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Broadway Veteran Helps Breathe Life into New Theater

By John Addyman

Tripp Hanson returned to the stage after 15 years’ absence to join the cast of OFC Creations Theatre’s production of “Kinky Boots” in February. He is now the group’s voice and dance instructor.

There’s just no escaping that tub of theatrical butter.

In its depth, up to his chin, is Tripp Hanson.

And he’s teaching your kids and grandkids how to use that goopy platform to go beyond the fences that they already see in their lives.

Hanson, 66, came to Rochester with his longtime minister husband, David Gregory, after a variety of careers that have taken him to all 50 states.

He’s been a performer on Broadway. Part of a cabaret trio that has opened or shared the stage with a lot of famous people.

He’s a skilled acupuncturist who got started by helping theater castmates backstage; a life mastery consultant who “helped people identify where they’ve gotten themselves stuck in thought and behavior and beliefs, helping them work through that stuff.”

And now he is a voice and dance instructor at the OFC (Opportunities For Creativity) Creations Theatre in Rochester and Brighton.

At the time of this interview in July, he was working to get a cast of 43 high school and college kids ready for the summer school production of “The Wedding Singer.”

“We have 10 days to get ready to put on a full musical,” said director and choreographer Courtney Larkin. “We have eight lead roles and many featured and supporting roles.”

Getting everyone on cue, musical director Tripp Hanson directs three of his lead singers during the summer camp organized by OFC (Opportunities for Creativity) Creations Theatre. The high school and college kids had two weeks to put together and deliver a musical.

Hanson gets the choral music and song leads organized, precise and enthusiastic.

The kids know he’s the real Broadway, professional theatrical deal.

What they didn’t know was this is his first time dealing with kids.

“This has been an evolution for me,” Hanson said. “I’ve learned a lot from them in this setting. I spent so many years in show business, which is so competitive and so hard core…it was kind of mean-spirited a lot. Not that there weren’t lovely people. But a lot of it was like, ‘Sorry, you’re just not making the grade. So, you’ve got to go.’ Or, ‘You’re not getting in.’ It’s a big-money business in New York.

“So, working with kids, I had to really soften what it is I want them to understand about what they’re learning and what they’re participating in and encourage them to find value — what is important about this? To be perfect? Absolutely not. That was New York. This is about expression and learning about yourself and learning to stand in your own two shoes and present yourself with some confidence and daring to be unique — that’s so hard for kids because they want to fit in.

“I’m encouraging them to find that one little thing about themselves to bring to the table.

“What’s so interesting is that you’ve got that kid over there who has never been to a show ever in his life — and he is asking, ‘What is happening?’

“Then you’ve got these four in the front who are in every show that comes around and they’re cracker-jacking and making jokes with the director and choreographer and musical director. These are theater kids. They love this stuff. They want to get to a certain point in their vocal expression and think it has to sound like the record does; it has to sound like the soundtrack. And I say to them, ‘Loosen it up. Make it yours.’ What I’m trying to do is just introduce that spark. I’m saying to them ‘Who says it has to be that way? Who made that rule?’ I want to give them permission to look over the fence as far as they can go.”

 

Getting started
Following the music and script, summer school students at the OFC Creations Theatre prepare for their musical production.

Hanson was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. After an 11th grade chemistry class quashed his first thoughts about being a doctor, he went to Jacksonville University as a piano major, changed that to a piano and vocal major, then had an epiphany.

“Oh! Theatre,” he exclaimed. “Costumes. Sets. Cute dancing people running around…so I started taking dance lessons and that was it. I kind of had a natural sense of rhythm, thank God and physical dexterity, so I picked up dance very quickly, especially tap.”

His first professional job was singing with the Disney All-American College Singers and Dancers, in 1978, for $100 a week, but an apartment in California went with the job. “That was a huge leap for me,” he said.

He worked for them for a couple of years.

Years later, seeking his fortune in New York City, Hanson saw the Manhattan Rhythm Kings performing in a street fair. “I was mesmerized. One of the guys was singing, tap-dancing and playing the piano. I was just fascinated by him. I dragged some friends to this stage where the Kings were performing and told them, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

Two of the other Kings tap-danced, a third played a bass and their three voices wove Broadway melodies and standard songs with a humorous edge and lots of pop.

In 1985, the man who had particularly entranced Hanson died.

“They knew they had to replace him and they called [Broadway director and choreographer] Susan Stroman for help. She called me and asked, ‘Have you ever heard of the Manhattan Rhythm Kings?’

“Yes,” I said. “I love them!”

“’Do you want to audition for them?’ she asked.

“Yes! Yes, I do!

“I met them in the living room of one of the guys. They made me sing and play the piano. Then I had to tap-dance in my socks on the hardwood floors.”

And he was invited to join.

 

Major league
Look at the camera. Yep, they’re theater kids – they’re all looking at the camera.

Hanson’s career as a member of the Manhattan Rhythm Trio would last 15 years and also brought him to roles on Broadway.

“We were cast in the original production of “Crazy for You” (1992). That was a remake of the Gershwin “Girl Crazy” musical. Susan Stroman knew what we did and how we did it. In “Girl Crazy,” back in the 1930s, they had a quartet of four cowboys who would stroll across the stage in front of the curtain singing “Bidin’ My Time.”

“So, we became the cowboy trio transition song guys. I played keyboard plus the kooky rhythm instruments. I played a washboard once or twice. One of our guys played the standing string bass, so he became “Moose” in the big production number that was added to the score for “Crazy for You” to feature him on the bass and us. In “Crazy for You” two of us tap-danced in the trio and that was just icing on the cake for Stroman so she could use us in the production numbers. We brought with us our very tight harmony that we had been doing together for years.”

That experience paid dividends.

