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Wednesday, December 12, 2001

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

Last week City Council approved a location on an island in Liberty Avenue between the Hilton and the State Office Building -- the main gateway to Downtown -- for the Gene Kelly statue that was proposed more than a year ago by a local committee. So, now that the die is almost cast, everyone's jumped in with an opinion.

Editor John Craig wants the statue in front of the new high school for the performing arts, columnist Brian O'Neill argues that Liberty Avenue is just fine, architecture critic Patricia Lowry wants a more urban spot, columnist Gene Collier is feeling snarky, and "Brewed on Grant" turns the controversy to laughter.

Personally, I'd prefer a street-corner site in the Cultural District for Gene's lamppost, but the Cultural Trust vetoed that idea from the start, and there's no evidence that Trust president Kevin McMahon wants to revisit his predecessor Carol Brown's decision.

However, I had my say on this subject long ago, so even though you might expect the drama critic to join this babble of columnists, I'm going to hold back. Instead, I thought you'd like to hear from Gene's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, who has to give permission before any statue is built. (Note that she hasn't yet approved a final design, and sculptor Susan Wagner won't complete her study until the project is funded.) Here are Kelly's thoughts, based on her first visit here, a year and a half ago:

Entering the Fort Pitt Tunnel, the young man driving from the airport began to prepare me for what was to come. "You're about to see something spectacular," he said. As we descended the ramp into Gateway Center, the city, washed with rain, spread before us, sparkling like a diadem in the sun, like the idyllic civilization in Capra's "Lost Horizon." It was my first vision of the place that had been so close to Gene's heart. And it now captured mine.

The interesting thing about Gene is that his statue could go many places. In Pittsburgh alone, it could be at the University of Pittsburgh, Peabody High or even Sacred Heart. It could be deep in Frick Park, where he "ran like the wind" along Nine Mile Run as a young man and sought solace deep in the woods. It could be near the pond at Homewood Cemetery where he played hockey with his friends in games that "woke the dead." It could be in East Liberty, where he sat in the theaters as a boy, transfixed by the moving images. It could be in Oakland, where he dreamed of being a Pirate. It could be in Squirrel Hill, where he taught dance at Beth Shalom and lit the lights as a Shabbes goy. It could be near the old Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance or the Pittsburgh Playhouse. It could even be near the old speakeasies in Bloomfield, where he discussed the theories of Marx and Hegel over beer with other young men.

It was not one place or one thing that shaped him. It was a melding of many things. It was growing up an Irish Catholic boy in a Northern steel town in the middle of the Depression. It was growing up in a city that was a stopover for the great traveling acts of Dancing Dotson and King, King and King, and where the visiting Monte Carlo Ballet Russe first exposed an impressionable young man to the beautiful and compelling world of choreography.

When I was first approached about a statue of Gene in Pittsburgh, the Gene Kelly Statue Committee told me locations in East Liberty and the Cultural District were not available. It was made clear that the Cultural District (which I originally thought the most appropriate home) was off limits -- they did not want this kind of public art. I was not presented with a choice. I was just asked if I would, as Trustee of the Gene Kelly Image, approve the Gateway Center site.

I initially had my doubts. But the more time I spent in Pittsburgh, the more that site seemed acceptable. Gene was the perennial common man, the tough but tender young American, wearing T-shirts and loafers, who brought dancing into the streets. Thinking about it, I knew he would love that expanse. The hustle and bustle of people coming and going. The cars, taxis, buses. The open space. And he would like to be near the rivers, the poetic merging of the Allegheny and the Monongahela he wrote about as a boy. And he would like to be in sight of the ballparks. Since Forbes Field is no more, at least his beloved Pirates, for whom he once dreamed of playing shortstop, would be nearby. And the Steelers he later rooted for on Monday nights would be, too.

So when the committee asked for my approval of the Gateway Center site, I said yes, knowing that other people coming into the city, especially those visiting it for the first time, would feel what I felt: joy. What better place for a statue of the man who once said that the purpose of his career as a song and dance man was exactly that -- to bring joy? A symbol of affirmation recognized round the world, Gene Kelly on the lamppost is a portrait of everyman -- and, by extension, every woman and child -- who has ever felt the sheer happiness expressed in the simple urge to sing and dance. What better greeting for the city that was the root of it all?

If other locations had been offered, I would have given them the same consideration. I very much want a statue of Gene in Pittsburgh. He would have loved it.

-- Patricia Ward Kelly, Los Angeles

Retrospective 2000

The time has come for the drama staff to look back over the rapidly dwindling year to come up with the best Pittsburgh shows, performers, designers, directors and such of 2001. I'd be happy to hear your helpful thoughts. Send them by mail (Chris Rawson, Post-Gazette, 34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15222) or e-mail (crawson@post-gazette.com). And please: No organized write-in campaigns -- just individual thoughts about what was best on stage in the past year.

Bottom Line

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for week ending Dec. 9:

Christmas Carol/CLO (69%).....7,726

Paper Doll/Public (85%) ........... 4,092

Squonk Burn/City (71%) .......... 1,567

SantaLand/City (89%) .................. 774

Honk/Theat.Factory (81%) ......... 466