Rye Resident Brings 'Rent' to the Westchester Stage

When the curtain goes up on the latest revival of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Rent" tonight, it will mark the third time that Rye's Patti Wilcox has directed and choreographed a show at the Westchester Broadway Theatre (WBT) in Elmsford.

The multi-talented and multi-faceted Patti has previously been at the helm of long-running hit versions of "Aida" and "Little Shop of Horrors" at the WBT dinner theatre –the longest running Equity (all professional) theatre in the history of New York State, at more than 25 years and counting.

Ms. Wilcox's dancing feet and directorial talents have taken her from her native Illinois to Broadway stage roles (her favorite: dancing in "West Side Story") to choreographing shows nationally and internationally, from Arizona to Vienna, the Kennedy Center to the Moscow Arts Center.

She has also directed and choreographed numerous tours, commercials and television shows in Europe and staged original works for the Houston Symphony, Minnesota Pops, and Phoenix Symphony.

Ms. Wilcox has also created numbers for ice skating gold medalists Viktor Petrenko, Ilia Kulik, Katya Gordeeva, Miki Ando, and two ice dancing teams for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Even though she doesn't ice skate, she can choreograph like she does, resulting in her work being featured in an ice-skating show called "Champions on Ice: Seasons on Ice." 

Patti has also done a lot more, including being married to an actor, being a mother to their two sons, and a daughter to her parents back home in Decatur, Illinois, where her dad was a pipe fitter and mother was a housewife who loved to dance and communicated that love to Patti and her siblings, Judy, Richard and Steven.

"I come from a zero show business background," Wilcox recalled. "But my parents made us believe we could do anything we wanted. I was the one who wanted a show business career after I graduated college (Southern Illinois University) so I came to New York with a few hundred dollars, no apartment and no prospects. I was 25, late to start, and I should have known better, but luckily I didn't."

Those beginning days were filled with deprivation and odd jobs to make ends meet. Patti's rough start in show biz helped give her the insights she has poured so knowingly into "Rent," a modern-day version of "La Boheme," with a theme of community, young love and AIDs sweeping the arts community in Greenwich Village.

"Acting is really a community thing –actors starving together at the outset of their careers, passing on job tips to one another, recommending one another, helping one another because rejection is part of your everyday life," Patti said. "Most people fill out maybe three job applications for full-time work in a lifetime. We're looking for work every day, and rejection goes with the territory. It's either feast or famine, mostly famine at the start."

"But gradually you go from going to auditions and getting nowhere to studying, working, rehearsing, taking lessons, getting better at your craft until you start getting call backs until you finally start actually getting jobs, and that's just the way show business works, especially when you are just starting out. But you never ask yourself: 'Why do you do theatre?'"

Wilcox's gods then and now consisted of a dancing trinity: Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins, all gone now but three of the greatest Broadway choreographers who ever lived back in the day. She learned her craft by studying them and their work. Their influence helped her act and dance her way into various roles until a friend recommended her for an assistant director/choreographer job in "Blues of the Night."

"That was my first big break, and I never looked back," she said. "I was a choreographer and director from that point on. I just kept investigating new opportunities no matter what they paid as long as they gave me new experiences and exposure."

For example, she remembered that she received just $500 plus expenses to stage "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at the Moscow Center. But that experience gave her a chance to see Russia. And when someone asked her had she ever thought about choreographing routines for ice skaters, she admitted she hadn't, and couldn't even skate. But that didn't stop her and she wound up choreographing for several Russian Olympian ice skaters as well as an ice show.

That kind of openness to whatever the universe sends her has led to a dazzling resume of opportunities as one job kept leading to another, from teaching jazz dance to stage roles. Her knowledge of Broadway shows gave her a marketable repertoire that led to her numerous successes.

 A partial list of Patti's credits include choreographing the national tour of "Seussical," "Guys and Dolls" (the Paper Mill Playhouse),  "Camelot" and "Aida"  (Chicago's North Shore Music), "The Pirates of Penzance" (Missouri Repertory Theatre and the Arizona Theatre Company), "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "A Little Night Music" (Sacramento Music), even "Die Fledermaus" for the Arkansas Opera.

Patti also has choreographed the rock 'n roll premiere of "Falco- A Cyber Show" for the Ronacher Theatre in Vienna, and the premiere of "A Magic Night" for the Berns Salonger Theatre in Stockholm. She is co-creator and choreographer of "A Marvelous Party," based on the works of Noel Coward, which just opened in San Francisco.

"I just love telling a story through movement," she said.

All of which leads us back to the upcoming WBT "Rent" at 1 Broadway Plaza, Elmsford.

"'Rent' will be Patti's third show with us and we obviously loved what she did with 'Aida' and "Little Shop of Horrors' and like working with Patty," said Bill Stutler, producer and co-owner of WBT. "She is creative, decisive, plans her time well and works terrifically with the creative staff, actors, musicians and crew."

"She knows how to tell a story and make it move, he added. "She'll choreograph every second of 'Rent.'"

 "I love working with Patty and freely admit it," said WBT resident stage manager Victor Lucas. "I think what I love most about her is her positive energy and especially her ability to plan and not waste time, and I don't say that about most of our directors."

"We know Patty will make her 'Rent' spectacular," Stutler said.

Patty mentions that she was lucky enough to be at the Broadway opening night of "Rent" in 1996, an opening that touched Broadway because playwright Jonathan Larkin of White Plains had died shortly before it opened, after years of his eking out an existence as a waiter, among other things, in Greenwich Village.

The show has gone on to make millions and has even been made into a movie. Now Patti has her fingers crossed that her WBT "Rent" opening breaks a leg, in the best show biz sense of having a successful run from its opening night to its scheduled closing on Sept 25.

For more information on "Rent" call 914- 592-2268; http://www.broadwaytheatre.com/