This isn’t the first time Rea has
collaborated with her husband.
The couple, who lives in Haw-
thorne, first met while working on
a project together. Rea had been
out on the road doing a tour of
Tommy and wanted to get an al-
bum of hers produced. A mutual
friend suggest Rick as the pro-
ducer and the two of them got
together to discuss the project.
“He talked his way out of doing
the album and asked me out on
a date,” recalled Rea. “Later on
we collaborated on it. He’s like,
‘You’re no dummy. You knew I’d
do it for free if you went out with
me!’ But Hit Her with the Skates
was the first time writing musical
theatre together.”
Rea knew husband was per-
fect for the project because he
understands all of the different
genres in the show. She was able
to simply describe the character
and give Rick an idea of what
type of musical signature she
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 4
envisioned and he knew exactly
what to come up with whether
it was genres as varied as doo-
wop or punk rock or disco.
“That’s what I loved as a kid
in 1979 going to the rink,” said
Rea. “You could be out on the
floor dancing to a Bee Gee’s
tune and the next song was from
the Ohio Players. The same
people who were dancing to the
disco tune would be slow danc-
ing to ‘Beth’ by Kiss. There was
something great about this time
in U.S. history.”
The show has steadily moved
forward since Rea invited some
friends to her living room to hear
the play read for the first time.
Each reading helped them learn
a bit more about the play, tweak
it, and see how it worked with
a revision. After the play’s last
industry reading last year, they
knew that it had come as far as it
could go. It needed to be staged
to move forward on the path to
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