Husband and Wife Team : 2 Dancers From San Diego Glad to Be ‘Singin’ in Rain’

SAN DIEGO —  Beverly and Kirby Ward were not born in a trunk, but they have been smittten with the show business bug since early childhood.

Both were Junior Theater kids (Kirby’s parents, Don and Bonnie Ward, were co-directors of that San Diego institution at the time), and they blossomed quickly into triple-threats--as singers, dancers and actors. Even after marrying and leaving the home front for greener pastures, the young Wards retained their San Diego connection.

Now the two are reunited as a husband-wife team in a local production of “Singin’ in the Rain,” the Broadway musical based on the movie classic starring Gene Kelly.

“This is our first crack at the show,” said an effervescent Beverly in a break from rehearsals at the Lawrence Welk Dinner Theater, where the show is playing through May 21. “They did it at the Grand Dinner Theater (in Anaheim), but we were both busy in other shows at the time.”

Although Beverly is a familiar face at the Welk, having starred in “No, No, Nanette” and “The Boyfriend,” it has been more than five years since Kirby’s supercharged performance in “Music Man” made him a hit with audiences at the Escondido-based dinner theater.

“Actually, we’ve both been very busy working all over California,” Beverly said. “Kirby’s done numerous productions of ‘42nd Street,’ and we both did four shows in Sacramento.”

The Wards are delighted to be working close to home in a situation they describe as “a working vacation.” They consider the Welk’s audience, which is mostly senior citizens, “the most appreciative we’ve every had.” But as Beverly noted, “Singin’ in the Rain” is a difficult show to do.

“I don’t know who came up with the idea, but the effects are very difficult, and we had a few bugs to work out,” she said.

The biggest bug--an on-stage rain shower--was still a problem on opening night. The shower was more like a deluge, and Kirby, as the lovesick hero, had to dance nonchalantly through the torrent.

To exacerbate the situation, choreographer Rob Barron has created a complicated sequence of tap-dance steps for the water-logged song-and-dance scene. But somehow Kirby managed to trip the light fantastic through it all on press night.

“We devised some platforms,” said Beverly, “but you have to have a water fall, so it’s really difficult.”

Unlike all too many Welk productions, this one is blessed with a uniformly able cast, down to the last toe-tapping hoofer in the chorus.

“The quality of the dancers is so even,” Beverly said. “Barron did a lot of re-creating of the very intricate choreography (originally designed by Kelly and Stanley Donen), and he just lucked out in finding dancers who could do it.”

What’s in store for the Wards when the final curtain drops on “Singin’ in the Rain?”

“Kirby is conceiving a new act for Debbie Reynolds. He’s doing a lot more choreography now and really wants to loop into that field,” Beverly said. “We’ve both been very lucky, making a living at this, and we intend to keep at it.”