Actor Dean Johanson thought he was familiar and comfortable for the wrangling of a wheelchair on stage.
“My character has to spend most of his stage time seated in his wheelchair and navigating the scenes,” said Johanson, who plays the title character this month in “The Man Who Came to Dinner” at Beatniks on Conkey in Hammond.
“I played this same role in 2018 for a production that was also in Hammond, but for the Genesius Guild theater group. The difference is the stage space was so much larger to wheel about on for the production at Genesius Guild compared to the smaller and more narrow stage at Beatniks.”
Playing Aug. 16-25 with 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday performances and 2 p.m. Sunday performances, the Beatniks production is directed by Rip and Bonnie Johnson.
Johanson was not originally invited to this “Dinner” theater opportunity, which late playwright Moss Hart created about a sudden health crisis which befalls the main character and the ripple effect on the surrounding souls on stage.
Originally, it was WLJE Indiana 105 morning radio show host Steve Zana of Valparaiso cast as the wheelchair-bound title character, with his wife Colleen Zana directing the show.
In July, Steve Zana, who has a nearly 30 year broadcast history with WLJE Radio, announced via a video on social media his diagnosis with stage four lung cancer and the need to start immediate treatments, resulting in the couple leaving the cast and production.
“Steve has been very public and brave about his health, and he wants others to know what his own journey is during this time,” Johanson said.
“Colleen keeps everyone updated with social media posts. I was able to join the cast last month and start rehearsals and get to know the other 16 castmates.”
Written by Hart with George S. Kaufman, the play was first performed on Broadway in 1939.
The plot follows a cantankerous media personality Sheridan Whiteside, based on the real-life media personality Alexander Woollcott, who was one of the members of acerbic writer Dorothy Parker’s infamous Algonquin Table of the 1920s.
When the urbane Whiteside finds himself in tiny Mesalia, Ohio for an appearance which includes a forced dinner party hosted by the town’s wealthy factory owner, he not only suffers from what he considers dull conversation, but also a fall in the home that makes him reliant on a wheelchair. Fearing they will be sued, the dinner party hosts agree to allow their fussy celebrity guest to convalesce in their home and must fulfill his inflated demands.
“This show needs lots of props since Whiteside has the entire household turned upside-down with his whims and constant deliveries,” Johanson said.
“There are penguins which arrive in a giant wooden crate, a cockroach farm terrarium and, of course, that special vintage wheelchair from that era. We were lucky we were able to borrow the same one used by Marian Theater Guild in Whiting.”
Johanson said many audiences are familiar with the classic black and white film adaptation of the stage play. A Broadway revival in 2000 cast Nathan Lane as the demanding Whiteside.
“People who know me think of me as a smiling sort,” Johanson said. “But definitely not in this role and under the circumstances.”
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for The Post-Tribune.
‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’
When: Aug. 16-25
Where: Beatniks on Conkey, 418 Conkey St., Hammond
Cost: $20
Information: 219-852-0848; beatniksonconkey.com/