Hale Centre Theatre: 'The Civil War': Osmond tries to bring soldier to life

Merrill Osmond stars in the Hale Centre Theatre's production of "The Civil War."

Like the rest of his musical family, Merrill Osmond has spent most of his life on the world's stages, singing at presidential inaugurations and producing theatrically staged concerts. Yet in singing lead in his family's brother act, Osmond mostly has played a bigger version of himself, one that would read to the rafters.

In portraying Captain Emmett Lochran in the Hale Centre Theatre's production of the musical "The Civil War," Osmond is learning how to create a character.

"This is my first time doing anything like this," Osmond, 54, says. "It's a challenge and a half, but I'm loving it to pieces. I'm loving the idea that you are actually taking on the role of an individual who lived during what was probably the most horrific emotional time on the planet, and to stay in that role for the entire two hours."

After Donny's stint in "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" and Marie's in "The Sound of Music," Merrill Osmond has called upon his younger siblings for acting advice, particularly strategy for memorizing lines. If Donny can play Joseph, then his own full, gray beard might qualify him to fill another biblically sized role, that of Moses, Osmond jokes.

Osmond, in an interview during his first week of rehearsals, said working on the community theater's technically complex $1 million stage was another kind of revelation. "There's the memorization, and then making sure the songs you sing are on tune and that the character's coming through," he says. "But then you've got an entire stage that's moving around you, up and down, and if you step in the wrong place, you're going to go down in the pit."

Osmond leads a cast that includes 24 men, 23 of them tenors, with a score by Frank Wildhorn, noted for the musicals "Jekyll and Hyde" and "The Scarlet Pimpernel." The show ran on Broadway in 1999 and wasn't particularly beloved by critics, who opined that its blend of pop music and its historical montage style of storytelling seemed more jarring then emotionally stirring.

That juxtaposition at the heart of the script - building a musical on the foundation of our country's grim brother-against-brother war - seems odd on its face, director Andrew Barrus agrees. But as a Civil War buff, he was intrigued by the storytelling possibilities.

First was the challenge of finding the right cast who could deliver that distinctive music, blending a pop-belting style rooted in bluegrass twang. "[Wildhorn] did not write this for normal people - it's really, really high," Barrus says. "The whole company is really stretching themselves musically throughout the play. I've always found that to be an exciting thing."

To help the cast reach the deeper meaning within the music, Barrus assigned poetry readings, ranging from Walt Whitman to Maya Angelou, that the actors will perform for each other in the green room before shows. Another unique aspect of the production are the cast's replica costumes and weapons, which were purchased from a Tennessee sutler that has provided military provisions continuously since the 1800s.

As part of his immersion in the script, Barrus, dramaturge Jamin Merton and a photographer traveled to the six battlefields that provide the story's setting, staying in inns established before the Civil War.

Landscape photos from that fact-finding trip - which Barrus terms "a dream come true" - have become part of the production's extensive variety of video projections, including images that will wrap around on the theater's back walls. The director hopes the images, with an overlay of dates and historical facts, will create a grounded timeline for the musical's story, which is crafted out of snippets from period journals, poetry and letters.

The script hits some melodramatic notes, but Barrus hopes staging choices will help theatergoers tap into the story's core, rather than the too-easy, saccharine emotions invoked by the subject of a bloody, tragic war.

"You get the sense of authenticity wrapped around inside all of these projections," the director says. "This show is built to make the audience member cry. We could do it at the drop of a hat, but honesty changes your life."

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