a triple shot of Joe

The city of Fort Myers hasn't declared a Joe DiPietro Day, nor are they giving him a key to the city, but Joe DiPietro doesn't mind. He has something better: he just hit the theatrical trifecta.

Three of his shows are being performed in town this season. In fact, if you plan it right, you can see all three within a two-week period in April.

While his show "All Shook Up" is playing at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater through April 11 (book by Mr. DiPietro, music by Elvis), his comic thriller, "The Art of Murder," opens at the Florida Repertory Theatre March 20 while "The Last Romance," slated to run immediately after, is in rehearsals.

It's every playwright's dream.

Mr. DiPietro is thrilled Florida Rep's doing two shows back-toback. "It's unusual for any writer to have that, so I'm very grateful," he says.

"You can't plan this stuff. You write what you write and you hope folks like it. The first thing, you have to hope there's a producer somewhere that wants to produce it in a theater."

Clockwise from the top, "All Shook Up," "The Art of Murder" and "Last Romance," all shows by Joe DiPietro, play in town this month.

And Bob Cacioppo, Florida Rep's artistic producing director, did.

In the 2000-2001 season he also produced two of Mr. DiPietro's plays: a comedy called "Over the River and Through the Woods" (yes, about grandparents), and "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," a comedic musical for which Mr. DiPietro wrote the book and lyrics. The two have kept in touch ever since.

"Bob's great," he says. "He called me out of the blue. I so admire anyone who can make a regional theater run, especially in these economic times. Anyone I know who's a successful artistic director has a passion and a love for it that overcomes all obstacles. I'm essentially a theater animal, and Bob is too."

Mr. DiPietro's currently rehearsing a new show, "The Toxic Avenger," a musical based on a 1984 movie in which a vat of toxic nuclear waste turns a 90 pound weakling into a superhero. He collaborated with David Bryan of Bon Jovi, who wrote the music.

"It's campy," he says. "It's a big ole five-person musical, a big ole comedy. It definitely is very much theater of the ridiculous."

His play, "The Art of Murder," which opens at Florida Rep March 20, is also a comedy.

"Everything I write has a healthy dose of comedy," he says. "I wrote it in the tone of the classic theatrical murder mysteries I grew up on: 'Deathtrap,' 'Sleuth.' They're mysteries, but there's also a lot of comedy to them too.

"I think the tone of any show is important, getting the tone right. I was talking with Bob about 'The Art of Murder' — his production. His whole thing is making sure that there wasn't too much comedy, that the mystery and thriller aspect of it was front and center. It's a constant juggling act."

The play is about a world-famous painter, Jack Brooks (Tom Nowicki), who wants to kill his art dealer, Vincent (Chris Clavelli). Rachel Burttram stars as Jack's wife, and Jessica Leach plays the maid.

The play received an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play in 2000.

"I was stunned to receive the Edgar Award," Mr. DiPietro says "I had never written a mystery before, and this was the big mystery award. I was stunned and couldn't have been happier.

"I just really love the form of these mystery plays, and there aren't a lot of them written any more. They went out of style with critics and producers, though audiences love them. And I love them. So I just thought, 'Let's see if I can do one.'"

Mr. DiPietro likes to play around with different genres.

"Some playwrights write the same play," he says, adding, "I don't mean that in a negative way. Tennessee Williams wrote the same play, and Williams did it brilliantly, and the late Horton Foote did it beautifully. When you're seeing a Tennessee Williams play, you know you're seeing a Tennessee Williams play.

"I just like to try new approaches to various types of plays and musicals too. It's a restlessness in my writing. Once I do one thing, I don't like to repeat myself."

That's why he's written, among other things, a romantic musical comedy, a mystery, a science fiction spoof, an adaptation of a German comedy film and a campy re-telling of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," set in the 1950s.

COURTESY PHOTO "All Shook Up's" Andy and Patrice.

"While I do very much care about what the audience thinks," he says, "I try not to think about what they'll think about the style I'm writing: a mystery, a comedy, a musical, or something more dramatic. Because once you get that in your mind, 'This is what my audience wants to see,' it just drives you insane. Do you repeat yourself, or do you try something else?"

Actors can run into that problem too, he says, being typecast in a certain role. Sometimes they're so identified with a particular role that audiences won't accept them in a different one.

