'Dames at Sea' director makes a splash at Florida Studio Theatre

It’s been said that theater kids never grow up. Ben Liebert is no exception to the rule.

Liebert has a childlike enthusiasm for “Dames at Sea,” which he’s directing at Florida Studio Theatre. 

He also has a personal connection. No, “Dames at Sea” wasn’t the Broadway musical he saw as a child that ignited his love for the stage; that distinction goes to “Beauty and the Beast.”

But Liebert starred in “Dames at Sea,” a sendup of Busby Berkeley’s legendary film musicals of the 1930s when he was growing up in Verona, New Jersey. He played the lead, Dick, a sailor songwriter, while classmate Beth Spektor starred as his leading lady, Ruby, a dancer fresh off the bus from Utah.

Liebert and Spektor were exchanging texts and photos on June 12, the night that “Dames at Sea” opened at FST to an enthusiastic response from subscribers, who normally fill the house during the first three weeks of a run.

“A lot of my memories have guided me through the process” of directing and choreographing “Dames at Sea,” Liebert said in a telephone interview. “I’m trying to draw on that fun and joy.”

FST’s “Dames at Sea” stars Devin Johnson as Dick and FST newcomer Emily Ann Brooks as Ruby. Theatergoers may remember Johnson from his winning turn as Ogie in FST’s recent production of “Waitress.” With a smile that occupies the bottom half of his face, Johnson’s hard to miss.

Rounding out the cast, which is just six players in FST’s rendition as opposed to nearly 60 in the school production of Liebert’s youth, is Jenna Coker-Jones as the diva Mona, Joel Newsome doing double duty as a Broadway director and a Navy captain, Kelsey Stalter as the jaded hoofer Joan and Larry Toyter as Lucky, her sailor beau.

“Dames at Sea” first hit the stage back in 1966 with an Off-Off Broadway production that starred Bernadette Peters, later a stalwart of Stephen Sondheim musicals who is currently starring in “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends” on Broadway. The original “Dames at Sea” never made it all the way to the Great White Way until 2015.

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A veteran of Broadway and touring productions such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Wicked” and “Grease,” Liebert describes his theatrical sweet spot as being a “Venn diagram where musicals and comedies intersect.”

Liebert may be just 5 feet, four inches tall, but he holds his ground. He’s not afraid to push back, especially when it comes to the notion of art as pure escapism. “Sure, the musicals of the 1930s helped people escape the gloom of the Great Depression for a couple of hours, but art is more than that. It’s not about avoiding your problems; it’s about reinvigorating your soul,” he says.

Featuring book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller with music by Jim Wise, “Dames at Sea” has sometimes been dismissed as derivative. Back in 2015, Jesse Green, now New York Times theater critic, wrote a withering review for the website Vulture of the fast-tapping tale of a struggling Broadway show that gets relocated to a Navy ship.

“The opening number, ‘Wall Street,’ is a weak-tea dilution of ‘We’re In the Money’; Cole Porter’s ‘Begin the Beguine’ gets reduced to ‘The Beguine’ (‘Do you remember ... those nights of splendor in Pensacola?’); and the chord progression of ‘The Man I Love’ is lifted wholesale for an infinitely inferior torch song called ‘That Mister Man of Mine.’”

Ten years later, some of Green’s concerns seem overblown. “We’re embracing the pastiche without slipping into parody,” Liebert explains in describing his approach to the musical. (I had to look up “pastiche,” which is an “artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.”)

As an example, Liebert points to a moment as when Joan nearly falls while holding out her hand as she describes the massive size of an engagement ring.

According to Liebert, “Dames at Sea” doesn’t get the love it deserves because it’s not produced that often, due to a dearth of tap dancers.

It was the shoes, not the dance

When he was growing up in a theatrical household (his father, Mark Liebert, is a professional actor), Liebert took dance lessons from his father, but he didn’t take to tap dancing at first.

“The first time I ever tap danced on stage, my feet hurt and I didn’t like it,” he recalls. “It was because the shoes were too small. They had been purchased six months earlier and my feet had grown.”

After performing in school and community theater productions, Liebert attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he majored in musical theater. A study abroad program led to a role in a touring production of “Grease Das Musical,” which took Liebert and his fellow cast members all across Europe.

In 2015, Liebert made the transition to directing. He made his FST debut as a choreographer in 2021 with “Laughing Matters,” after answering an ad for a comedic cabaret choreographer. FST Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins was directing and the two got to know each other.

In 2023, Liebert saw another ad from FST, this time for a permanent position for a director/choreographer. He applied and came down to Sarasota on a trial basis in September 2023 and joined the theater company, which Hopkins has been running since 1980, on a full-time basis last May.

Since then, Liebert has directed eight shows — four mainstage productions, two children’s theater productions and two cabarets. Questioned whether that level of productivity can be sustained, Liebert says the teamwork at FST ensures that he’s not carrying the load alone.

Those concerned about Liebert’s breakneck pace will be glad to hear that he and his wife, Lauren Kadel, director of operations for the Platinum National Dance competition, are taking time to celebrate their 40th birthdays this year with a trip to Barcelona in August.

Before 2021, Liebert had never visited Sarasota, despite being active in regional theater around the country. He was pleased to discover a vibrant downtown scene, of which FST is a major part. “You never know if a town is going to have life,” he says. “It's always hit or miss.”

To be sure, Liebert’s working hard at FST, but he doesn’t mind. “So often as artists, we bounce from gig to gig. I’m enjoying having a wonderful theatrical home where I can stretch myself as an artist and do different kinds of things,” he says.