From
San Diego Union-Tribune - March 15, 2008
'Dancing' finds its comedic
rhythm
by: James Hebert
The song “That's Entertainment!” is an American classic; who
knew it also was the world's most potent ad jingle, or maybe some kind of
theatrical spam?
In the Old Globe Theatre's seriously fun new musical, “Dancing in the Dark,”
Patrick Page plays a suave director who seduces first a writing team, then a
leading man, then a snobby choreographer into doing a musical together, simply
by trotting out a few bars of the tune.
He could charm snakes with that number, or sell snake oil (maybe even to charmed
snakes), and writer Douglas Carter Beane does a canny job of pitching this bit
of Broadway rah-rah with both a knowing wink and an adoring grin.
In sum: “Dancing in the Dark” makes the sale. It's a bit long, the second act
starts to wander, the look is a work in progress and lead-character questions
may linger. But it'd still be a surprise not to see this show make its way to
New York, just like its own musical-within-a-musical (only with a less tortured
development process).
It works in good measure because Beane has done something stunning with Betty
Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay to the 1953 backstage musical “The Band
Wagon”: made sense of it.
Because of studio complications, the duo behind “Singin' in the Rain” never got
to finish the “Band Wagon” script, so the last part of the Vincente
Minnelli-directed movie wound up a mishmash of production numbers set to the
tunes of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz (“Dancing in the
Dark” among them).
Beane strings them into parallel love stories that are sweet and believable,
even as they hopscotch from the hokum of “Louisiana Hayride” to the can-do pep
of “A Shine on Your Shoes” to the vinegar-laced vaudeville of “Triplets.”
In one of many art-imitates-life touches, film-TV star and onetime Tony Award
nominee Scott Bakula plays Tony Hunter, a former theater type who went Hollywood
and now comes shuffling back. He gets an icy greeting in New York from his
ex-stage partners, writers Lily and Lester Marton (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller),
stand-ins of a sort for Comden and Green.
But the extravagantly vain Jeffrey Cordova (Page) insists they work together
again, and he brings in the celebrated modern dancer Gabrielle Gerard (Mara Davi)
and her Svengali of a squeeze, choreographer Paul Byrd (Sebastian La Cause).
They all make for an “A” team, as in animosity, acrimony, antipathy.
Jeffrey seals the show's doom by seizing on Lily's throwaway plot remark about a
“deal with the devil” and reconceiving the work as a wildly misguided modern
take on “Faust,” a disaster in its out-of-town tryout (though a hoot in its
brief appearance on the Globe stage).
Tony and team then have to figure out how to salvage the show, along with their
tangled relationships.
In a part played on film by Fred Astaire, Bakula – best-known for TV's “Quantum
Leap” – is less a hoofer than a journeyman entertainer, a role that fits the
laconic and likable actor well.
His voice seems better suited for belting than for the quieter tones of a tune
like “By Myself,” but Bakula has a talent for tap as well as good comic timing.
Still, he has all he can handle to match the major triple threats alongside him.
Whatever Faustian bargain director Gary Griffin might've made to get Beth Leavel,
it's worth an adjustable-rate mortgage with Old Scratch to land her as funny and
lovelorn Lily. The Tony-winner for “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a singing dream and
matches up well with Heller, who brings a needed bit of edge to the show.
Davi (another “Drowsy” alum) is also a standout, a graceful dancer and powerful
vocalist who's a good fit for the ingenue-ish Gabi. One nagging issue: When Cyd
Charisse played the part in the film, she was some 20 years younger than Astaire;
the gap between Davi and Bakula appears closer to 30 – a concern because of the
romantic story line to follow.
As impressive as this cast is, though, Page threatens to run away with the show
as the fearlessly self-beatifying Jeffrey. He gets many of the best lines, and
seems to revel in playing off his own glittering Shakespearean résumé (though he
also was the Grinch in the Globe-sprung Broadway show). This might be a
career-maker if Page wasn't so established already.
After the giddy, slap-bang pace of the first act, where Beane condenses
practically half the movie into the first couple of numbers, the second act
feels stuck in New Haven (site of an out-of-town tryout). The number “Rhode
Island Is Famous for You” is as much sight gag as song (though with seriously
witty costumes), and with a show stretching to nearly three hours this might be
a place to trim.
Throughout, Beane salts in so many great lines it seems like cheating to quote
them; the crack about fuming producers up and leaving “with both sets of books”
is just one that got big laughs on opening night.
Warren Carlyle's choreography has old-fashioned panache, and Griffin directs
with a winning sense of backstage life – check the touching scene where Jeff's
dutiful, self-effacing right-hand man, Hal (elegantly engaging Benjamin Howes),
quietly mimics the dancers' moves from just behind the curtain.
Pleading his case for one awful ballet number, Byrd (a perfectly haughty La
Cause) says critics will love it.
“But not just critics – people!”
People – and others – oughta love this show, too.
© Copyright 2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
