WPCNR STAGE DOOR. Theatrical review by John F Bailey. April 2, 2011:
This is easy.
Singin in the Rain is a Rave.
Drop what you're doing, Mr. and Mrs.Westchester and Mr. and Mrs. Manhattan, too.
Pick up that I-Phone, or have your girl dial Westchester Broadway Theatre or jump their website www.broadwaytheatre.com for ducats to experience WBT’S “smashville and beyond” revival of Singin’ in the Rain, before every family, every community group, every young couple and all of those Manhattanites hear of this show.
It’s the most entertaining, lavish, technically brilliant,show this reviewer has ever experienced at the WBT. Yeah, yeah, I say that every new show, but Mr. and Mrs. Westchester, it’s true! They set a new standard every show. Bill Stutler and Bob Funking, the owners have a honey here.
Singin’ has everything you want.
It's got a long-stemmed star you want to duet with, Shannon O’Bryan (above)as Kathy Seldon, with Co-heart throb, Jeremy Benton (here singing You Were Meant for Me, as star-struck innocent in Tinseltown to be in the movies. All Photos courtesy Westchester Broadway Theatre by John Vecchiolla
It’s got a dashing leading man Jeremy Benton as Don Lockwood, dancing and singin' in real rain, above.Benton is the Douglas Fairbanksie star who falls for the lovely.
It’s got Allie Schauer,(white dress) a comedienne colorata as glamorous, voice-that-could-break-glass silent actress Lina Lamont whose transition to talkees (sound pictures) gives the ingénue Kathy Seldon her chance in a voice over laugh-riot. It's even got movies in the show.
It’s got a supporting cast of A-list professionals quipping their funny lines seamlessly with characterizations you believe.
It's colorful, dazzling every scene.
Its songs melt hearts:
Mr. Benton’s You Stepped Out of Dream (which you never hear any more and no one does but should), strums and loosens tight heart strings. Men will recognize exactly what he means when they hear him sing You Stepped Out of a Dream. Mr. Benton sings the feelings dreams are dreamed of.
Ms.O’Bryan’s You Are My Lucky Star shimmers with warmth and sincerity awakening the thrill of romance in every woman of what a gorgeous hunk does for you. O’Bryan and Benton’s duet on You Were Meant for Me, sparks so much romance, the delightful leads' chemistry is connected throughout the show. They’re good together. Really good. You believe they have a thing goin' on.
But that’s not all Singin’ in the Rain has got.
It’s got more dancing feet, dancing more dances than you’d see on 42nd Street.
Each dance different with a plot purpose (and some that don’t seem to be in there because they like to dance them). Man, this cast loves doing this show. You feel it. Everybody appears to be having great fun in this baby.
Singin revives the musical version of the hit movie starring Gene Kelly in Mr. Benton’s role and Debbie Reynolds in the Shannon O’Bryan role. The musical opened on Broadway in 1985. It captures the atmosphere of 1920s Hollywood so dead-on you would think it was written in that era. But it was not.
If you’re a movie fan, you’ll be thrilled with the pictures of Hollywood this production paints. This is the time when stars were idolized and premiers of motion pictures were described with live coverage on the radio. When producers lived in mansions overlooking the Pacific and ruled with absolute power. When stars were Gods.
From the opening scene at Grauman’s Chinese Theater with celebrities Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin, and others arriving, it just grabs you by the glamour. Here, Cody Singer as Cosmo Brown; Mike Singer as the wonderfully comic director,Roscoe Dexter, Karen Webb as Dora Bailey, gossip columnist at the microphone arrive for the premier with William McCauley, the producer of Monument Pictures with his star, Lina Lamont, (Allie Schauer) Ms. Webb is a ringer for Hedda Hopper, the gossipist of the past.
Mr. Benton, playing Lockwood, the matinee idol of formula silent swashbuckler films (a la Douglas Fairbanks) is chased by adoring fans from the premier. You’re drawn hopelessly into the show lost in the glamour, the tinsel, the hopes, the search for the happy ending.
As Lockwood is chased into a park, he spies Ms. O’Bryan as Kathy Seldon sitting on a bench. In a brief embrace with her, he escapes his comely pursuers. But Ms. Seldon, indignant, rebuffs his feigned embrace. She professes she is going to New York to go on the stage which is real acting. Benton’s Lockwood is both indignant and smitten. A female who is indifferent to him and proud at the same time. They part, but dear audience, and men, we know Mr. Lockwood is hooked.