“That’s how I got to perform with Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera and Peter Allen. When you’re in an act like that, you end up opening for people. As the Manhattan Rhythm Kings, we sat in that same living room and made a list of people we’d love to work with. Tommy Tune was at the top of the list. He was at that time performing on Broadway in “My One and Only,” another Gershwin musical. We had these cute little press kits we put together. We put a press kit and a letter to Mr. Tune at the stage door. We didn’t hear anything for a while. Then, the story goes — as was told back to us — he had a party in his beautiful penthouse apartment and somebody put our cassette on, playing our version of The Jitterbug. He said he looked up and all of a sudden everybody in the room was doing this [waving their arms and moving to the music]. He asked, ‘Who are these guys?’”

More networking was about to take place.

“A mutual friend, Larry Taylor, was aware of this treasure trove of songs that Fred Astaire wrote — nobody knew he wrote songs, but he did and he had a trunkful of them. Some were horrible.  But there were 12 or so that Taylor told Tommy, ‘You should put an act together with these songs.” And Tommy said, ‘Get those guys, the Manhattan Rhythm Kings and I will. If they want to do it, I’ll do it.’”

“That’s what started our relationship,” Hanson said.

“We worked with Tommy for a month in Chicago, then we’d go do concerts on our own, doing one-nighters, driving to every city in America in our van with a kitchen bag in the back seat so we could cook in the hotel room because you never knew what kind of food you’d find on the road.”

Chita Rivera split a bill with the Kings. They opened for Dom DeLuise in Atlantic City. And they were doing a lot of traveling.

“I got itchy,” Hanson explained. “I was finally getting tired of doing the same material for 15 years.”

 

Journey to Rochester
Courtney Larkin, the director and choreographer of OFC (Opportunities for Creativity) Creations Theatre’s summer camp musical, goes over notes with musical director Tripp Hanson, who has made the trip from Broadway to Rochester and Brighton. The group was working on the play “The Wedding Singer.”

He took a role in the revival of “Kiss Me Kate” in 2001 after doing his last 10 shows for the Kings in Florida.

Then 9/11 happened and New York City shut down.

“We made it to the end of the year because our cast devised a plan to save the show,” he said. “Our leading lady, Carolee Carmello and our lead electrician hatched a plan and the cast and crew donated 75% of our salaries to the box office. We gave tickets away to FEMA workers and people who were stuck in the city, people who had losses or were traumatized — just giving tickets away to keep the theater going.”

He was chosen as a speed tap-dancer for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” but the theater was wearing on him.

“I’m 47 years old and I’m realizing it’s getting harder, physically, to do eight shows a week,” he said.

He decided to go for his master’s degree in acupuncture.

Acupuncture? Why?

“Because it helped me so much,” Hanson explained. “And it also helped my dog. To be honest, my first impulse was to become an animal acupuncturist. But then I found out you have to be a veterinarian to perform acupuncture on animals.”

In school during the day and being in a show for three and a half years, “writing term papers in my T-shirt at my dressing station,” he got his degree in 2007. “The Drowsey Chaperone” was playing on Broadway and he got the call to join in. That’s where he started his acupuncture practice — treating castmates.

Hanson enjoyed it.

“I was pretty good at it,” he said.

Finally, he started his own private practice and got busy.

But running a business in the city cost $12,000 a month. That, plus all the paperwork and insurance issues, broke him down.

“I got burned out,” he said.

With his savings dwindling, Hanson came home to husband, David, and said: “Your turn, you gotta go to work.”

David accepted a call from a United Church of Christ in Tiburon, California, and off they went for five years.

During that period, Hanson became certified in neuro coaching and began another business venture, a mindfulness practice based on neuroscience processes, helping people get unstuck.

Then COVID-19 hit.

“We suddenly felt stuck,” Hanson said.

There were family tragedies with COVID and other illnesses. He and David went from two grandkids to four. They wanted to get back to family on the East Coast and David was fond of Rochester. David made some contacts and got a call from the United Church of Christ in Webster.

Once back in the area, Hanson, now also looking at doing something though he had retired, used some of David’s new contacts to get a lead.

“Someone was looking for a voice teacher in a theater in Brighton,” he explained. “I said, ‘Wherever that is, hook me up.’”

He ended up quickly talking to Hadley Strelau, a vocal teacher at OFC Creations Theatre Center.

“She said, ‘Come over. When can we meet?’ “I told her I don’t have any furniture and don’t have many changes of clothing. She said, ’I don’t care. Put on your shorts and come over.’ I was introduced to executive director Eric Johnson and I was really impressed with what I saw,” he said.

And he joined up. Now he teaches vocal and dance students and has returned to the stage after a 15-year absence.

He’ll be in the OTC upcoming productions of “Boy from Oz” (Sept. 12-29), “West Side Story” (in October), “Gypsy” (January-February) and “Anything Goes” (April).

He’s also the tap captain for the first show. OFC has two other shows on tap this year, “The Prince of Egypt” (from the Disney cartoon, in December) and “Jersey Boys” (May).

The ambitious show schedule includes Broadway, movie and television stars as the OTC Creations Theatre Center ups the ante in bringing professional talent to the area.

Hanson, who hadn’t had a speaking role on stage in 15 years, came back to the floodlights himself in February for “The Producers.”

He’s found himself again in Rochester. And he’s got a sharper sense to his calling.

“That’s the thing about creativity — you can’t get it to one place and say ‘This is what I do, this is how I do it, don’t ask me any questions.’ That’s not today’s world. All of us on the stage, we’re always asking, ‘What else can I do? How else can I grow?’ In teaching kids, I want them to know this creativity is a lifelong process. That requires me to be stepping into my own unknown and be willing to put myself on that same line that I’m asking them to put themselves on,” he said.