TOM TITUS -- Theater Preview

Now it can be told. With the closing of “Bye Bye Birdie” at the Costa

Mesa Civic Playhouse, it may safely be revealed that the actress billed

as Agnes Burns, playing the mother’s role etched so indelibly by Maureen

Stapleton in the movie version, was none other than Lynn Reinert, who’s

somewhat younger and far more attractive than her character should be.

What’s more, she was able to pull it off with almost no one guessing

her true identity. I say “almost no one” because my perceptive daughter

nailed her by intermission. But she certainly had me fooled.

Reinert not only is an accomplished actress, she can take on any

variety of characterizations -- from the sophisticated Tracy Lord in “The

Philadelphia Story” to the plain, introverted Lennie in “Crimes of the

Heart” to the narcissistic, aging beauty queen Toby in “The Gingerbread

Lady.” She’s done all these roles on the Costa Mesa stage, employing her

natural Southern accent only in “Crimes.”

But Mae Peterson? It would seem a stretch, but Reinert -- who had

actually done the role several years ago -- was up to the challenge. Even

though the striking blond actress could pass for a good 10 years younger than the 41 she admits to, she yearned to take another crack at the

matronly character.

“It took a little convincing, but Damien [Lorton, the director]

trusted me when I promised him that I could carry it off,” Reinert said.

“Believe me, there were a number of detractors out there who couldn’t

believe he had cast me.

“Another reason is that I am especially drawn to humorous,eccentric

characters. I love them, and I think the greatest compliment in the world

is creating a life on stage that is so vastly different from your own

that the audience doesn’t recognize it is you,” she added.

Which is partly why Reinert billed herself as “Agnes Burns” and

provided a phony biography in the program.

“It wasn’t done to trick anybody or to play a joke on the audience,”

she insisted. “It’s just that we have a number of patrons who regularly

attend the theater who know me, and I didn’t want anyone’s focus or

attention taken away from the performance to analyze the makeup or the

costumes or how much it did or didn’t look and sound like me.

“It was more important that they liked what the actor did with Mae,

that they enjoyed her, maybe thought she was funny and most of all found

her believable,” she added.

But didn’t performing without proper credit bother her?

“I can honestly say that it was enough to see people’s reaction after

the show,” she declared. “I thought it was the highest compliment that

they didn’t recognize me, or to hear from friends of the cast or even the

occasional comment that they liked the old lady playing Mama.

“My husband actually had people from his office come to see the show

who were disappointed that I wasn’t in the show that night -- and this

was after Scott had told them which part I was playing. I still hear that

they aren’t convinced it was me. To me, that is just the coolest.”

So, beyond the obvious acting skills, how did she pull it off

physically?

“I actually did the makeup myself from pencils and contouring creams

and powder. By the end of the run, I was able to get into the costume,

wig and makeup in less than 30 minutes. It’s funny how easy it got

finding those wrinkles to draw in with the brown pencil,” she said.

Reinert, the Daily Pilot’s woman of the year in theater for 1998, is

credited with guiding the Civic Playhouse through some rocky financial

shoals in her offstage role as playhouse president.

She’s also been taking classes from the pros at South Coast Repertory,

including an on-camera class, which, she said, “has given me the

confidence to venture outside the world of live theater.”

“At the end of October,” she notes, “I will shoot anindependent film

and, believe it or not, I have been writing some comedy sketches, one of

them actually based on the character of Mama. I just can’t bear to bid

her farewell, I guess.”

* TOM TITUS writes about local theater for the Daily Pilot. His

stories and reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.