Know how Trinity preps a world premiere BY BILL RODRIGUEZ

Amanda Dehnert didn’t have to speak loudly to get everyone’s attention at the rehearsal in Trinity’s upstairs theater. She’s a director who jokes around with her actors, but everyone knows who’s at the helm when they’re under sail.

"In the middle of page 43, where it says, ‘Do you have any idea how goddamn hard it is to write a song?’ — that should be, ‘to write music,’ " she announced. "It was a late change that didn’t get in."

The musical they were working on would begin previews in exactly one week and six-and-three-quarter hours, which is six days before its official world premiere. You’ll Never Know, by Charles Strouse and Rinne Groff, was getting its last-minute touches like a portrait getting its sparkle in the eyes just right.

Perhaps a better comparison is to a marble sculpture being madly chipped away to make its subject less zaftig. As a scene was rehearsed, I followed along with a month-old script, and quite a bit of slimming down was evident. Responses were left implied rather than articulated, lines were deleted so that the thread of an exchange stayed focused. In the passage Dehnert cited, two sentences remained of the earlier nine, and one of those was trimmed to the bone.

The back-story of this collaboration with Trinity Repertory Company is even more dramatic than the musical that resulted. Charles Strouse wrote the memorable music for Annie, which Dehnert staged two years ago at the theater. Her glowingly reviewed production was as reality-oriented as could be about the setting’s Depression era, to the extent that the previews version had Annie wake up back in the orphanage, her good-luck life just a dream. That change vexed enough copyright-holders for a backer of the original Annie to fly in his private jet to Providence, Strouse and others in tow, to view the show through glowering eyes.

However, "I loved the production — I just loved it," Strouse enthused, recalling the evening. Before the current rehearsal, he was sitting next to Dehnert in the upstairs lobby. "And it happened to coincide with the way I wanted to use the stage — the color and physical aspects of it. I loved the production."

So Dehnert was relieved at the time, knowing that no lawsuit was in the offing. A month or so later she was further surprised to hear Strouse on the phone. He not only was praising her work, but also was asking if she’d be interested in a little musical he was working on, this time having written the book as well as the music and lyrics. (Strouse co-scored Tony winners Bye Bye Birdie and Applause and contributed to nearly two dozen musicals. His film credits include the score of Bonnie and Clyde, and he wrote the tune for "Those Were the Days," the theme song of TV’s All In the Family.)

Trinity’s music director as well as associate artistic director at the time, Dehnert was flattered and amenable. The draft had a narrator talk about writing musicals, but Strouse was quite willing to have playwright Groff join in as co-author of the book. In short order a musical-within-a-musical emerged. The grandson of the author of an unproduced musical is rehearsing a reading, which segues into his fantasy of a full-scale production. Trinity/Brown Consortium student Ben Steinfeld is performing his first lead at Trinity as the grandson. New York actress Haviland Stillwell is the love interest, and Trinity regulars Mauro Hantman, Fred Sullivan Jr., Stephen Thorne, and Rachael Warren complete the cast.

"Trinity took a big leap on this piece very early in the overall process," Dehnert pointed out. "Half of what we’re doing here looks like what other people do for a workshop — only we’re doing the show. And that’s because it had such a strong core right from the beginning."

"It’s lot of fun — and a lot of heartache," Strouse added. He noted about the collaboration process: "There are mini-dramas all the way through it."

The bump and tussle of shaping a stage production into final form is rough, triply so when there also are lyrics and music. But bruised egos don’t have to be a concern when attention remains on the work itself, they agree.

"It’s just my job to stay in touch with the story that we want to be telling and figure out how to best get that to be as sharp and refined and clear and specific as possible," Dehnert said.

Strouse gave an example.

"I wrote a very lighthearted duet between two of the characters, where they kept dancing around each other," he said, referring to their not expressing their anger. "And both Amanda and Rinne encouraged me to make their arc, their debate, more real."

So now some blue language fills the air in the scene, which has gotten grounded in life and not the sunny optimism of musicals that strike false notes.

"Being able to talk to Charles and work with him is so important, because I feel that 50 percent of what I’m trying to do may not even be necessarily represented here," Dehnert said, picking up the script. "But I have to feed through this to where we’re trying to go. Because if you were to just take this at face value, you could direct it a hundred different ways."

You’ll Never Know will be presented at Trinity Rep April 15 through May 22. Call (401) 351-4242.