The Rink: A Tour De Force by Minnelli and Rivera

Six Flags Inc, which runs 20 amusement parks countrywide, recently filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. It seems that the amusement chain's owners needed some time away from its creditors to re-arrange its financial structure in order to eliminate all or part of its $2.4 billion inherited debt. And although the parks made at least $275 million last year from paying customers, no one knows what the future will hold. This year, business will continue as usual and investors are hoping that ticket sales will improve, or at least stay constant. But perhaps parents may not wish to entrust their children's safety to a bankrupt roller coaster company...

If the parks do close, it will be the end of an era and all that millions of people, including myself, will be left with are memories.

They say that art reflects life. In this case, however, life reflects art as the make-believe world of Antonelli's Roller Rink and Recreation Center closed down twenty five years ago. It also opened twenty five years ago, or rather, Kander and Ebb's Broadway hit The Rink did. The stories surrounding both the parks and The Rink are similar and revolve around the loss of innocence and a yearning to return to our childhood; for what is a visit to a roller coaster park if not a wish to be transported back to the carefree days of our youth when our only imperative was to have fun?

The Rink was not only a show; it was a musical comedy milestone. On stage, the lights came up on a dilapidated roller skating rink. Everything is faded and worn but nothing could tarnish the brilliance of two of the most talented leading ladies of all time: Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera. No sequins or spangles were in evidence, however, and Minnelli played against type as Angel Antonelli, a frumpy middle aged daughter returning home to seek some sort of reconciliation with her estranged mother. But it is Chita Rivera as Angel's mother, Anna, who stole the show and her gutsy and passionate performance garnered her her first ever Tony Award win.

The Rink was Kander and Ebb's tenth collaboration and, by 1984 when the new show was poised to open, they had had a long and successful history of working on hit shows with Minnelli (the most well known of which must surely be Cabaret). Kander's music and Ebb's lyrics in The Rink are sublime but the critics' reaction to Terrence McNally's book left something to be desired. Typically, reviews would praise the actors but not the storyline, but these lukewarm, and sometimes downright negative, critiques fortunately did not harm the show's box office. It seemed that no one could resist coming out to see powerhouses like Rivera and Minnelli.

The show had a somewhat limited run on Broadway, opening on February 9^th 1984 at the Martin Beck Theater and closing on August 4^th of the same year (only 204 performances and 29 previews). To date, there have been no Broadway revivals although the show did have a successful run at the Cambridge Theater in London in 1988.

On Broadway, the show was directed by the experienced and talented AJ Antoon - the first director ever to be nominated for two Tony Awards as Best Director of a Play in one year - and choreographed by the Argentinean born dance sensation Graciela Daniele. The show also boasted a strong supporting cast, which included both Jason Alexander (better known as George Constanza in Seinfeld) and veteran Broadway performer Ron Carroll. Among the understudies could be found Rob Marshall, now well known for directing the movie versions of both Chicago and the upcoming Nine. Each of the supporting male cast members got to play a multitude of roles but there was never any doubt that the show belonged entirely to its female stars.

There was initially some doubt whether Minnelli, then 37 years old and at the height of her career, would accept a supporting role in the production. When approached to play Angel and given the opportunity to work with Rivera, however, she instantly agreed and later confessed "I saw Chita in Bye Bye Birdie when I was about 13 and it changed my life. I looked at her and said 'That's what I want to do'."

Dolores Conchita Figueroa de Rivero, much better known to her fans as Chita Rivera, was 51 years old when she agreed to play the put upon Anna Antonelli and it proved to be a turning point in her career. She believed in working through the complexities of her role together with her co-star, Minnelli, and even took Liza to meet her own daughter, Lisa. About working with Chita, Minnelli had only good things to say: "She's a force and she thinks I'm a force. It's like two grounding poles, and, there's this electrical thing that goes VROOM". The actresses often emerged from rehearsals shaken and in tears, but this was not diva-like behavior and their intensely personal reactions were merely a testament to how committed they were to unearthing the complexities of the characters that they were portraying.

Minnelli's road to performing as Angel Antonelli was often a trying one, however. She had to gain 14 pounds for the role and although she, no doubt, enjoyed this by plowing her way through pastas and deep dish apple pies, she found that she sweated most of the newly gained weight off during the grueling 8-hour-a-day rehearsals. And then there was the time an uncaring New York passerby stepped on her foot and broke her toe. An unperturbed Minnelli just built the pain of her injured foot into her portrayal of Angel's complex character (but was probably grateful that, this time, she didn't have to wear four inch heels!).

