Pickup, Haley Comet, Valorie Dunch, Madi Pomeroy, Jessica Patoray, Lisa Torrence, Rachel Clifford, Bernadette Lim, Cadence Treich, Sidney Wolford, Caitlin Marie Cole and Romerio Dawkins.

Joki made significant changes in the show since its first staging a decade ago.

"Entire characters and small plot lines have been removed," Joki said. "I’ve tightened it up because the very first time we did this, it was like three hours long, and it’s now much closer to two hours, maybe two hours and 10 minutes.

"Taking time away from it helped me do that. Sometimes it’s hard to cut something from a show if you’ve written it for someone. There used to be a character named Medusa in the show, and she had a whole song and this little plot line, and it was specifically for Bernadette Lim, who at the time didn’t want to do a major role; she wanted to do a feature performance. Well, now Bernadette is playing one of the lead roles, so I was able to cut that entire plot bit and lose about 15 minutes off of the show, and I’m actually very happy with it."

This year's production features all new costumes, and Joki also added an immersive element to the staging that audience members will experience when they arrive at the theater. Even without significant changes, each iteration of "Godiva" or any musical becomes something unique.

"It depends on the main character, Amanda," Joki said. "Who gets cast in that role influences how the rest of the characters are played. This is the third actress (Caitlyn Murphy) I’ve had to play that role, and she’s playing it in a different way than the other ones did. It has kind of a trickle down effect on how the other main characters are performed, and it’s interesting. One of the things I love about theater is that different productions of the same show can be very different depending on how the performers bring the roles from the page up onto the stage."

If you go …

WHAT: Rust Belt Theater Company -- "Godiva: A Burlesque Musical!"

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: The Playhouse Downtown, 220 W. Boardman St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $24 and are available online at youngstownplayhouse.ludus.com and by calling 330-788-8739.