'Blonde' having more fun onstage--SF Chronicle Article & Oakland Tribune

Updated On: 1/28/07 at 11:43 AM

Updated On: 1/28/07 at 01:55 PM

Woof! Grooming stars is no walk in the park
By Pat Craig
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Audio Slideshow - http://bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/cct/multimedia/flash/canine_thespians/index.html

Article - http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16570909.htm

It began, as so many Broadway stories do, with a talent search. Bill Berloni ventured out onto the mean streets of Newark, N.J., to find himself the baddest Chihuahua going.

Berloni, whose theatrical animal expertise goes back to 1976, when he discovered the pooch who would play Sandy in the original "Annie," says finding a stage-savvy Chihuahua is tough work.

But that was the assignment for the musical version of "Legally Blonde," currently in previews at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre. The world-premiere production opens Feb. 7.

"I've never trained any dog this small for a performance," says Berloni, who was hired to find dogs to play Bruiser, the Chihuahua; and Rufus, the English bulldog, in the musical.

"If a show is scary for a big dog, imagine how it is for a Chihuahua," he says. "A Lab might look at us and see a pretty good chance of defending himself, but to a Chihuahua, we look like giants who could step on him -- it's a pretty big world for a Chihuahua."

So that's why it was so important to find the perfect little dog, whose dainty exterior concealed the heart and soul of a gorilla.

He began his search at animal shelters, because he's always used rescue animals in his work. "I wasn't looking for a shy little reserved animal; I was looking for a killer, ready to fight his way out of the kennel."

That's why he went to the Newark shelter; it's in a tough town. And when he got there, he was immediately drawn to Chico, who, shelter people told him, "was a little nippy." Berloni just figured the poor guy was frightened.

"We go out on a walk and he's barking at people, and not afraid of traffic," he says. Chico was quickly adopted into the 15-dog Berloni family, which also includes wife Dorothy and daughter Jenna, 9, both of whom are working with the dogs during the San Francisco run.

For "Legally Blonde," the canine family is rounded out by Chihuahuas Teddy and Boo Boo, and a pair of English bulldogs to play Rufus -- Chloe, and her understudy, Zizi.

"Every other living creature in the show has a standby," says Berloni; "the dogs have to have one, too."

"Legally Blonde" is Berloni's 22nd Broadway show. He's also trained animals for movies, television shows and commercials.

He is one of the most sought-after animal trainers for stage work, since his training methods are designed to teach animals to perform a trick over and over rather than just once, as they would in film work.

His accomplishments are even more impressive when you consider he had no intention of working with animals. His first venture into animal training, he believed, was to be a shortcut to a career as an actor. Berloni was 19 and interning at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

"The producer of a new musical called me into his office and asked, 'How would you like to earn your Equity (actors union) card and have a chance to be in the show?'" Berloni recalls. "I thought he had recognized my talent just from watching me paint scenery. But then he told me all I had to do was find and train a dog for us for the new musical."

Someone told him dogs were cheap at the animal shelter, so he visited a nearby shelter and became smitten with a scraggly, sandy-colored mutt. He was also heartsick at the plight of the shelter animals, many of whom would be euthanized. He decided any dogs in his future would come from shelters.

By any standard, the tattered and abused first dog he picked was the absolute wrong choice for any number of reasons. Somehow, though, it worked out for both Berloni and the lucky mutt, because that's the dog that became Sandy in the first production of "Annie." The show was first a hit at the Goodspeed, and then a hit on Broadway.

"So 'Annie' opens, Sandy is a huge star, and I'm a famous animal trainer, and in demand," he says. Within months, he was working with the likes of Mike Nichols and Richard Burton (in "Camelot"), and later, with Susan Stroman and the American Ballet Theatre.

He still lists "actor" on his resume, but admits his "repetition and reward" system of animal training has given him opportunities he'd never have gotten as an actor.

Dogs, no matter how it looks when you see them perform, are not natural actors, Berloni says. However, they are loyal.

"I look for a dog who wants to please his owner," he says. "They perform for their owner, not for the audience. They don't get any affection from the audience."

Dogs can be taught complex tricks, but their style of learning may be confounding to those not working with them.

For example, Chico spent eight weeks working on "Legally Blonde" in a New York rehearsal room. He learned to do all that was asked of him perfectly, but when the situation changes, even a bit, it becomes impossible.

"When he walked into the Golden Gate Theatre, it was like putting him in the middle of Union Square," says Berloni. "He looks up and can't see the walls. There's the amplification, the orchestra and all the sounds of the theater. And we have to desensitize him to that. Dogs learn sort of linearly and really don't have cognitive thought, and when you think about it, working onstage, in itself, is frightening."

Pat Craig is the Times theater critic. Reach him at 925-945-4736 or pcraig@cctimes.com.

COMING SUNDAY

Pat Craig and Times online producer Karl Mondon go behind the scenes in the making of "Legally Blonde," a new Broadway-bound musical, in a special Sunday A&E package and slide-show presentation on www.contracostatimes.com.