Coupeville Sports

 A true theater family (l to r), actress Savannah Randall, director (and mom) Elizabeth Herbert and choreographer Chelsea Randall.

It’s the truth.

“City of Angels,” a Tony-award winning musical comedy from the creator of TV landmark “M*A*S*H,” is a fast-talkin’, toe-tappin’ mash-up of private eyes, crooners and dangerous dames.

As the cast and crew at Langley’s Whidbey Island Center for the Arts prepares for the Feb. 7-22 run, dive into our four-part series that shines a spotlight on what awaits you on opening night.

“I want to see more people smoking! It was a smoking time! Well, maybe not the 15-year-olds…”

As an early rehearsal for “City of Angels” plays out in front of her, in fits and starts, director Elizabeth Herbert is an island of calm.

Low-key and serene, but quick with a subtle one-liner when she needs it (“the cast is all nice for now, but the night is young and this theater is cold”) she has the air of a woman who knows her way around a theater.

And why not? She’s spent her life in the arts.

Her father, Pitt Herbert, was a top-notch character actor, a man who went toe-to-toe onscreen with everyone from Elvis and Paul Newman to Jimmy Stewart and Adam West. She has hung out with the King, traveled with Henry Fonda and has enough tales to write a book.

And the person writing that memoir one day could be her oldest daughter, Chelsea Randall, the show’s choreographer. At the tender age of 29, she’s accomplished more than everyone reading this story, combined.

Seriously. I could write 27,903 words about her talent and accomplishment, and then get the stink-eye from her as she tries to operate on the down low, but we’ll leave it at this — she is definitely her mother’s daughter.

Bounding from her chair, Chelsea shoots under a table and fixes a dance issue (keeping two of her leads, Tristan Steel and Karla Crouch — who live in the black-and-white world — from intruding on the color world while doing a saucy, tennis-themed duet that she crafted for the play).

Like all of the other dance work on stage, it’s not in the original musical.

It’s a tribute to Fred and Ginger sprung from the madly-whirring mind of a woman who glows when talking about the upcoming “Veronica Mars” film or looking at a picture of a cast member’s new pet pot belly pig, yet flicks away talk of her dance prodigy days or her time pitching screenplays in Hollywood.

“Small steps. Big emotion but small steps. DO NOT cross that line. Do … not.”

As her actors let the words sink in, and then nail the dance impressively, Chelsea is already hitting a musical cue, flipping through the script and grabbing at least one sip of coffee, all in the exact same moment.

The person who brought her that coffee, younger sister Savannah Randall, is on stage, effortlessly gliding through the multiple characters she plays, until a coat rack decides to fall at the wrong moment.

The “great coat rack kerfuffle,” as it is tagged by the director, forces a re-start on the scene.

But again, as the pieces start to come together and head towards what will be a highly-polished affair come opening night, the mother-daughter team of Herbert and Randall, working with musical director Shelia Weidenforf, have an uncanny ability to know when to coddle and when to apply a (light but firm) hand.

A mysterious character hides in the shadows, dialing a phone, up to no good.

As he does so, Randall does several laps around WICA’s theater, fixing multiple small issues with a quick flick of a wrist, then settling back down next to her mom, who leans forward and studies the actor.

Herbert imparts a brief bit of character development, then slowly arches an eyebrow as she watches the moment play out.

“Do something creepy. Yeah … maybe not that creepy. We want the audience to stay in the theater.”

Next, in the final part of our series, meet The Usual Suspects, the men and women who make up the cast of “City of Angels.”

To buy tickets head over to: http://wicaonline.com/2013-2014/CITYOFANGELS.html