Whitehead returns to R.I. stage in `Victor/Victoria'

By Don Fowler
Posted 4/26/17

By DON FOWLER Rhode Island theatre-goers will remember the name Bill Whitehead Jr. The LaSalle Academy and Barrington College graduate is best known for his many years of work with East Greenwich's Academy Players and Tommy Brent's Theatre-by-the-Sea

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Whitehead returns to R.I. stage in `Victor/Victoria'

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Rhode Island theatre-goers will remember the name Bill Whitehead Jr. The LaSalle Academy and Barrington College graduate is best known for his many years of work with East Greenwich’s Academy Players and Tommy Brent’s Theatre-by-the-Sea back in the ’80s. Bill has had a busy and varied life that has taken him back and forth from Rhode Island to New York City.

“After graduating from college I went to New York City to find auditions,” Bill told me. “And who do I audition for? Tommy Brent, who brought me back to Rhode Island in 1978, where I performed in three summer shows.”

Returning to New York, Bill auditioned for Providence Opera Theatre and ended up back at the Providence Performing Arts Center, where he appeared in three shows.

“In 1980 I went back to Theatre-by-the-Sea, where I did great musicals, including ‘Oklahoma’ and ‘Carousel’ with Tommy,” he said. “That was the best summer of my life.”

“I was still living in New York City in 1981, and came to a point where I had to reevaluate my life,” Bill said. “I decided to move back to Rhode Island, where a friend and I started an interior design company.”

The theatre bug soon started biting Whitehead, and he decided to offer his talent and experience to local community theatre. He became involved in a production of “Equus” at the old Parish House Players before joining on with the Academy Players in East Greenwich in the middle-eighties.

“We did ‘Annie’ and ‘Grease’ and ‘Sugar,’ where I played a [cross-dresser],” he recalled. “I still have the review you did of me, saying that I had the best legs on stage.”

Bill joined the Academy Players Board of Directors and served as its president for over a decade.

“We did shows like ‘Sugar’ and ‘The Rink’ [a musical done on roller skates] and ‘Shenandoah” with an all-male cast,” he said. “We really challenged ourselves.”

Bill left the theatre world for a while until he met Aimee Turner and became involved in helping to design the new Ocean State Theatre in Warwick.

“I remember hauling every one of the seats into the theatre,” he said. “I did some set design in college and enjoyed that work.”

Bill is now the Design Center manager for the new Ethan Allen store in Garden City, where he thanks the company for allowing him to be flexible with his full-time job while auditioning and rehearsing for his first role in some time.

“I play Toddy, the middle-aged queen in the musical, ‘Victor/Victoria,’ and I’m loving it, although I find that I have to work hard alongside the younger actors.”

If you remember the movie, Robert Preston played Toddy, while Julie Andrews was Victor/Victoria.

I won’t reveal Bill’s age, although he’s eligible for an AARP card and looks 20 years younger.

While Bill Whitehead Jr. doesn’t plan on continuing a full-time acting career, he is grateful to Turner and OSTC for the opportunity to play Toddy.

“This is a really wonderful gift,” he said, “and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

“Victor/Victoria,” with great music by Henry Mancini and a story that was cutting edge when it originally opened, will be at the Ocean State Theatre in Warwick April 26-May 21. For tickets call 921-6800.

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