When time for the Tony and Drama Desk Awards rolled around, The Rink was right up there with the best of them and was handed five Tony Award and six Drama Desk nominations. The Tony nominations comprised Best Original Score, Best Actress (Rivera), Best Actress (Minnelli), Best Scenic Design and Best Choreography. The Drama Desk nominations were for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Actress (Rivera), Outstanding Actress (Minnelli), Outstanding Director, Outstanding Lighting Design and Outstanding Set Design. Chita Rivera wowed everyone by winning both the Best Actress in a Musical Tony and the Outstanding Actress in a Musical Drama Desk Award for 1984.

All good things come to an end, however, and the enchanted partnership of Rivera and Minnelli was forced to dissolve when Minnelli left the show in July 1984. The role of Angel Antonelli was taken over by Stockard Channing - Rizzo from Grease - while Minnelli checked into the Betty Ford Clinic and tried to overcome the substance abuse that had been exacerbated by her recent break up with her third husband, Mark Gero.

Lingering images of the dynamite that resulted from the pairing of Minnelli and Rivera remain, however, and are accessible to us through YouTube. The soundtracks are scratchy, the pictures are out of focus and sometimes all you can see is a seemingly deserted stage but the videos of Liza and Chita performing "Don't Ah Ma Me!" and "Angel's Rink And Social Center" are still to die for!

There is also an original Broadway cast recording to be had - the CD without liner notes unfortunately - and a recording was also made of the London cast. And it is true that no Minnelli collection would be complete with her poignant rendition of "Colored Lights" and her traumatic but incredibly humorous clash with Rivera in "Don't Ah Ma Me!".

The story of The Rink is set in "a roller rink somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard. 1970s". The grey and inhospitable set reflects Anna Antonelli's state of mind as she prepares to close up the decaying rink, which she has recently sold to a team of developers. She is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of her daughter, Angel, whom she last saw fifteen years ago, and who now wants to re-discover her roots and grant the rink a new lease on life. Predictably, Angel reacts badly when she learns that her childhood home has literally been sold out from under her with Anna having forged Angel's signature on the sale documents. Needing to resolve their past before they can even contemplate a future, mother and daughter re-experience and re-evaluate their life together through a series of flashbacks and interactions with those people who were once important to them. Angel learns what really happened to Dino, the father that she loved so much, and Anna finally discovers how much Angel really loves her when she is presented with the granddaughter that Angel has named after hers. Finally, the two women find it within themselves to forgive each other for the real and imagined slights they caused each other in the past and also find the strength to move on and to leave the rink behind forever.

My Two Cents

My childhood memories of roller coasters and skating rinks are simple: my mother standing by and watching in terror as I laughed while hurtling down a steep slope in a coaster car and my mother's not letting me skate at all. Perhaps McNally was right and there is a special bond between amusement parks and mothers and daughters... I, for one, would be incredibly sad if the local Six Flags would close down, not because I go there that often, but because I think we should all be able to experience the thrill of falling through near zero gravity, backwards and upside down, once in a while.

I would love to see a performance of The Rink - and will one day - but, for now, will have to content myself with imagining what the show is like on stage. I have been given a glimpse into its world, however, as a friend of mine once played Angel in a Kander and Ebb review and was fortunate enough to get to sing "Colored Lights". During one of the performances, the stage manager successfully brought the house to black during the refrain preparatory to switching on the beautiful strings of colored lights with which the stage had been decorated. He was not, however, successful in switching on these colored lights... and my friend found herself singing most of the song in pitch darkness. Not one to be left without words, as soon as she came off stage, she sang a slightly altered version of the "where are my colored lights" refrain to the first person she found. This version went: "where are my @#$%ing lights?????"... Needless to say, she got her colored lights every night after that!

Sources:
Six Flags Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy The Business Journal of Milwaukee
The Rink (Musical) Wikipedia
Jason Alexander Wikipedia
Graciela Daniele Wikipedia
AJ Antoon Wikipedia
Liza Minnelli Wikipedia
Chita Rivera Wikipedia
The Rink (1984) Original Broadway Cast Recording Amazon.Com
The Rink IBDB
Jesse Oxfeld The Pals of Pal Joey New York Theater
Liza Minnelli Answers.Com
Marc Harshbarger Deep Dish Musical of the Month: The Rink Deep Dish
Andrea Chambers Liza and Chita... People
The Rink The Guide to Musical Theater