[NEOPAL]Berko review: Dr. Dolittle (Palace)

Roy Berko royberko at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 22 20:10:49 PDT 2006


‘DR. DOLITTLE’ may please some of the kids, but......

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

During Tommy Tune’s curtain call speech following his
‘DR. DOLITTLE’ performance at Playhouse Square’s
Palace Theatre, he thanked John Kenley.  Kenley, the
100  year-old theatrical legend, who was the guiding
light behind the Kenley Players, gave Tune his first
professional theatrical job.  Tune, originally a
chorus boy, went on to star not only in Kenley
productions, but on Broadway.  

It was appropriate that Tune mentioned Kenley, for
‘DR. DOLITTLE’ is much like a typical Kenley Players
show.  It is long on a star performer and short on
quality.

Based on Leslie Bricusse's Oscar-winning film, the
stage musical has had a checkered existence.  For some
inexplicable reason the show, which opened in 1998 to
a generally positive reaction, was totally redone for
the US audience. 

For the tour and projected Broadway run, Jim Henson's
Creature Shop was brought in to conceive the animals. 
Henson’s company is world-renowned for bringing
inanimate objects to life through computer technology,
cable control and hand puppetry.  Creature Shop
produced a live-action Pushmi-Pully dancing two-headed
llama, a parrot, a dog, a monkey, a giant pink sea
snail and a 14-foot flying lunar moth.

The US tour opened in Pittsburgh in August of 2005 to
tepid reviews and closed in Hershey, PA on October 2
due to “slow ticket sales.”  Since it was listed on so
many national theatre packages, such as Cleveland’s
Broadway Series, an effort was made to resurrect the
vehicle.  Enter....Tommy Tune, the National Medal of
Arts and nine time Tony winning actor, singer, dancer
and director.  The show was rewritten and Tune assumed
not only the leading role but became the director. 

Tune recast the show, selecting Clevelander Dee Hoty
to play his love interest.  Hoty is a three-time Tony
winner.  Twelve-year-old Aaron Burr was picked to play
Chee-Chee the monkey.  Burr recently won the Greatest
Dancer competition on ABC’s "Good Morning America.”

Based on "The Doctor Dolittle Stories" by Hugh
Lofting, the tale concerns a Pouddelby, England
people-doctor turned veterinarian.  He finds himself 
on trial,  accused of murder.  Insisting that he can
actually talk to animals, the doctor defends himself
against charges that he threw an unknown woman off a
cliff to her death, contending that he was following
the wishes of a seal who wanted to return to her
fiance in the North Pole. With only his faithful
parrot, Polynesia (the finest animal linguist in the
world), a neighbor who dislikes him, and a menagerie
of animals to support his story, Dolittle is somehow
believed.  He decides to leave the area and go on a
search for the wondrous giant pink sea snail and
return the monkey (Che-Che) to his native environs. 
(Okay, ‘LES MISERABLES’ or ‘CHORUS LINE’ this isn’t.)

It would be nice to say the whole thing works. 
Unfortunately, it doesn’t.  The production often looks
like it was developed to go from one Tune dance number
to another, with little glue holding the whole thing
together.  To make things worse, the production
qualities are poor.  The sets are mostly cheap looking
drops.  The special effects go awry.  On opening night
the flying moth didn’t work as intended.  On the
second night the curtain call was delayed because of
technical problems.  And, even the choreography is
wanting.  The dance routines  gets boring after a
while due to repeated movements.

Tune, at age 66, still dances up a storm and his
singing voice is more than adequate.  Hoty is
excellent.  The puppets are fun and the score is
pleasant (“Talk To The Animals,” “I”ve Never Seen
Anything Like It,” and “Something in Your Smile.”).
“Monkey Monkey Island Dance” was the standout
production number.   Unfortunately, the whole thing
just doesn’t hold together.

My grandson, 9 year-old Noah Berko, who attended the
production with me, serving as the voice for the
children who might attend, thought a lot of things in
the show were “fun.”  He especially liked the monkey
(Aaron Burr), the flying moth on which Tune floated
above the stage, and the monkey dance.  He liked the
goings-on a lot more than his grandpa.  But, you must
understand that he was sipping a strawberry slushy in
a cocktail glass and being fussed over by the nice
ladies sitting next to him who kept telling him how
cute he was, so he may have been distracted.  

Capsule judgment:   ‘DR. DOLITTLE’ is just not ready
for prime time.  I’m not sure that it ever will be
without a drastic redo of the redo.

‘DR. DOLITTLE’ runs through  April 30 at the Palace
Theatre in Playhouse Square.  For tickets call
216-241-6000, 800-766-6048 or go on line to
www.playhousesquare.com.


Roy Berko's web page can be found at www.royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.

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