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CENTERVILLE - It's a Monday, not the most popular night in the performing-arts world, but Rodgers Memorial Theatre is packed. As the large cast - a mix of soldiers, slaves and wartime widows - wraps its stirring musical finale, the audience rises to its feet.
Another show, another standing ovation. It's become a nightly occurrence for "The Civil War," an unlikely musical smash that has been wowing crowds for three years at this community playhouse in a strip mall beside a supermarket.
Despite some difficulty finding black actors for the slave roles, Rodgers Memorial Theatre (RMT) first staged the historical revue in 2002. Startled by the enthusiastic audience response, the theater mounted an encore performance the following year. Now the musical is back for a third run, through May 7.
All for a little-known Broadway flop that has never been staged by another Utah theater.
"We've done some great shows, but none have had this kind of response," says producer Glenn McKay, who believes "The Civil War" is the most popular show in RMT's eight-year history. "It's done better than 'Joseph [and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat].' It's done better than '[Forever] Plaid.' It's been a home run for the theater every time we've done it."
The musical's success is especially surprising in Utah, a state with no Civil War heritage to speak of. A survey of audience members at Monday's show suggests "The Civil War," with its flag-waving and impassioned songs about freedom, has tapped into the surge of patriotism that swept the country after Sept. 11, 2001.
As one soldier sings, "Sacred ground, where so many have died/Let us take our turn, for our country's pride."
Others believe the show's themes of duty and sacrifice resonate at a time when American soldiers are dying in Iraq.
"It's very touching," says audience member Kathy Jensen of Bountiful, clutching a tissue to wipe away tears. Jensen has seen the show twice and plans to return a third time next week. "The music gives you so much hope. I think it's fabulous."
Written by composer Frank Wildhorn, "The Civil War" is a plotless musical revue whose songs and speeches are adapted from war-era diaries, letters and news accounts.
The show is more like a staged concert than a traditional musical, a series of sung vignettes against projected backdrops of historic photographs and documents.
The show opened on Broadway in 1999 but closed after seven weeks.
It was revived in a well-received touring production that stopped in April 2001 for a brief engagement at Salt Lake City's Capitol Theatre.
Among those in the audience that week was Cliff Cole, RMT's former artistic director. Cole was so enchanted by what he saw that he dragged McKay to the musical the next night and began lobbying for RMT to produce it.
A departure from Rodgers Theatre's usual light-hearted fare, "The Civil War" requires a volunteer cast of three dozen - one-third of them black. In a state where blacks comprise less than 1 percent of the population, the pool of experienced black actors is not deep. To recruit performers for the slave roles, McKay visited Baptist churches and even stopped blacks on the street.
"It's not easy to go up to a black person and say, 'Hey, do you want to be in a show?' " he says. "And do you mind wearing chains?' "
Through word of mouth, McKay learned of Alex Boyé, a singer and motivational speaker for the LDS Church. Boyé, who is black, moved to Utah five years ago from his native England, where he performed in a popular boy band. Cole and McKay invited him to Centerville to audition.
"He sang for us here in the office," McKay recalls. "Cliff and I were looking at each other like, 'Our prayers have been answered.' I don't know what we would have done without him."
Boyé anchors the black cast as statesman Frederick Douglass, and, after appearing in all three RMT productions of "The Civil War," is the closest thing the show has to a star. But mastering his role was not easy. Boyé had not acted before and knew little about the Civil War, which is not taught in British schools. For a crash course in history, and to adopt an American accent, he watched videos of "Glory" and "Gettysburg."
Confronting slavery's painful legacy was a potent experience for Boyé, who found himself sobbing one day in a library while researching Douglass' life. Several RMT audience members, apparently ashamed at 19th-century America's treatment of blacks, have approached Boyé after the show, touched his arm and said, "I'm sorry."
"It's just blowing me away," says Boyé, who calls his participation in the tear-jerking musical "a great experience."
Some fans already are clamoring for Rodgers Memorial Theatre to stage "The Civil War" again next season, but McKay plans to give the show a rest. The Blue and the Gray will clash on the RMT stage only seven more times this spring.
The musical climaxes with the battle of Gettysburg, which leaves "slain" soldiers strewn across the stage. An angel in white appears above the fallen men, inviting them to "sleep in my arms . . . all your pain is past." Sniffles ripple throughout the audience. This emotional punch may explain the enduring appeal of a story whose ending everyone already knows. Not everybody wants a history lesson, but almost everyone likes a good cry.
If you want to attend, here are the details
Rodgers Memorial Theatre's production of "The Civil War" continues Mondays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. through May 7 at the theatre, 292 E. Pages Lane in Centerville. Tickets are $9-$14 and are available from the box office, 801-298-1302.