This ‘Gidget’ Goes to Workshop Under Coppola’s Direction

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has found the Big Kahoona for his movie musical remake of 1959’s “Gidget,” and it’s Dermot Mulroney, best known for his role in 1997’s “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

Although Coppola has not selected any other cast members for the movie, the writer-director is working with Mulroney and 35 students and alumni from the Orange County High School of the Arts in a series of theater workshops to test the story as a musical.

Jeff Heapy of Huntington Beach plays one of the lead roles as Moondoggie.

“Coppola surprises me sometimes,” said Heapy, 17, who Monday was rehearsing a dance number called “Beat Girl” from the musical.

“You don’t expect him to get up and start dancing and singing. But he’s good,” Heapy said. “It’s funny, because after watching films like ‘Apocalypse Now,’ you expect him to be a grave, serious and uptight person. He’s very funny and very nice. I see this project as a summer vacation for him to hang out with a bunch of kids and do a movie with us. He’s very approachable.”

Coppola is working with the student cast on more than 10 musical numbers for the film. He said he has not decided if he will cast the students in the workshops for the movie.

Coppola made his announcement Monday at the Margaret A. Webb Performing Arts Center at Los Alamitos High School.

Amid a press conference backdrop of Hawaiian prints, surfboards and a grass shack, Coppola, noted for the “Godfather” movies, “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Apocalypse Now,” said his remake of “Gidget” as a movie musical is a return to an old family and Hollywood tradition.

“ ‘Gidget’ came about because I hoped we’d continue in the tradition of making musical films,” Coppola said, adding that he originally planned to make the movie “Tucker” into a musical.

“I’ve always had a musical theater background through my family and own experiences,” Coppola said. He co-composed the music for “Apocalypse Now.”

He said he plans to make a youthful, rock ‘n’ roll musical comparable to the hit movie “Grease,” but based on the West Coast’s surfing culture.

Coppola saw “Gidget,” the original movie based on the novel about a Southern California beach girl, as a coming-of-age story--a “girl’s kind of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ “--that lent itself to a musical treatment.

Coppola, who co-wrote the Gidget script with Cintra Wilson and Zack Emery, also will share music credits with lyricist John Farrar. Farrar wrote “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You” from “Grease.”

Farrar, who knew of the arts school through friends, suggested the director draw from the young talent pool to test-drive his material.

“Workshops are the only method you have to make sure it all sticks together,” Coppola said. “It would be fun to do informal workshops with a young cast who were appropriate to the age group for the film.”

The students won’t be short of tales to tell from their workshops with Coppola.

The four-week workshop will end with five live workshop performances of “Gidget” in August.

The shows are open to the public and scheduled Aug. 3-6 at the 600-seat Los Alamitos High School’s Margaret A. Webb Performing Arts Center, 3591 Cerritos Ave. Showtimes are at 8 p.m. Matinees will be held 2 p.m. Aug. 5-6. Reserved seats are available for a $10 donation to the Orange County High School of the Arts. Information: (562) 596-1435, Ext. 554.