Joel Kipper, a producer at Theatre by the Sea in Matunuck, rehearses for the lead in George M!, opening in previews Wednesday.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

As managing producer of Theatre by the Sea, Joel Kipper has his work cut out for him. He’s in charge of all things technical.

But now he is also wearing a second hat. Kipper, 28, is starring in the theater’s upcoming production of George M!, the 1960s Broadway tribute to Rhode Island-born song and dance man George M. Cohan. The show opens in previews Wednesday.

“It’s a bit of a balancing act,” said Kipper, who’s had to cut back on his producing duties while rehearsing. “If it were last year, when we had a skeleton crew, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Kipper has been able to hand over some of his responsibilities to right-hand man Ryan P. McGinty, the theater’s production manager.

“He’s really stepping up,” he said.

But Kipper still spends a couple of hours a day in the office before rehearsals and returns at night to check messages.

The other day, he had to deal with telephone problems at the theater’s restaurant and get the air conditioner fixed at the rehearsal hall in Wakefield.

Otherwise, he is spending his days rehearsing the part of Cohan, trying to get his singing and dancing chops back in shape. It has been almost two years since Kipper was last on stage, and he realized he was no longer in “show shape.” After his first day of rehearsal last week, he said his dancing legs felt like “concrete.”

“You can get on a treadmill and go jogging seven days a week,” said Kipper, “but dancing is different, because it’s high-energy and fast-paced all within about 90 seconds.

“But I feel better and better each day.”

It was producing artistic director Amiee Turner, director of George M!, who suggested that Kipper consider the lead in the show. The two had worked together often in Florida before coming to Rhode Island to form a partnership with Bill Hanney, Theatre by the Sea’s new owner.

Kipper had been cast in the role of Cohan several years before at another theater, but the show was scrapped after the producers changed the season. Now Turner was telling him he’d be perfect for the Matunuck production.

“We talked about it for a long time,” said Kipper. “Not that I didn’t think I could do it, but now I’m a producer.

“So we kind of made a deal that if we went to New York and didn’t see anyone who was at least as good as she perceives my talents to be, I’d do it.”

Actually, the production end of the business is relatively new to Kipper, who has done a little stage managing but has basically been an actor since graduating in musical theater performance from Southwest Missouri State.

“I literally graduated at 4:20 on a Friday and at 5:30 got in my truck and went to my first theater gig,” he said. “And I’ve been theater hopping ever since.”

His regional credits in 2005 included Cats, Singing in the Rain and A Chorus Line. Kipper was only out of work two weeks that season.

“I was really in good dance shape. I was working out three times a week and really in that actor-taking-care-of-himself mentality.”

But in the spring of 2006, Kipper was sidelined for a while after having a tumor removed. He waited tables in Florida after that. His last performance was in August 2006. Then Matunuck came along (the theater is producing its first full season this summer after being closed for several years), and he has been busy running a subscription renewal campaign, hiring a tech crew and making sure the 75-year-old theater is shipshape.

“It’s one of those things where I’ve never owned a house of my own. We got here last year and I was having to learn all these things about phone lines and computer systems, because I’ve been an actor all my life.”

Kipper has no problem fixing the phone, though. It was never his dream to end up on Broadway. He’s always just wanted to make a living in theater, he said, doing whatever came along, whether that’s portraying King Lear or working as a scenic carpenter.

Kipper got his start in performing at the age of 8 as a member of the award-winning Kansas City Klogghoppers in his native Missouri. Clogging is a form of folk dancing that draws on the Irish jig, Canadian step, tap and square dancing. Kipper clogged competitively until he went to college, where he took classes in ballet, modern dance and tap.

He also took formal voice lessons at that point, and began honing his acting skills in preparation for a career in musical theater. For a young actor just starting out, there are more opportunities in musical theater, he said.

And all of those skills are called upon in George M!, where Kipper is on stage for just about the entire show.

George M! depicts the rags-to-riches story of Cohan, who was born in Providence in 1878 to a family of vaudevillians. When he was old enough, Cohan joined his parents and older sister in an act that toured the country. He proved a skilled dancer and composer, and by his mid-20s began writing shows that changed the face of American musical comedy. At the height of his career he was known as “the man who owned Broadway.”

The show takes us up to 1937, when Cohan had a part in the play I’d Rather Be Right. He died of cancer in 1942 at the age of 64.

Among the musical hits in the show are “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Over There” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

George M! debuted on Broadway in 1968, with Joel Grey in the lead and a 20-year-old Bernadette Peters playing Cohan’s sister, Josie.

Most people know of Cohan’s remarkable rise to fame from the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney.

But the musical is largely unknown, said Kipper, which is one reason Theatre by the Sea decided to tackle it.

“We started talking about it,” said Kipper, “and said how cool would it be to do a show about a Rhode Islander around the Fourth of July.” Cohan is best known for his patriotic songs.

“It’s a family show that everybody can come to. And if we do our jobs right, I think the audience will leave with a smile on its face and say they had a really good time.

“And at the end of the day, that’s what theater is all about.”

George M! opens in previews Wednesday and runs through July 12. Tickets to preview performances, Wednesday and Thursday, are $35, with all other performances $39-$49. Call (401) 782-8587.

cgray@projo.com