"The same thing can happen with writing, but I think the lesson is, don't worry about it. I don't think about the audience when I'm writing, but I do think very about the audience in that I want every show to entertain them."

His second play this season at Florida Rep, "The Last Romance," is about two people who fall in love in their golden years. It stars Barbara Bradshaw and David S. Howard, who was last seen in "Indian Blood" and "Visiting Mr. Green." This is the show's second production in the U.S. It was first produced in Kansas City at the New Theatre Restaurant in the fall.

Jessica Leach, Rachel Burttram and Tom Nowicki of "Art of Murder."

"It's about two people who meet later in life and fall in love," he says. "Essentially, they get a shot at romance. But there are complicated family issues. With Italians, there's always a complication. It's a comedy/drama, bittersweet. Bob (Cacioppo) read it and said, 'I want to do it.'"

Mr. DiPietro, who grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University. He'd majored in English, so he grabbed a job in advertising, and wrote plays on the side.

His friends would call and ask him, "What are you doing?" and he'd say, "I'm writing." They'd smile and say, "That's nice," or tease him and call him "Shakespeare."

"Writing is a solitary, personal act; people look at you strangely when you do it, and no one's interested in your writing," he says. "They wonder: why aren't you out having a good time like the rest of us?

"The attention span of a person in their 20s is not great, but then, it's like any other art form. No one gives you permission to do it. You need to want to do it. Something inside you needs to drive you to do it. I think every artistic person has something inside. I definitely have a need or predisposition to write, and I write a lot.

"I had the energy of youth, and the naiveté of youth. You have to believe in yourself. Self-doubt is very prominent in us all. I love writing plays so much, and I was going to do this. I didn't think if I would make a living at it."

His father was a banker, his mother a housewife. But they were very supportive of him, he says.

Working in advertising helped his play writing.

"It taught me to work on deadline," he says. "It taught me that you have to sit down every day and do. I give myself deadlines, if I'm working on a new piece."

He soon discovered that writing lyrics was similar to writing ads.

"You have to write very succinctly," he says. "Every word counts. The ads are so short. Lyrics are like that. Plays are too, to an extent, but in lyric writing, every syllable counts."

The theater writing finally paid off. His musical, "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" hit a chord with people. It ran off-Broadway for 12 years, for 5,003 shows, and has productions all over the world. Locally, Florida Rep has produced it, as did the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, the Naples Dinner Theatre, and the Naples Players.

And Mr. DiPietro's work has been recognized by more than happy audiences. In addition to the Edgar Award, he received the William Inge Theater Festival New Voices Theater Award and the O'Neill National Playwright's Conference MacArthur Award for comic writing.

Mr. DiPietro will visit Fort Myers to see "The Art of Murder" at Florida Rep and answer questions after the April 8 performance. He'll also sit in on a rehearsal of "The Last Romance."

He's looking forward to the experience.

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY "Art of Murder's" Chris and Rachel.

"In theater, you want all types of actors to interpret your work in different ways, and hopefully the material can bear many different interpretations," he says. "Invariably, I'll see something that I wrote, and someone will say a line or there'll be a moment in the play that is exactly how I wrote it, and the inflection is not what I had imagined, and it will knock my ears off.

"If you're writing things that people can relate to, actors, directors, designers, they're going to interpret it in their own experience, so that's what makes it so exciting for me. I love that."

If you go

>>What: "The Art of Murder" >>When: March 20-April 12 >>Where: The Florida Repertory Theatre, Bay Street between Hendry and Jackson at the Arcade Theatre in downtown Fort Myers >>Cost: $20, $35 and $39 >>Information: Call 332-4488 or go to www. floridarep.org

.. If you go

>>What: "The Last Romance" >>When: April 24 - May 17 >>Where: The Florida Repertory Theatre, Bay Street between Hendry and Jackson at the Arcade Theatre in downtown Fort Myers >>Cost: $20, $35 and $39 >>Information: Call 332-4488 or go to www. floridarep.org

COURTESY PHOTO "All Shook Up" with Mike.

.. If you go

>>What: "All Shook Up" >>When: through April 11 >>Where: The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 1380 Colonial Blvd. >>Cost: $25 to $53 >>Information: Call 278-4422 or go to www. broadwaypalm.com