Patrick Ballnik and Thalia Schramm star in A2CT's "Bye, Bye Birdie."

Photo by Caleb Newman

The 1960 musical “Bye, Bye Birdie,” now being staged by Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, was among the first to unabashedly celebrate teen culture.

At the time, that meant spotlighting bobby socks, bubblegum, and getting “pinned.” But even so, Rachel Francisco, director of the Civic’s new production of “Birdie,” doesn’t view the show as being problematically dated.

“It’s a caricature of the time, and it’s OK to show that,” said Francisco. “Kim’s relationship with her parents is still actually pretty relevant today. She’s innocent, she decides she’s grown up, her parents react — that hasn’t really changed. And her obsession with a teen idol who’s inappropriately aged for her? Not changed. Conrad Birdie being slightly older and into young girls? Not changed much. There wasn’t much you had to update.”

Inspired in part by the fan uproar surrounding Elvis Presley’s draft in 1958, “Birdie” — with a book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse — focuses on a rock 'n' roll star, Conrad Birdie, who’s about to report for duty in the service. Albert, Birdie’s manager, plots with his secretary and sweetheart, Rose, to stage a publicity stunt, whereby Birdie premieres the song “One Last Kiss” on “The Ed Sullivan Show” while planting, well, one last kiss on a randomly chosen girl from his fan club.

The lucky winner turns out to be Kim MacAfee; but after Conrad, Albert and Rose travel to Kim’s hometown of Sweet Apple, Ohio to deliver the news, complications arise.

A 2009 Broadway revival of “Birdie,” starring John Stamos as Albert and Gina Gershon as Rose, flopped; but Francisco believes that, based on what she’s read, the failure was more an indictment of that production team’s staging choices than of the show itself.

“There are so many really good parts to it,” said Francisco. “There’s nothing serious in the musical, there’s no big message to it. But it’s fun. It’s really fun. And presented in the right way, it works.”

One choice the Broadway revival’s team made was to cut “The Shriner’s Ballet,” in which a despondent Rose, who’s just broken up with Albert, flirts and dances with Shriners at a meeting.

“It can be very risqué and inappropriate,” said Francisco. “As I thought about it, too, it feels very out of Rosie’s character to do that. She seems so focused on Albert. Yes, there’s going out and having a good time, and then there’s inciting a group of men. So how I’ve handled it is I’ve made her pass out at the bar, and it’s a dream sequence. That way, she can fantasize about doing it without actually doing it.”

Dick Van Dyke starred as Albert both on stage, in 1960, and on screen, in 1963; but the film adaptation of “Birdie” cut several songs (and added the title tune), altered the story, and was ultimately crafted as a career-launching pad for Ann-Margret, who — after playing Kim (“the oldest looking teenager I’ve ever seen,” Francisco remarked) — soon went on to star in movies with the real Elvis Presley.

Casting for A2CT’s “Birdie,” meanwhile, had its own challenges. Kim MacAfee is supposed to be 14, but Francisco made the character 17 after casting an actress in her 20s. “With Civic, you never know who’s going to walk through the door,” said Francisco. “My chances were good that I was going to get a bunch of teenagers (at auditions). But would they be mature enough to carry a show? … I think we were fortunate with who actually ended up coming out.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.