Patricia Ward Kelly speaks eloquently about Gene Kelly Don Flood

Patricia Ward Kelly speaks eloquently about Gene Kelly Don Flood

With “La La Land” up for a record tying 14 Oscars in a fortnight, the timing of Patricia Ward Kelly’s tribute show to her late husband is highly appropriate.

The elegant presenter and biographer famously gave “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle and actors Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, as well as the film’s choreographer Mandy Moore, access to Gene Kelly’s archive while they were preparing the film.

But that’s for later. Right now she is here to talk about “Gene Kelly: The Legacy”, her one-woman show that she describes as more of a conversation than a show. It was launched in 2012 as a tribute to mark the 100th anniversary of Kelly’s birth. He had been very specific about his legacy and eschewed the traditional tribute of stars being brought out to reminisce. “He wanted to be remembered not in front of the camera, but behind the camera. And he said ‘if anybody is going to present that, it’s you.’”

Tremendous recollection

On stage Ward Kelly comments on film clips--some familiar to the audience, some rare footage--and unpacks objects from Gene Kelly’s archive that she has unearthed while researching the biography she is still writing. Over the course of a decade, Ward Kelly had recorded her husband in some format every day, which gave her a wealth of material to select. Even now, she keeps unearthing things that she feels compelled to put in to the show, but then faces the dilemma of having to take something else out to maintain a reasonable running time

“I could probably do a whole night of just unpacking boxes,” she says with a smile. “For example, just a few months ago I found the note that he left me on the day we got married. And so I put that in. I found a letter from Fred Astaire to Gene…” But always a journalist at heart, Ward Kelly also seeks to verify from primary sources many of the things Gene Kelly told her during the recordings she made, even though “his recollection was tremendous.” She has access to archives and has interviewed sound engineers, musicians and technicians. “They tend not to lie,” she laughs. “The actors tell lots of stories. They just get more and more fanciful as time goes on.”

The show is a very personal tribute and Ward Kelly greets the audience at the entrance to the auditorium and stays behind afterwards to talk. “It’s as much the audience sharing with me as me sharing with them.” Indeed, the show’s narrative changes every night depending on what the audience responds to. “It’s story telling,” she says.

Apple pie

Ward Kelly’s involvement with “La La Land” began with an encounter with director Damien Chazelle just after “Whiplash” had garnered critical acclaim and won a bag of awards. He told her that he was a huge fan of Gene Kelly and was planning to direct a musical. She invited him to visit and look through the Gene Kelly archive, an offer he took up several months later with Gosling, Stone and Moore.

“It was funny because when I left them in the archive they were being very reserved, but I found out afterwards that when I left to cook dinner they were…‘oh my god!’, like kids.” It was on this occasion that Gosling brought as a gift the 25lb apple pie, which truly impressed Ward Kelly. “It came in a hat box with a quart of ice cream. It’s probably the most memorable gift anyone has brought. And the pie also makes an appearance in the movie.”

But she is equally impressed by the way that Chazelle and Moore filmed the dance scenes.

“The first time I watched it I started weeping…because I really wished Gene were here to see it. He would have cheered for it. I was able to convey what he wanted from dance on film, and Damien as an apprentice to Gene would have bene a great configuration…the absence of Gene was really felt.”

“The best of who we are”

Kelly was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party and activist who protested against the House Un-American Activities Committee. How would he have reacted to what is going on in the United States now? “He would be crushed,” says Ward Kelly. “He was such a sensitive man of such great integrity…I think it would really break his heart that everything he believed in is being destroyed.”

She describes his tough background, with a father who lost his job during the depression and the discrimination against Irish Catholics at the time. Indeed, his art reflected Kelly’s desire to represent the common man, the American male, rather than rich people dancing on polished floors. He would also have abhorred the crushing of freedom of speech and what Ward Kelly calls the “bastardisation of language” and the way that being bright and well spoken is no longer looked upon as a positive. But she remains optimistic and speaks eloquently about Kelly’s humanity. “Someone told me after the election, as I wondered about going forward and pitching the show, that maybe the timing is really good because Gene represents the best of who we are.”

Show information

Patricia Ward Kelly will be at the Cinémathèque on Saturday 11 February at 7 p.m. to introduce a double bill of “Singin’ In The Rain” and “An American in Paris”. Tickets and info here.

She will perform her one-woman show “Gene Kelly: The Legacy” at the Kinneksbond in Mamer on Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets and info here.