Bingo: Circle Theatre opens with 'Bingo, the Musical'

GRAND RAPIDS -- Imagine a bingo game with 75 balls. You can play bingo sitting in a chair with a drink in your hand. And if you black out, you win.

Bingo!

For almost 80 years, the game of chance has been filling American Legion bingo halls, church basements and carnival tents. Now, a musical version is filling theaters, too.

And what better place for the Michigan debut of "Bingo, the Musical" than Grand Rapids, which was dubbed the Bingo Capital of the U.S.A. by BingoLingo.com earlier this year.

According to the Web site's unscientific study, Grand Rapids has more bingo halls and bingo games per capita than any other metropolitan area.

But it's the show's hilarious cast of characters -- not bingo's local popularity-- that led Circle Theatre to schedule "Bingo, the Musical" as its season opener.

"It has very silly characters and ridiculous situations," director Todd Avery said. "I don't know if you're going to walk away learning anything about bingo, but it's a real gut-buster."

Avery discovered the bingo show last year in Chicago's Apollo Theatre, where his sister-in-law, professional actress Cheryl Avery, played the leading role of Vern.

The musical got its start in 2000 when playwrights Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid were in Denver workshopping another play, "Vices." Someone suggested taking a break at a local bingo hall.

"I won $200 -- not that it swayed me or anything," Reid said recently in a phone interview from New York. "It was the bingo culture that got me. Here were these lovable and zany characters, so driven that they wouldn't talk to you while a bingo game was being called."

Reid said she sat next to a woman who spent 30 minutes setting up her display of lucky charms.

On the plane home from Denver, Reid and Heitzman began outlining the bingo story. The final piece fell into place when they invited their friend David Holcenberg to write music and lyrics. He had been on tour as musical director of "Phantom of the Opera," and at each tour stop, he said, the cast would look for the local bingo hall.

"We discovered he's a bingo groupie," Reid said.

Holcenberg -- who also directed "Mamma Mia!"-- gets the credit for adding much of the authentic bingo lingo to the show, such as players singing "I am 16, going on 17" for the call of I-16 or responding to a call of B-12 with "Give me a shot of B-12." Bingo fans who saw the show in California also stayed afterward to help the writers correct any bingo faux pas, Reid said.

The story centers on three bingo-obsessed friends, played by Lisa Whitley-Butler, Noddea Moore and Aubry Talbott, who brave a storm to get to their bingo game.

Others in the cast include Kyle Burton Black as the handsome caller, Ruth Anne Molenaar as the bingo hall's proprietor and Christine Amon and Colleen Weibel as other bingo players.

The score features such songs as "Girls Night Out," "Anyone Can Play Bingo," "Gentleman Caller" and "B4."

"When you're as passionate about something as these bingo players are, it's just a natural progression to start singing about it," Reid said.

The object of the bingo show is to pay homage to the bingo culture, rather than poke fun, Reid said. Her research uncovered a study of people's heart rates in various extreme situations. The highest jolt, according to the study, was when a bingo player was one number away in bingo, Reid said.

"No matter how jaded you are, when you're close to winning, it's a high."

Audience gets involved

Here's how watching "Bingo, The Musical" at Circle Theatre works:

Every person gets a bingo card and plays along on three bingo games for cash prizes during the production. Circle Theatre's set will include a lighted bingo board, purchased on eBay, and a lighted bingo card on the stage floor to teach newbies various pattern games, such as arrow and diamond.

Written by Sue Merrell

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