OnStage: Women's history, put to a soundtrack

Three years ago, Dorothy Marcic did something that many adults think about, but few actually do. She quit her secure job -- as a professor of management at Vanderbilt University -- to indulge her teenage passion, theater.

It has been a heady time since, but the gamble is paying off for Marcic, 58, even without the security of regular paychecks and health benefits.

Marcic's jukebox musical, "Respect: A Musical Journey of Women," which grew out of research for her book "Respect: Women and Popular Music," has played in more than a dozen venues in the United States and Australia.

The show, which is in previews, opens Friday in the Fireside Theatre at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. It is Marcic's first work for the stage.

"Theater was a true and enduring passion that I had to honor, even after all of these years," said Marcic, who lives in Nashville, but came to town recently to check in on the Chanhassen production. "You have to go with your passion, no matter how long it takes."

While we might see many of the 60 or so songs that are excerpted in "Respect" as isolated, sometimes funny, sassy or bluesy standards, Marcic has strung them together for something larger. She uses the music, which includes swing and jazz, show tunes, rock and country, to telescope the evolution of the social consciousness of American women in each decade of the 20th century.

The show's songs, sung by a quartet of women who are backed by a three-piece band, include "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Que Sera Sera." They tell a story of growth, she said.

"American music has been the soundtrack for much of life around the world," Marcic said. "The hurts, the celebrations, the breakups and makeups -- all have their songs. We might not always think of pop music as telling stories, but the more I went into it, the more I saw."

Mother of feminist songs

"Respect" takes its title from the song of the same name -- a bracing, driving demand for "propers" made most famous by Aretha Franklin.

"She wasn't even the first one to record it -- Otis Redding did it in the late 1950s," said Marcic. "But Aretha gave it something -- attitude, an emotional truth and depth that makes it something that will speak to us and for women for a long time."

The show's song list also includes "I Will Survive," Gloria Gaynor's 1979 disco anthem, and "What's Love Got to Do With It?," Tina Turner's hit from the 1980s.

"Respect" is being staged by Chanhassen's in-house choreographer, Tamara Kangas. Even though it is only her second show, Kangas, 36, said that this type of revue was tailor-made for her.

"A music-heavy show like this is really very much like dance," said Kangas. "A lot of choreography is about finding the flow and rhythm of a piece. With a show like this, you're still finding those same places."

Kangas said that audiences should not expect total period dress, but a show that, in its style, dancing and singing, nods to the various decades. "Even though time periods are referenced, it's not linear," she said. "We salute the past with updated, modern elements."

Personal liberation

Professor-turned-playwright Marcic credits some of this music with her own liberation. Born into a working-class family near Milwaukee, she was the first in her family to go to college.

She was drawn to music and to theater "as ways to express myself, to find a voice," she said. "The music of the '60s and '70s also expanded my mind even as it was fun to dance to."

Marcic, who has three grown daughters, did not intend to create the show at first. She recalled that she was asked to make a presentation to an Orlando gathering of people in the Baha'i faith several years ago. She used some songs to illustrate her points.

A little boy came up afterward and told her that he liked her show.

"I thought of it as a lecture with music," she said. "But he saw it as a show. That was an eye-opener for me."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390 • rpreston@startribune.com