Apr 20, 2007
Kirby & Beverly Ward:
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An evening of song, dance and stories
by FRAN SIKORSKI
The lives of singing and dancing stars Kirby and Beverly Ward, who now live in Wilton, read like a Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movie in which a group of young stage hopefuls get together “to put on a show” in a barn.
The story of the Wards, however, has a much bigger scope, beginning when both were growing up in San Diego, continuing when they starred together on the London stage in Crazy for You. Kirby Ward received an Olivier Award nomination and they had the honor of meeting and performing for the royal family. The couple also appeared together on Broadway and the national tour of Showboat.
Currently, the Wards are putting the final touches on a musical they have written, To Have and To Hold, about their show business stories on the road. They will launch it on April 20 and 21 at the Bridgeport Downtown Cabaret Theatre.
Kirby Ward grew up in a show business family. His parents, Don and Bonnie Ward, had a children’s theater school, Junior Theatre, in San Diego after enjoying stage careers of their own. It was where Kirby Ward met his future wife, Beverly, who was also a student at the school.
Don Ward had toured with Mae West and Bonnie Ward was a Las Vegas showgirl, and they shared a dance act like that of Marge and Gower Champion. Among the well-known graduates of Junior Theatre are Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christian Huff, and Casey Nicholaw.
“Beverly and I are second generation show business parents,” said Kirby Ward during an interview. The couple has three children, Michael, 17, James, 13, and Jesse, 10, who have traveled everywhere with their parents.
Kirby Ward has worked internationally in film, television and on stage for almost 30 years. As an actor, he has run the gamut of song and dance roles, playing every “Billy” or “Bobby” from My One and Only to 42nd Street, with a couple of “Dons” and “Toms” thrown in for Singin’ in the Rain and No No Nanette. He was King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, Arnolph in School for Wives; Vernon in They’re Playin’ Our Song; and Che in Evita.
On television, the actor has appeared on Law and Order, Special Victims Unit, General Hospital, The Tonight Show and numerous commercials. Film appearances include, For the Boys, Pennies from Heaven, and S.O.B.
As a choreographer, Kirby Ward said he created Las Vegas acts for Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor; and trained Bette Midler and James Caan in song and dance technique for the film For the Boys for 20th Century Fox. He is currently in post-production on his first independent film, a 20-minute short called Down in the Mouth that he wrote and directed. It was shown at the recent Kent Film Festival in Connecticut. He appeared in Anything Goes last summer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Beverly Ward, who not only fell in love with musicals while studying at Junior Theatre, but also her husband-to-be, has been performing on stage since she was a child. The couple met when both were appearing in The Sound of Music, and Kirby was Rolf and Beverly was Luisa. Last year she played Maria in the musical.
By the time she was 18, Beverly was touring with Ann Miller and “bumping and grinding” with Mickey Rooney in Sugar Babies, and hasn’t stopped working since. When Kirby Ward was asked to join the national tour cast of Sugar Babies, he told the producers, “I’ll go if you hire my wife,” which they did. Much of Beverly Ward’s professional career has been “spent happily” playing opposite her actor/director/writer husband. One reviewer said of Beverly Ward, “She has a set of pipes an organ would envy.”
At the Hollywood Bowl, with an audience of 18,000 people, the Wards’ rendition of “I’ve Got A Crush on You” stopped the show.
On Broadway, Beverly Ward was a standby for Kristin Chenoweth and Ruth Williamson in the musical Epic Proportions, and she also played the wisecracking Ellie May Chipley in Hal Prince’s Showboat and Polly Baker in Crazy for You in national tours, the latter netting her a Helen Hayes nomination for best actress in a musical while appearing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The Wards will star in this summer’s production of Crazy for You July 3 at the Oqunquit Playhouse in Maine.
After a year performing Crazy for You in London, the Wards returned to New York, “homeless,” because they had stored their furniture while abroad. They bought a house in Greenwich, living there for six years before moving to Wilton.
Talking about their new show, Kirby Ward said, “With the musical we’re writing, we’re trying to be at the starting point of something new, but still offer music that ties to our lives. If an audience changes, we need to change too.” There’s always a place for a song and dance team.
© Copyright 2007 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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