Give My Regards… Let’s Have a Look at… Joyce Chittick… the ‘Steam Heat’ girl in “Pajama Game!”
Joyce Chittick has been patient, and she has paid her dues. After 15 years as an ensemble member on Broadway she has finally come front and center. Watch for her in the 'Steam Heat' number in the current production of "The Pajama Game," a revival of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross's famed musical at the Roundabout Theatre in New York. "I've worked so hard," she said. The words - I deserve it were left unsaid but accurate. She is performing the role that made Carol Haney a star when it opened over fifty-five years ago. "I actually have billing just below the composers credits," she pointed out with pride. And she is determined to make this step out of the chorus, a big one. Each night as she positions herself between dancers Vince Pesce and David Eggars waiting to begin one of the most remembered musical numbers in Broadway history she silently thanks director / choreographer Kathleen Marshall for giving her this opportunity.
"No, we are not doing the original Bob Fosse choreography," Chittick said, with a snappy sparkle in her eye. "Kathleen wanted to create her own steps. We wear the black suits and hats but the concept changes. The audience expects to see us slouching through the entire piece side-by-side, chugging along in demi-plie but," Chittick stopped abruptly, as if a red light had just gone on. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't want to spoil it by revealing the punch line."
Chittick may not be Carol Haney but she is an enormously talented dancer/actor, feisty and driven to be the best that she can be. "I can't think about Haney's performance," she said quietly. "The pressure was on me to develop my version. Maybe audiences will feel cheated not seeing a recreation of Fosse's work, but I just can't think about that."
Raised in Reno, Nevada, Chittick attended local ballet schools but knew at the onset that ballet was not for her. "I liked tap and jazz, because it was faster. Let me run and jump, turn my feet in, and become a character. I was right for that. Along side a real ballet dancer, I couldn't stand up. I'm just not built for it. My best turn is character dance, to find quirky 'isms' in my body, and go with it. I study characters in the street, absorb their mannerisms, put them away in my head until I need them."
As Chittick continued with her self-analysis, it was clear she knew she was ahead of the game early on. At sixteen on a whim she took an audition for the touring company of "Cats," and the casting agent was so impressed he gave her his card, saying "call me," magical words to a young dancer. While watching the show she picked out three of the "Cats" characters thinking, "I can do those three without a problem." Those were the roles she covered when she joined the company. "I remember my dad came to school the morning the casting agent called. We had driven to California for a second audition. I did well, and was put on the list. I went back to school and actually forgot about it. About two months later I was called to the principal's office. I was so scared, because I thought someone had died. My dad was standing there. He said 'Give me a hug.' He told me I had the job, was going to earn real money, stay in a hotel, and dance every night. I thought I had died and gone to heaven."
Since that eventful morning, Chittick has gone on to "Tommy," "Big," "Once Upon A Mattress," "Cabaret," "Seussical," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Wonderful Town," and the recent revival of "Sweet Charity." Add to that a handful of tours, regional theater, off-Broadway, film and television and Chittick, at thirty-two, has seemingly worked a lifetime. Along the way she has made many friends who recognized her talent, dependability, and willingness to work hard.
"Joyce made up her character in 'Sweet Charity," says Peter Gregus, a fellow chorus dancer currently starring in "Jersey Boys. "You had to hear that gravely voice coming from this petite blond brandishing a cigar. I was laughing my head off. She always concentrates on developing something different in her character and makes you remember it."
With these traits under her belt it is not surprising that Chittick is rarely without work. Being an "A-lister" one might think - she could relax. "Not so," she declared. "I'm always looking for the next thing, always aware of what is coming up, and always willing to do anything people ask me to do."
Recently she went off-Broadway when a friend informed her of an opening as an understudy in "La Belle Epoch," Martha Clarke's dark homage to the prostitutes of the Moulin Rouge during the time of Toulouse Lautrec. "I was to understudy a character who was to appear butt naked, a first for me. So here I am walking up the aisle of an intimate theater (the Mitzi Newhouse at Lincoln Center) standing in front of two actors I know while a monologue is given behind me. There is a packed house around me, friends, relatives - now there's a challenge. After that I knew I could do anything, just bring it on."
Chittick is grateful to Clarke for the opportunity to do an acting role. "She saw beyond my dancing resume and took a chance. In this business once you are labeled a dancer, especially a gypsy, most directors will not take the chance on casting you an acting role. She did. I wish more would."
Kathleen Marshall did. Chittick in the role of Mae, a shy presence hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses and a dark wig, with a tape measure hanging around her neck as her distinctive costuming, stays in the background for most of the first act of "Pajama Game" until her chance to burst into the spotlight in the sizzling "Steam Heat" number. Then she lets her considerable personality and flexible body loose, lifting the reaction of the audience to a rousing ovation. As someone behind me so succinctly put it ..."Wow, she is a force!"