When Jonathan Leavitt sat down in 2019 to begin writing what he cheekily describes as a “weird little show about a legendary Maine hotspot,” little did he imagine it would evolve to become a quasi-cult classic. (Think: arguably the closest thing Maine has to, say, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” in terms of niche subject matter and audience loyalty).
The musical, “An Evening at Dave’s Sauna,” relays the stories of a rainbow coalition of quirky and libertine characters who once frequented the real-life South Paris establishment owned by the late Dave Graiver in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Over the years performed in community theaters around Maine, the show has collected a following of regulars — plenty of whom remember Dave’s sauna personally. And this month it will graduate to a larger, state-of-the-art stage with a six-show run at Good Theater within the Stevens Square Theater complex beginning Friday.
It’s been quite a process getting there. After all, it wasn’t just the play’s cultish appeal that was initially tough to predict; Leavitt also couldn’t have foreseen that the phases of getting the musical made would be almost as wild as the plot of the production itself. “I was certainly convinced when I first started writing it that it was a really entertaining story,” he said. “But there was no way to know how bumpy and adventurous a ride it would be to bring it to this point.”
In its evolution over the years, the off-stage drama has included everything from epic legal spats with theater owners and executive directors to sudden COVID shut-downs and life-threatening blood clots (for Leavitt, while he was serving as director one season), and a mid-performance entanglement with a local fire department when the play’s smoke machine triggered a theater alarm. Also in the process, Leavitt penned and published a book on the topic, “Memories of Dave’s Sauna,” and recorded the show’s original soundtrack at Portland’s Acadia Studios.
Moreover, Leavitt has ambitions to take it beyond the stage to television. “We’ll be creating a pilot,” he says. “It involves so many interesting characters and subplots. So we’re crossing our fingers and hoping that Portland folks will find the same level of entertainment and appeal that other audiences have. And then we’ll see what happens from there.”
As far as who those Portland audiences will be and if they’ll respond differently than those in the past, Leavitt anticipates a blend of both faithful regulars and newcomers. “Some of them will have known Dave and others won’t,” he says. “Others will only have heard of the place. We’ll have a lot of folks who have second-hand experience because they knew that their parents were always going there. And maybe some who’ve never heard of it.”
Will the subject matter be too much for those audience members who were never initiated into the world of Dave’s Sauna? “It might be a little racy, but on the whole it wouldn’t be offensive to anyone who would attend the show,” says Good Theater co-founder and artistic director Brian Allen. “It might not be appropriate to someone with little kids. But a lot of the productions we do we wouldn’t encourage people to bring little kids to anyway because they might not have the attention span for it.”
To Leavitt, while the debauchery depicted never fails to get guffaws from the audience, it isn’t the ultimate point. “Behind all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the place, if you ask any of Dave’s real customers — the people who visited over 30 years — they’ll say it was just a really welcoming place,” he explains. “Whoever you were, people always felt welcome there. I always refer to it as the Cheers of Western Maine.”
The universal appeal of that welcoming message may help with some of the challenges inherent in depicting a window onto the past to new generations. “It’s tough to get younger audiences to understand something they may not yet be familiar with — like sauna culture or that world of the late ‘70s and ‘80s and its lifestyle choices,” says Leavitt. “And there’s also just the challenge of getting anybody into musical theater these days, and making it relevant.” Other theater industry veterans echo him. “It’s always difficult finding an audience in theater these days,” says Allen. “So I think it’s wonderful seeing this happen.”
To that end, there’s plenty about the play that’s evolved for this run. “You’re always learning about what’s working and what needs more,” said Leavitt, who is also directing the May shows. “So for this time around, I fleshed out the auxiliary characters.”
That meant adding in several new songs to create multiple backstories. And then there’s also the upgraded, modernized setting and a mostly all-new cast, with members primarily hailing from greater Portland. “It’s in a big, beautiful theater now,” says Jason Iannone, one of the few cast members who has been with the production from its start, of the musical’s location at the Good Theater, which opened a year ago after a $1 million renovation. “But for people who’ve seen the show before, it has the same raucous attitude and the same theme of being yourself.”
When those doors open, Iannone anticipates Leavitt’s years of effort will pay off. “Jonathan is a relentless marketer of this show and every single production of this play has been sold out, with an enthusiastic and sometimes drunk crowd,” chuckles Iannone. “This is the first big-time production of it, and he’s out there saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got this great thing, and you’re going to enjoy it.’”
Alexandra Hall is a longtime New England lifestyle writer who lives in Maine.
IF YOU GO
“An Evening at Dave’s Sauna,” Good Theater at Stevens Square Community Center, 631 Stevens Ave., Portland. May 1-10, shows at 2 and 7 p.m. For more information or to buy tickets, visit davessauna.com.