In St. Louis, The Muny is an All-American Pastime

For Lara Teeter, who plays Albert Peterson in The Muny’s upcoming production of Bye Bye Birdie, St. Louis baseball and the city’s popular outdoor theater have a lot in common.

"The Muny tradition is so much a part of the St. Louis community," said Teeter, who lives in St. Louis with his wife and four children. "You start back at the World’s Fair, and you look at the 93 years of tradition, and the four and five generations of people who have been coming to The Muny—I mean, some of those subscription seats out there are like having Cardinals tickets. I always tell people, The Muny is the most all-American thing. It’s like where baseball and theater meet. Because, you get a beer, you get popcorn, you get a hotdog, you sing the national anthem, and then it’s play ball, only it’s the overture."

Bye Bye Birdie, which runs Monday through Aug. 14, is the Elvis-like story of a young rock star in search of a final fling before entering the Army. It also stars Andrea Burns as Rose Alvarez, Muny favorite Leslie Denniston as Mrs. MacAfee, Lewis J. Stadlen as Mr. MacAfee, Kelly O’Neill as Kim MacAfee and Parker Pogue making his debut as rock star Conrad Birdie.

"He’s just this handsome, young kid," Teeter said of Pogue. "If you saw him walking down the street, you would definitely do a double take thinking he was some young Matt Damon. He’s got that natural charisma. There are 60-some odd people in this cast, and when we first met and I watched him walk in, I said, ‘Well, that’s Conrad.’ He’s gonna rip it up. He’s got that Elvis the Pelvis thing going on, in his own way."

The show, set in the 1960s, is a great opportunity for an actor.

"The role is pure golden era musical theater, Dick Van Dyke schtick," Teeter said. "I’m just having a great time."

It’s particularly satisfying for Teeter, a Muny veteran, because he gets to work with Muny executive producer Paul Blake again. Blake is directing Birdie, and it’s his farewell to The Muny after 21 years.

"Bye Bye Birdie with Tommy Tune was the first show that Paul produced and directed here, and that is why he chose it to end his career here," Teeter said. "He wanted to go out with the same show he came in with."

Teeter, an associate professor and head of the musical theatre program at Webster Conservatory for Theatre Arts in St. Louis, was thrilled this spring when Blake asked him to be part of this summer at The Muny.

"When he started talking to me about the season, I just stopped him and I said, ‘Wait, Paul, wait. I don’t have the words to thank you.’ And of course he picked Little Mermaid and Bye Bye Birdie for me, and I asked him what shows he was (directing), and he said Mermaid and Bye Bye Birdie. So I feel like I won the lottery ticket this year, to be able to work with Paul for both shows."

Rehearsals have been great, Teeter said.

"Paul’s amazed at how easily it’s coming together, and the best thing for us is that each stage in the rehearsal starts for us in the middle of the floor, with Paul in this incredibly buoyant, celebratory, jovial mood, telling stories," he said. "We’ll do that for 10 or 15 minutes, and everybody in the room is kind of grinning ear to ear, and he says, ‘I guess we should start rehearsing.’ We’re just having a really, really exceptionally good time."

Both of Teeter’s shows this summer have carried an added bonus, because his daughter Elizabeth Teeter, 9, is also in them. The proud papa talks about the comedic timing Elizabeth shares with Lew Stadlen, her stage dad, and how Teeter sensed the budding thespian in his daughter when she was age 5 and the family moved to St. Louis. The first Muny show they came to see was Oklahoma, and while Elizabeth’s twin brother Charlie was squirming, Elizabeth was rapt.

"She turned to me at one point and said—this was a 5-year-old girl—‘Dad, something bad is going to happen.’ I love that story, because as a young actor she already understood that there had to be some kind of conflict. All this exposition was going on—you know, Jud would kind of come in and come out—but she sensed that something bad was going to happen."

Elizabeth made her Muny debut two years ago in Meet Me In St. Louis—and her parents nearly missed it. The Teeters’ youngest, Maggie, was just a two-week-old baby at the time, and she desperately needed a diaper change just as Elizabeth was due to walk out on stage. Like seasoned troupers, Mom and Dad sprang into action, changed the diaper in record speed and were back in their seats just in time.

"Of course, my wife and I, our faces are just raining with tears watching our daughter," he said.

Seeing Elizabeth blossom on stage has extra meaning for Teeter, who has enjoyed careers as a performer and a drama teacher. Teeter felt "drawn" to teaching, which he has done for 17 years at various schools and has enjoyed working with and learning from his colleagues at Webster. Still, the ultimate thrill will always be striding onto The Muny stage before a packed house of 12,000 theatregoers.

"Being out on that expansive stage and being under those big oak trees, there’s just really nothing like it," he said.

Bye Bye Birdie runs at 8:15 p.m. Monday through Sunday, Aug. 14. Tickets range from $10 to $68 and are available at The Muny box office, online at www.metrotix.com and by calling MetroTix at 314-534-1111.

There are also about 1,500 free seats available at the back of the theater on a first-come, first-served basis.

Getting there from Wentzville

Take Highway 40 east to the Hampton Avenue exit into Forest Park. Go right at the first roundabout. At the second roundabout, follow the signs to Muny parking.