T H E A T E R
Backstreet’s
Back in the Day Howie D’s new musical makes its world premiere at the Rose by Beaufield Berry
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illions of people across the globe have been inspired by the wildly successful pop hits of the Backstreet Boys, whose music has graced radio airwaves for more than 20 years. Howard Dorough, aka Howie D, has been one-fifth of that musical powerhouse since the beginning, signing on when he was just a teenager. Now Dorough is going solo and hitting a different kind of stage: musical theater. This month, Omaha’s Rose Theater is home to the world premiere of Dorough’s newest venture, Back in the Day, a coming-of-age musical pulled from Dorough’s own adolescence. Back in the Day, written by Dorough and his musical partners, Tor Hyams and Lisa St. Lou, opened Jan. 31. Directed by Matt Gutschick, the musical also stars Dorough — no doubt
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prompting the show’s soldout status. (According to show organizers, some tickets sold as far away as Japan!) For true Backstreet Boys fans, this Omaha production is the first opportunity to see one of their favorite stars on stage in a more accessible way.
the creative team was workshopping an early draft of the script at New Victory Theater, which showcased the work to a broader theater audience.
Back in the Day chronicles Dorough’s early life, long before fame, as a middle schooler navigating life’s challenges. Raised by two loving parents, with different ideas about what Dorough should do in life and an overachieving older sister, young Dorough faces the question, “What do I want?”
“We conducted two workshops here in Omaha that focused mostly on elements of story that needed sculpting to either provide sharper humor or more authentic voice in the dialogue,” said Gutschick. “Finally, we held a workshop in New York to hone in on the music and the really important work of ensuring the dialogue bridges into and out of the songs logically.”
I got to sit down with Dorough and his creative team to discuss this exciting show and its path to Omaha. Gutschick, the Rose’s artistic director, first discovered the musical while on a panel in New York, where
In a musical workshop, the script can change rapidly. Songs and ideas are brought in or thrown out, and the show becomes a true collaboration between the team, which includes the partnering theater.
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“For a show that only runs for about an hour, it takes a lot of line-by-line testing to ensure the piece is hitting the mark,” said Gutschick. “Those changes will continue throughout rehearsals — a line that doesn’t sound right here, a lyric that needs an update there, etc.” For the writing team, the end result was a jump from where they originally started. “We started working on Howie’s new album and just mid-through we were, like, this is something bigger ... which coming from our background just made sense,” said Tor Hyams, alluding to his and St. Lou’s extensive experience in writing for musical theater. “I asked them, ‘What should we write about?’ and they were, like, ‘Well, your life story is pretty interesting,’” added Dor-
