The quirky charm
of ‘Dear World’

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

By all accounts, Mary Gutzi’s family knew from the start that she’d end up becoming a performer.
"I heard stories about me singing along to all the commercials on television. I always had an outgoing personality, and when people came over for dinner, I’d make everybody sit down and be quiet so I could sing for them," she said. "I think, if you have a child like that, you do them a disservice if you don’t support them. Thankfully, my parents were one-hundred percent supportive all the time. It fortified me to know that they were always behind me — no matter what."
And that support paid off. Gutzi did indeed become a performer. She received her degree from the University of Detroit, worked locally for a time, and then decided it was time to move to New York. And her career has taken her from coast to coast, as well as to Canada and Europe. Her extensive list of credits includes such shows as Ragtime, Cats, Les Miserables and Fiddler on the Roof, among others.
She’s currently appearing at the Bristol Riverside Theatre in Jerry Herman’s rare and lesser-known musical Dear World, through May 18. The play originally opened in 1969 and gave Herman the honor of being the only composer-lyricist in history to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway. It also gave its star, Angela Lansbury, a Tony award for her performance as Countess Aurelia.
The show originally was conceived as a chamber musical and fell victim to a massive production that overwhelmed the simplicity of the original tale. However, the creative team later rewrote the show, restoring the intimacy they felt had been undermined on Broadway.
Today, audiences discover a musical that is a fable about what happens when the forces of poetry, idealism and love are pitted against materialism, power and greed. Gutzi takes the role of the Countess, the enchanting "Madwoman of Chaillot," who learns that an obsessive prospector and a group of profit-mongering businessmen intend to drill for oil in downtown Paris. The Countess enlists her eccentric and charming friends to concoct a scheme to save their homes.
She describes her role as a huge one.
"I don’t think I’m offstage for more than a couple of minutes. There’s also a technical challenge to pace myself and keep my energy up where it needs to be," Gutzi said. "She’s a woman of a different time, with a different way of moving and a different age than I am. So I must find her voice in order to be believable. To do that, I’ve done a lot of research so I would be up for the challenge and ready to make my debut at Bristol."
Offstage, Gutzi is the co-creator of a theater company on the island of Oahu named the Honolulu Theater League. She also teaches musical theater and does vocal coaching.
"I love live theater and the exchange of energy that happens between the performer and the audience," she explained. "I’ve dabbled in TV and film, and some projects are interesting, but that isn’t where I live. The energy that I feel from that live audience is quite remarkable. It’s wonderful to know that someone can walk into the theater on an off day, maybe having experienced a loss or be depressed, and know something you do has uplifted them. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but nothing else can match it." ••
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