Anya, Christopher Beroiz, Melissa Manchester, Willem De Vries and Alicia Michelle Richardson

The Rubicon Theatre Company titled its 2010-2011 season, “The times they are a-changing,” and it’s definitely off to a unusual start. It began in October with The Tempest: Phase 1, a staged reading that included projected images of models for a future multimedia production that would take place in a tent.

With such an adventurous send-off, Rubicon Artistic Director James O’Neil and Producing Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns explain their choice for the premiere of a hybrid dance/music/vocals holiday fare, wrapped up in the package of Fascinating Rhythms.

O’Neil believes anyone who enjoys Strictly Ballroom or Dancing with the Stars will find this show a “thrill. Patrons will have a rare opportunity to enjoy the skills of these dancers up close. We have taken out two rows of seats to create a larger dance area onstage. Attendees on the main floor will not be farther than eight rows from the artists.”

Talks for such a creation began after the Rubicon collaborated with director/choreographer Cate Caplin on a Man of La Mancha production, part of a first-ever festival of Dale Wasserstein’s plays. The Rubicon and Caplin sought to create an entertainment that would draw more of a diverse audience, and that’s when they asked Melissa Manchester to act as co-creator and featured vocalist on this new adventure. Calling the Rubicon, which Manchester frequented while living in Oxnard, “a beautiful, formidable theater” and their idea of Fascinating Rhythms “jolly,” the Grammy Award-winner describes their process:

“The collaboration has been very creative and respectful. I’ve never done this kind of piece and it’s great fun, razzle dazzle… They told me their ideas, I shared mine and then we all just listened to each other. Early sketches came… I sing a lot of songs about dance and they just seemed to work together.”

Manchester is no stranger to the stage. She starred in productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance and Andrew Lloyd Webber — Music of the Night and appeared as the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd at the Ahmanson Theatre. She also co-wrote three musicals.

Melissa Manchester

Those credits don’t even scratch the surface of the movie themes she has written or an illustrious career as both a performer and songwriter (Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Alison Krauss, Roberta Flack, Johnny Mathis, Kathy Mattea, Peabo Bryson and Cleo Laine are among those who have recorded Manchester’s songs). With all of her talents, however, Manchester laughs, “Thank goodness I’m not dancing. That would make it a comedy.”

She leaves the vast and varied choreography up to the stellar team Caplin has assembled: Anya, Christopher Beroiz, Willem De Vries, Melissa Giattino, Michael Kuka, Natalia Lind, Alicia Michelle Richardson and Richard Schwartz. When asked how all of the team works together, given the incredibly different vocabularies and rehearsal needs, she replies that it all comes down to understanding. “We just had to all slow down and not assume we think or even count the same way.” They created a common shorthand with each other. “Clarity is everything,” Manchester says. Any disagreements “all worked out” by using this process of taking every decision slowly and listening to each other.

With such a varied and lauded background, this experience brings Manchester a lot of fun. Now living in the San Fernando Valley, she says that Fascinating Rhythms brings her “great serious fun! There are big musical arrangements [by Stephan Oberhoff] and that’s a lot of fun. The big band atmosphere was an opportunity to learn more and to stretch more.”

One of the musicals Manchester co-wrote, based on the Bernice Rubens I Sent a Letter to My Love, was recorded for LA Theatre Works for public radio. Manchester also performed the leading role at Boston’s North Shore Music Theatre. “Working in musicals is not for the faint of heart,” she warns. “They take a long time [to write and produce] but I love the unnaturalness, the heightened sense of reality when you can no longer express your feelings, you have to burst into song. That’s a really grand way to express myself.”

Melissa Manchester

How is Fascinating Rhythms, the blend of musical styles, songwriters, dancing and vocals, a different sort of experience for the audience? Manchester looks forward to the “dazzle of costumes, the mega-ballroom dances. My presence will tie together the time, story and energy.

“I think it will be very successful; it’s a crowd-pleaser. We’ll look back and think how did we put this together? We’ll laugh because we’ve hardly been in the same room together.”

The lauded design team for Fascinating Rhythms consists of returning Rubicon veterans. Ovation winner Thomas S. Giamario, who has designed more than 30 productions at Rubicon, created a simple stage house for the dance; Jeremy Pivnick, recipient of Ovation Awards, Garland Awards and the LA Drama Critics’ Circle Angstrom Career Achivement Award, is lighting designer; and Cricket S. Myers, with multiple Ovation and NAACP nominations, is sound designer.

Production photos by Jeanne Tanner.

Fascinating Rhythms, conceived by Karyl Lynn Burns and Cate Caplin, opens Dec. 5; plays Wed., 2 and 7 pm; Thur.-Sat., 8 pm; Sat. and Sun., 2 pm; through Dec. 19. Tickets: $39-$59. Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura; 805.667.2900 or rubicontheatre.org. Due to a grant from the James Irvine Foundation, tickets may also be purchased online 24-hours-a-day at www.rubicontheatre.org.