Long before moving to Columbia County and opening her Musical Theatre Workshops’ school, Mickey Lubeck toured the country with a couple of Broadway shows including “Cats.”
“I grew up dancing,” said Lubeck, who met her husband, Chuck, on the national tour of another of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s productions “Evita” in the mid-1980s. The national tour of “Cats” will be heading to the Columbia County Performing Arts Center April 12 and 13.
Mickey Lubeck’s parents tried to persuade her to go into a career that didn’t include singing and dancing because they knew how difficult it would be in the long term. After high school, she got a degree as a veterinary tech and was working with marmoset monkeys when her big break came.
“I kept doing auditions,” she said.
She auditioned for shows, amusement parks, wherever she could find that needed performers. The story was always the same. She’d make it to the final round, and they’d line the performers up according to height. Her shorter stature ended up knocking her out of contention for a lot of roles.
“My height was not my friend,” said Lubeck who is “five-foot-one-inch-ish.”
A friend had heard about auditions for the national tour of “Evita,” and asked Lubeck if she was planning on auditioning. She wasn’t, but she’s glad she did.
It was there that she met Chuck Lubeck, who never intended to become a dancer. He said he was tricked into it by one of his sisters. All three sisters danced, and he didn’t start dancing until he was in his teens.
However, he got a job as a dancer. A job he said he probably shouldn’t have gotten. He threw himself into learning more of the artform, taking as many classes as he possibly could. He was “addicted to dance class,” he said.
Mickey Lubeck said her husband’s build also played a part in him getting dance jobs. He had the dancer physique.
After the tour of “Evita,” Chuck Lubeck performed a short stint in a tour of “A Chorus Line.”
He had the opportunity to meet and work under the legendary choreographer, Bob Fosse.
Fosse’s health had begun to decline by this time, and he didn’t perform the choreography. However, he could still tell amazing stories of working with performers such as Fred Astaire.
“He was still Bob Fosse,” said Chuck Lubeck.
Fosse had been known in his earlier years as a perfectionist with a temper, but Chuck Lubeck saw a calmer side of him, he said.
“It was very cool,” he said.
Fosse died not long after Chuck Lubeck met him.
It was after that stint that Chuck Lubeck auditioned once again for “Cats.”
He’d already auditioned four times and wasn’t going to do it again.
“I came to the audition with 600 people who all knew the choreography. I wrote it off. Out of nowhere, I got a call,” he said.
Mickey Lubeck was under contract for another show and couldn’t audition with her husband. At the time, they were living in Chicago. He spent about six weeks in New York to rehearse the show, and she eventually replaced another cast member as a swing.
A swing is a dance understudy, but instead of having to learn just one part, the swing has to learn multiple ones. And in “Cats,” not only does the swing have to know all the dance parts, but the swing has to know all the different makeup for each of the cats.
Mickey Lubeck said she was first the swing for the “four kitten roles,” which was a lot of fun because kittens get to play. Some of her choreography included improvisation of being a playful young cat.
During her seven years with the show, Mickey Lubeck was Sillabub, assistant dance captain and swing.
Chuck Lubeck was the dance captain, which meant he oversaw the dancers and knew the dance parts, ensemble and all.
One of the most exciting parts of doing the show, they agreed, was the opportunity to travel the country together.
“We got to open a new theater in Alaska, and we opened a theater in Hawaii,” said Mickey Lubeck.
After the birth of their first child, Nathan, in 1992, Mickey Lubeck returned to the show with a nanny in tow, but a year with that arrangement proved to be too much, she said.
Although Mickey Lubeck had retired from the stage, Chuck Lubeck stayed with the show. They traveled together until Nathan was about four. The family moved to Augusta in 1997, but Chuck Lubeck continued to tour for a few more years. In all, he spent 13 years with the cast.
Nathan Lubeck was born with showbiz in his blood.
“Nathan used to play onstage before sound checks with the spot operator following him around,” said Mickey Lubeck.
He has continued the family’s theatrical tradition. He’s performed in numerous shows in the Atlanta area, including a production of “A Chorus Line” in March and has worked on several cruise ships. Six years ago, the Lubeck family’s relationship with “Cats” came full circle as Nathan Lubeck performed the role his dad did years before in a repertory production of “Cats” in Vermont.
These days, Mickey Lubeck teaches the next generation of musical theater performers while Chuck Lubeck uses his massage therapy skills in his own business, Extreme Performance Bodywork.
The current “Cats” tour has some differences from the show the Lubecks performed. The choreography for the newest tour has been reworked but is based on the original play which won seven Tony Awards, according to the “Cats” website.
Tickets to the tour are $60-$85 and are available at ticketmaster.com.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
