Before the Umbrella: The Backstage Chaos (and Reality TV Vibe) Making Waves at freeFall Theatre

We’ve all been conditioned to treat Singin' in the Rain as the ultimate cinematic security blanket—Gene Kelly splashing through puddles, bright pastel wardrobes, and tap routines so ridiculously effortless they make physics look like a suggestion. But behind that glossy, golden-era MGM perfection was a pressure cooker of deeply messy human drama: freshly divorced co-collaborators forced to work together, studio executives fighting over pennies, and a 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds who had never danced a day in her life.

Enter freeFall Theatre’s What a Glorious Feeling!, running September 18 through October 4, 2026. Jay Berkow’s play-with-music pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal the high-stakes, unedited reality behind Hollywood’s most famous musical triumph. Rather than delivering a sterile nostalgia trip, the production operates like a razor-sharp backstage docudrama—exposing the raw friction, fragile egos, and sheer stubbornness required to pull off a masterpiece.

"Even if you don't know the source material, you're seeing the backstage drama," says guest choreographer Christopher Shin, making his St. Petersburg debut with this production. "There’s a moment in the play where it’s really dramatic, and all of a sudden we go into filming a scene in the movie, and to see how the actor goes from the drama of the studio to just turning on the acting—it’s humorous because you don’t get to see that as an audience member on film."

For Shin, that friction between polished performance and hidden chaos feels intimately tied to how we consume culture today. "It’s so relevant with our phones and social media," Shin notes. "We see the picture-perfect influencers, but we don't see how many takes they took or what they did to make that post perfect in our eyes."

To bring that backstage tension to life, director Douglas S. Hall gave Shin a specific directive early in rehearsals: I want to be able to see how this became that. Instead of serving up carbon-copy replicas of Gene Kelly’s iconic routines, Shin deliberately choreographs the uneven, trial-and-error process of creation.

"A lot of the numbers in the show have moments where someone might dance a section and then almost have a brain freeze and say, 'Ah, I don't really know what's next. Let me try this or try that,'" Shin explains. "Some of the numbers aren't quote-unquote fully polished or finished, and that, I think, is the most interesting part because audiences rarely get to see the dancers' actual process."

What elevates the show from an intriguing peek behind the curtain into a high-powered spectacle is the sheer physical virtuosity of the cast—featuring John T. Wolfe as Gene Kelly and Laura Guley as Debbie Reynolds.

"They are triple threats with a capital T," Shin says. "They can act, they can sing, they can dance, and in freeFall's intimate space, the audience is going to go crazy seeing them tackle this material."

In fact, the cast proved so absurdly quick at picking up complex tap and jazz phrasing that Shin spent most of his time in St. Pete marveling from a rehearsal chair. "I've been sitting more than I've been on my feet, and as a really active person, my lower back is hurting quite a bit since I've gotten down here from all the sitting because I don't have to demonstrate as much!" Shin laughs. "It has been an absolute pleasure." He also gives a final shout-out to the rest of the tight-knit company, including Justin Lopez as Stanley Donen, Caroline Lynch Desmarais as Jeanne Coyne, and Larry Alexander as Arthur Freed. "With a cast this small, everyone is contributing so much," he says.

Where: freeFall Theatre, 6099 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33710.
When: September 18 – October 4, 2026 (Wednesdays–Saturdays at 7:00 PM; Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM).
Tickets: $55 ($25 for youth under 18 and preview performances; free with freeFall’s $34/month subscription).
The Plan: Head out to West St. Pete, grab a cocktail, and settle in to see MGM's most legendary musical stripped of its slick polish and rebuilt right in front of your eyes.