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January 8, 2008

'Goodbye Charlie’ opens Friday

BY BARBARA GREENBERG

DANVILLE — The premise is preposterous: a notorious ladies’ man dies and is reincarnated as a woman. Unlike most who claim a previous life, she’s not transported to a different time or place. Instead, she winds up right back with the same group of friends and lovers she knew so well before. But Charlie’s perspec-tive on both men and women has changed along with his shape.

“Goodbye Charlie,” first a play and then a movie starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis, begins its local run Friday at Red Mask Players’ Kathryn Randolph Theater. Performances continue for three weekends.

The local version features a cast of veterans and newcomers to the community theater group. Lorraine Morgan stars as Charlie. The experienced actress took a serious look at her character before she began playing her for laughs.

“This is all about karma,” Morgan said. “Now that Charlie is a woman, she realizes what she did wrong in her previous relationships when she was a man. It comes back to hit her.

“It’s about redemption, too,” Morgan said.

Jamie DeVore plays the male Charlie’s former lover. She befriends his female version without realizing the past the two shared.

“Whether it’s with men or women, relationships are all about the Golden Rule,” DeVore said. “Charlie learns that the second time around.”

Even the best of those relationships can change, as Charlie discovers. His old friend George must learn to relate to Charlie as a woman instead of a man, with surprising results.

Chuck Pundt, who appears as George, returned to the Red Mask stage after an absence of several years. He said the opportunity to work with both Morgan and Sue Harden as his director drew him back for this show.

“It feels good to be back out there,” Pundt said, “but it’s stressful to have so many lines. I’m usually more in the character parts.

“I feel a connection with the characters in this play,” he said. “I see parallels between my own life and Charlie’s.”

Jamey Coutant would find such parallels difficult to draw with her own life. A supportive and involved wife and the mother of two (Amanda and Brian) who have acted since they were young chil-dren, Jamey makes her own stage debut in “Goodbye Charlie.”

“I’ve worked behind the scenes in just about every capacity, both at Red Mask and at Danville Light Opera,” Coutant said. “Then I did the fall acting workshops here at Red Mask and I decided, ‘Maybe it’s time for Mom.’”

Despite her character’s matronly appearance, Coutant said the woman she plays was another of the male Charlie’s conquests.

“I have a real emotional outbreak in the opening scene,” she said. “It was hard to do at first. I cry, I blow my nose loudly.

“I practice everywhere. Amanda fell asleep in the car and I woke her up with my noises.”

IF YOU GO

The Red Mask Players presents “Goodbye Charlie,” a comedy by George Axelrod, for three weekends beginning Friday at the Kathryn Randolph Theater, 601 N. Vermilion St.

Performance dates are Jan. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-26. Friday and Saturday shows are at 8 p.m. and Sundays are at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $10 for students. Seatingis reserved; call the box office for reservations at 442-5858.

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