Ms O'Brady pops out of cake
Next stop the palatial mansion of producer of Monument Studios, R.F. Simpson, blusterously played in high mogul by William McCauley who gives the R.F.character a William Randolph Hearst/Cecil B. DeMille sendup all in one. Master of timing, McCauley delivers his laughs. Benton as Lockwood is stunned when Ms. Seldon pops out of a birthday cake, prompting the first splendid song of da show, You Stepped Out of A Dream.
Between the developing romance of star and ingénue, we are entertained by Cosmo Brown, “Donald O’Connor-ed” wonderfully by Cody Williams in the seldom-heard Make ‘Em Laugh flashing back to when Lockwood and Brown were a team in the dance number Fit as a Fiddle.
Cody Williams (as Cosmo Brown), Tim Dolan, Andy Geary with Alexa Glover
Making her first appearance as a featured dancer is Alexa Glover as a willowy burlesque artist, who also returns to please the audience with her steal-the-stage presence in the number, Act II's Broadway Melody as The Girl in Green. A vision to watch, she is poetry in beauty who dazzles the eye with her fluent precision and passionate sophistication.
Enter the Talkees…not good if your voice is like cracked glass.
When Lina Lamont – HollywoodLand's romantic lead with Mr. Benton’s Lockwood makes her first talkee, her excruciating voice is deemed in preview to be a disaster. At Lockwood’s mansion, the two sweethearts, Lockwood and Seldon with Cosmo hit upon the idea of Ms. O’Bryan’s dubbing onto Ms. Lamont’s voice to save The Dueling Cavalier movie
The Gene Kelly Moment
Mr. Benton takes Ms. O’Bryan home, and struck by his love for her he delivers a lively, perfect song and dance in rain that is real, singing and dancing Singin in the Rain.
Who needs Gene Kelly when you have Mr. Benton? His nuances are subtle, ease of step and lilt of voice and carefree manner and sureness of foot, and lighthearted performance makes every man’s heart remember how it feels when you love a woman and can think of nothing or no one else. It’s why that scene of Mr. Kelly’s so famous.
Warning to the front row: Mr. Bention has fun splashing through the rain drops. There are no off-color words in this show, so it is all right to take the kids.
How does stage set designer, WBT’s wizard of special effects, Steve Loftus create real rain indoors? You’ll just have to come and see the show.
Schauer Steals the Show.
Ms. Schauer is all laughs and diva in her role as the plotting actress Lina Lamont. A friend familiar with the movie paid Ms. Schauer a compliment, saying Schauer was dead-on on her portrayal of Lamont’s voice and mannerisms as acted by Jean Hagan in the original Singin in the Rain movie. That’s preparation!
Schauer negotiated the villainess/plotting star role, stealing the show in Act II with her bring-down-the-house delivery of What’s Wrong with Me?
Other highlights, (and this is a highlight reel musical, folks) are Moses Supposes, a dance routine with Mr. Benton and Cody Williams mocking Ms. Lamont’s diction coach – filled with fast, fast, fast delivery of impossible puns-- a tour de force by Williams and Benton. Not to be given any less notice is the dubbing scene in Act II and the ingenious finale where Lamont’s plot to take over Monumental Pictures seems about to be achieved.
A First Act Highlight in over-the-top production: Beautiful Girls with Con O'Shea Creal doing the honors. Busby Berkeleying, Ziegfieldesque, classic musical number lovingly, smashingly danced.
Will Kathy Seldon and Don Lockwood have their happy ending? Will Lamont be foiled against all odds? How would HollywoodLand handle it?
The production makes extensive use of film on the WBT’s video screens to show hilarious clips of Ms. Schauer as the prima donna, Lina Lamont, playing actual black and white silent movie scenes shot for the show, with Mr. Benton as Don Lockwood and Schauer in their 18th century costumes. The movie screen interludes are new to this version of WBT’s Singin in the Rain and is an ongoing comic highlight.
When Lina Lamont is shown on film talking and singing with Ms. O’Brady doing her voice, it is a live stage triumph for WBT. A Special effect flawlessly staged live!
The orchestra under Jeff Daniels lays a bed that perfectly showcases the singers and pounds out the taps and trots and melodies seamlessly. The dancers—what can I say? Kudos to a great team effort.
Don't take my word for it -- the bravos and whoops and sustained applause after this 2-1/2 hour show said more than I can ever write about it.
Benton and O'Brady front and center.
WBT has never put on a more engaging opening to closing entertainment than this show, and I have seen these for eleven years now. I have to say that WBT in this era of cutbacks is sparing no expense to deliver perhaps the best entertainment value in the metropolitan area reviving this classic. And you get dinner and parking free!
They’ll be Singin’ in the Rain through June. And in case you want to punch it up on your I-Phone the box office is 914-592-2222. The web is www.broadwaytheatre.com
