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Show The Salt Lake Tribune Guys Naked from the Waist Down is an improbable hit 43 By Michael Kuchwara Associated Press Writer NEW YORK For a while, Lt was called "Half-w- it Dope Jokes and Slapstick." Then came Kamikaze Kabaret." Finally the authors settled on 3 Guys Naked from the Waist a title like Waist Down. 3 Guys Naked from the We all stopped. It was like the movies, says Rupert, describing the lightbulb effect of proposal. Rupert and Colker came up with the idea for the show when they were both working in Swing, a big band musical that expired in Washington in 1980 en route to Broadway. I was interested in getting into producing, says Rupert, who at 33 is a veteran of show business, Including guest shots on scores of television shows from Marcus Welby, M.D. to The Waltons." I wanted to develop a theater project, hook up with real, fconest-to-Go- d producers and learn the ropes. Took Five Years What he learned was that if he wanted to get a musical about three stand-u- p comics together, he'd have to help write it. The effort took nearly five years. As a kid, I studied piano and learned lt well enough to accompany myself. I started writing music when I was 12 or 13 as a hobby, says Ru Ca-dif- Down. We needed a title as as the show, says Michael Rupert, the genial, curly-haire- d actor who wrote the music for what has turned out to be one of the few musical hits of a barren New York theater season. 3 Ell Sunday, April 7, 1985 ar currently running at Minetta Lane Theater, is the story of stand-ucomics, a trio of funny men who put themselves on the line each night and how they cope and dont cope with success. It has book and lyrics by Jerry Colker who also plays one of the three guys. The title was the brainstorm of director Andrew Cadiff. Lightbulb Effect We were just sitting around one day, throwing out suggestions, and Andy blurted out, You know, we need Guys. p on Broadpert, who at 18 way with Robert Goulet and David musical Wayne in the Kander-Ebb- . The Happy Time, and graduated to roles in Pippin and March of the Falsettos" doing television work In California. I'd come home from the theater and just to wind down, Id sit there with a glass of wine until two or three in the morning, playing the piano and writing songs, he recalls. The composing partnership was cemented after Rupert set one of Colkers lyrics entitled I Dont Believe In Heroes Anymore to music. The song is still In the show. The rest of the musical was harder to write. With Colker in New York and Rupert in California, trying to do an occasional television guest spot to support himself, much of it was done longdistance. Astronomical Phone Bills Thank God for Sprint," laughs Rupert. Our phone bills were astronomical." From September 1983 through the spring of last year, the musical went through two workshop productions in New York. These were small-scalInvitation-onl- y performances that allowed the authors to put their work In front of an audience. The workshops led to offers from four or five regional theaters around the country to produce the show. PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, N.C., won out, and the musical was staged there last September. It was a very strange thing, standing there in the theater lobby and watching people walk in who actually had paid money to hear my music. I thought, My God, Im a composer now, says Rupert. We got everybody from college students to grandmas to kids. The audiences in Chapel Hill were very aware artistically, he adds. And you couldnt get a seat for the show. Recruited Actors Two cast members were recruited ; from the different workshop produc- - ( tions. Scott Bakula, who played Joe DiMaggio In Marilyn last season, became a smooth-talkin- g emcee. A e, second, John Kassir, the only actor in the musical with experience as a stand-u- p comic, recently won the $100,000 grand prize on the television show Star Search." Colker was thrust into the third role Phil, an angry young comic after the actor playing the part decided he couldnt handle it. ts eventual success, a success Rupert attributes to dogged determination. Tenacity Paid Off There are a lot of talented people out there, and a lot of them can write shows. Its just getting them produced. You just have to keep at it, he says. The difficulties havent deterred the Rupert-Colke- r partnership. Last summer they were in Los Angeles to see the Summer Olympics, and to beuntitled collabogin a second, ration. We wrote the first draft of a new show that were going to do in Chapel Hill this fall," says Rupert. Were going to go back to North Carolina and a year from now, we hope, well have another show." Jerry knew the part because he wrote it, and if any of the characters was based on his personality, the role of Phil was. The character is a very intense, angry comic and thats who Jerry is," Rupert says. The chemistry among the three actors worked so well that it was decided to keep Colker in the role when the musical journeyed to New York ajnd as-y- tt SENIOR Dlitf Theatig (3) $2.75 CITIZENS All ANYTIME THEATRES! EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT!. SOUTH 3 HH$ M bOc WlTHttht O "MASK' is superb.:: l.ene biskel. 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