1,000 shows later,
Misbehavin’ still thrills

REGAN CELEBRATES AS ARTS CLUB MUSICAL HITS MILLENIUM MARK

Club’s current production of Ain‘’t Misbehavin’ that

Dec: REGAN is so determined to talk about the Arts

not even a bad case of the heaves could keep him

away.

Rather than impress me with
tales of his successful theatre ca-
reer the 52-year-old spent almost
the entire interview delivering his
previous evening's dinner instead.

“Vhaven’t been able to
swallow a thing since last night,”
says a ghostly-looking Regan, mak-
ing a bee-line for the porcelain bus
every 10 minutes.

EVELYN
JACOB

spotlight feature

Despite his grim condition he
continues with the interview, and
for good reason.

This Friday (April 20) the Arts
Club is celebrating it’s 1,000th
performance of Ain’t Misbehavin,’
the longest running musica! in
Vancouver theatre's history — and

gan is the show's director and
choreographer.

One would think that after six
years (Regan put together five dif-
ferent versions of the show) his
keenness would be somewhat
diminished, but he’s Jooking for-
ward to the curtain rising with
boyish enthusiasm.

“i's going to be a real high, a
total charge out. } love watching
all the lights,’’ he says.

Atribute to Fats Waller, the
enormously popular Ain’t
Misbehavin’ ran for a record 20
months the first time it opened in
Vancouver in 1984 and scooped
up five Jessie Richardson awards
the next year.

I's been mounted and re-
mounted on stages across the
country, and Regan says the cur-
rent production is the best one of
them all. *‘!t’s polished and
clean. And the dancers are one of

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the best groups I've worked with.”

Dancing since the age of five,
Regan got his start focally in
Theatre Under the Stars and went
on to work as an actor, dancer,
director and choreographer in Los
Angeles, Las Vegas (where he
worked with Buster Keaton and
Rudy Vallee), Florida, New York
and for various Canadian theatre
companies.

In the early ‘80s he moved back
to Vancouver and decided to slow
down and “work without battling
all the greed of Hollywood.”

Regan has been ‘‘semi-retired”’
for the past eight years but has still
managed to put together a number
of major productions as well as act
and teach.

One hugely successful project
was the musical Black and Gold
Revue, for which Regan invested
an enormous amount of time and
energy writing and directing.

Talking about the show brings
back good memories, but it in-
evitably leads to a discussion
about an event that changed his
life for good.

Two years ago, just after Black
and Gold Revue opened, Regan
discovered he had heart disease.

“It was a total shock,’’ he
remembers, ‘| went to rcet a
friend at the airport and 1 started
to feel sick and found that!
couldn't walk. 1 had to be remov-
ed chair and all.’

A heavy smoker (Regan smoked
three packs of cigarettes a day
since the age of 12) — “‘t quit
smoking on the way to the hospi-
tal’’ — he says a hectic lifestyle
was largely to blame for his health
problem.

“1 didn't handle stress very
well, | used to eat lots of sugar —
ice cream and cookies instead of
dinner and no vegetables,”’ he
says in acalm, monotone.

“I've been ‘‘baching’’ it for
most of my life. 've never really
been married, arid 1 don’t get
along that well with most people.

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25 — Wednesday, April 18, 1990 - North Skore News
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You could say I'm a loner, which
is odd, because | come from a
family of eight.

“Vm still working my way out
of the whole psychological thing
— deciding what's important and
what isn’t.”

Part of slowing down has meant
taking on fewer projects. Regan
now teaches acting and dance at
North Vancouver's Breck
Academy, which he says he enjoys
enormously — and he points out
he is especially skilled at working
with new actors and dancers.

“i'm good with people who
are frightened. people who have
no confidence. That's because |
don't have my own axe to grind
and I can really get in there and
work with them,”

Regan’s got a number of new
projects on the go and some of
therr are major works. When he’s
not immersed in musical theatre
he spends his time ‘‘sleeping.”’

“I'ma quiet person,” he says,
“I’ve learned through my illness
to be calm.”

hammcrmane ey
EWS photo Mike Wakefield

VETERAN ACTOR, director and choreographer, Dean Regan is
celebrating the 1,000th performance of Ain't Misbehavin.’

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