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Rock Around the Doc

1996 · Passavant Area Hospital benefit, Jacksonville, Illinois

Rock Around the Doc was a community benefit musical written and directed by Ken Bradbury for Passavant Area Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, staged over a run of performances in September 1996. Built around a cast of physicians, nurses, Rotarians, Kiwanians, Ambucs, cloggers, bankers, and dozens of townspeople, it was the sort of big-hearted hometown revue Bradbury loved to assemble — a show where seemingly the whole community ended up onstage.

The story is a fifties time-travel romp. Two modern teenagers, Tommy and Peggy, are mysteriously thrown back into a rock-and-roll-era Jacksonville, where they bounce from a high school prom to the Follies Drive-In, from a Mayberry main street fretting over "turmoil" to a melodrama at the Farmers bank, all while trying to puzzle out the secret that will send them home. Around them, parodies of the era's hits drive the plot: doctors croon "Doc of Old," waitresses on roller skates lament "Who's Sorry Now?", and singing groups of Rotarians, Kiwanians, and Ambucs take turns in the spotlight. Bradbury laced the script with affectionate local color — Morton Avenue, Meredosia, Lake Jacksonville, Nichols Park, and the Capitol Cloggers all earn their cameos.

True to the benefit spirit, the show poked gentle fun at itself: the Follies "chairladies" complain that no matter what part Bradbury hands them, they will make it shine, all in service of Passavant. The script affectionately reminds its cast that the late nights and exhaustion were worth it — "hear the siren go by and know that because of you, a life may be saved."

Musical Numbers

Songs and parodies woven through the show included:

• "Rock Around the Doc"
• "Great Jacksonville!"
• "My Stacks Ache for You" (Kawasaki Kiwanis)
• "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" (the Prom)
• "Country Club Dues" (the Pre-Meds)
• "Sit Down Slowly" (Heavenly Nurse Choir)
• "People Helping People"
• "I'm Goin' to Meredosia" (the Dosh singers)
• "You Ain't Nothin' but a Speedtrap" (Petey's Pistols)
• "Wim-Oh-Weh" (the YMCA singers)
• "Wipe Out" (Act II entr'acte)
• "Tell Me Why" and "Doc of Old" (the Post-Opps / retired doctors)
• "At the Hop" / "Bye Bye Love" / "Who's Sorry Now?" / "Mr. Sandman" (the Follies Drive-In)
• "Day-O" (Ed Sullivan and the Elliott singers)
• "Yackety-Yak" and "Shout" (finale)

Cast

• Peggy — Janet Roach
• Tommy — Len Bogle
• Wolfman — Dick Sweeney
• Jerry — Jerry Hooker & Nathan Carls
• Killer Kiwanis — Keith Bradbury
• Raunchy Rotary — Chet Wynn
• Maurie the Sage — Marc Steinberg
• Ed Sullivan — Keith Bradbury
• Boom Boom — Judith Beiderbecke
• Toots — Charlotte Cave
• Gannon — Jeff Bossert
• Friday — Forrest Keaton
• Rust — Bill Meier
• Little Nell — Shelley Wessler

The full company numbered well over a hundred singers, dancers, physicians, and community members, organized into groups for the show's many production numbers.

Production Notes

Written and directed by Ken Bradbury, Rock Around the Doc was produced as a fundraiser for Passavant Area Hospital. Auditions and a reception opened the process in mid-August 1996, with rehearsals running through September and tech and full-dress rehearsals leading up to performances on September 19, 20, 21, and a Sunday matinee on the 22nd (evening cast call at 6:30, curtain at 8 p.m.; matinee cast call at 12:30, curtain at 2 p.m.).

In keeping with Bradbury's playful style, every committee carried a song-title code name — the Follies chairs were "The Big Mamas," publicity was "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," scenery was "The Green Door," and the after-glow party was "Save the Last Dance for Me." The production drew on Jacksonville's service clubs and the Capitol Cloggers (coordinated through Betty Whitehead), with Beth Giebelhausen heading the showbook committee.