Nancy Nantais Doug Wilder checks Sandra L. Murphy's temperature during a scene from the new original musical "Breast in Show," premiering Friday in Rockville. The play follows the stories of four people with breast cancer through their treatment.

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Nancy Nantais Oncology nurse Iyona Blake (left) encourages Doug Wilder to take care of himself in the musical "Breast in Show," which was written after conducting interviews with cancer patients.

Nancy Nantais Doug Wilder checks Sandra L. Murphy's temperature during a scene from the new original musical "Breast in Show," premiering Friday in Rockville. The play follows the stories of four people with breast cancer through their treatment.

 

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The photo information with this story was updated on Oct. 17, 2011. An explanation follows the story.

With an aim to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, the new original musical “Breast in Show” believes that laughter can be the best medicine.

Following the lives of four different people diagnosed with breast cancer, the musical strikes a balance between the serious and the hilarious, all in the name of a good cause.

“Breast in Show” was the vision of executive producer Eileen Mitchard, as part of her mission to eradicate breast cancer. She interviewed dozens of people who had experiences with the disease to get inspirational material for the show that will premiere on Friday and Saturday at Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville.

“I believe musical theater can touch people in a way nothing else can,” she says.

The funny but poignant production examines relationships in the midst of trial, and even spotlights struggles the average person might be unaware of, such as men who have breast cancer.

“It represents the various populations that experience breast cancer and the ordinary people that get changed along the way,” Mitchard says. “It’s not preachy; it’s not depressing; it’s not beating you over the head. When you get down to it, life is about relationships, and it is about time.”

Mitchard always has been passionate about breast cancer, not only because of the people she has seen battle the disease, but also because it is something she fears in the future for herself and her daughter. She even changed the start time of her wedding so she could participate in a walk for breast cancer the same morning.

Funding the production herself, Mitchard found three small local charities that are assisting with the battle against breast cancer and will donate the net proceeds from the production to them.

While the story features strong characters fighting for survival, the production behind the show also has been a collaboration of women on a mission, Mitchard says.

The topic of the play quickly became very real for music director Joan Cushing, whose husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during the show’s early formation. He passed away four months later.

“Now I have something to say, because I went through it with somebody,” says Cushing, a composer and playwright from Washington D.C. “For me, it’s a healing thing because it’s a topic I didn’t want to deal with for a while.”

Her experience caused her to take a second look at some of the songs she had written before her husband was ill, and rewrite them. She threw out the show’s original opening anthem and wrote a song called “Time” about bargaining with God.

“Because that is what everybody wants when they get to the end is time,” she says.

Cushing recognizes that humor needs to be a part of the story of any illness, and hopes the audience will react well to the balance the production team worked to create.

“I think it’s going to touch people who have dealt with it in any way, with any sickness” she says.

Having frequently worked with Cushing through the years, “Breast in Show” director Kathryn Chase Bryer admired her friend’s courage in continuing to work on the show while dealing with her own tragedy.

“Joan is sitting in the hospital and writing a song called ‘Chemo Café,’” Bryer says. “That is the power of what it means to be Joan Cushing.”

Including songs such as “I’m in Love with My Oncologist” or scenes with a sequined-dressed rogue cell singing about being bad, the musical will have audiences laughing through tears while also teaching them something, says Bryer, who is also Imagination Stage’s associate artistic director.

“I’ve had people be sort of horrified at that idea, but I think to tell it from a tragic point of view is such a cliché way to tell this sort of story,” she says. “We want people to raise up their voices and take on this issue and the only way we can do this is if we emotionally move people.”

With only six actors on stage, Bryer has worked on developing the characters into easy-to-relate-to people that represent all the different ways individuals react to the disease.

“In the end, it’s about a marriage, it’s about children, it’s about friendship, it’s about how you get through life,” she says.

During the course of the production’s creation, Mitchard has been surprised that almost everybody she talks to has some sort of connection to breast cancer.

“For ourselves, for our mothers, for our daughters, for humankind, this is a calling worth standing up to,” she says.

Mitchard has big plans to bring the production to cities across the county, and hopes to rally others to her cause of eradicating breast cancer by inspiring them to take action once they leave the theater.

“I hope that they will leave feeling and thinking that no one should have to go through this,” she says.

ccalamaio@gazette.net

“Breast In Show,” an original musical about breast cancer, will take the stage at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, 6125 Montrose Road, Rockville. General admission tickets are $50, and “Supporter” level tickets are $99, which includes having your name on the program and a listing on the show’s website for one year. Visit www.breastinshow.org.

Update: The photo information with this story was updated to include Sandra L. Murphy's full name at the actress’s request.