[NEohioPAL]Berko review: AIN'T WE GOT FUN (14th St. Theatre)

[Roy Berko]

‘AIN’T WE GOT FUN!’ no fun at 14th Street Theatre

Roy Berko

(Member, Dance Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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


Halfway through the second act of ‘AIN’T WE GOT FUN!,’
now on stage at the 14th Street Theatre in Playhouse
Square, a character who is performing at a depression
era  speakeasy says, “It’s a shame there are so few of
you here tonight.”  Prophetically, the character was
correct.  The production’s audience numbered less than
15 people.  Unfortunately, based on the poor quality
of the script, the staging and the performances, not
many more should be showing up.

‘AIN’T WE GOT FUN!’ follows the love affair between
two young men from Michigan in the 1920s.  One,
intrigued by a group of men who visit the resort
community in which the boys live, follows the fellows
to Chicago where he becomes a performer at a gay
speakeasy.  As happens in all concept musicals, lovers
come and go and reunite again.

‘AIN’T WE GOT FUN!,’ was conceived by Michael McFaden
after hearing a series of gay love songs written in
the 1920s and 30s.  He started to develop the show in
May of 2003 and by November of that year he had a
workable draft. Two staged readings later, one at the
Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City, at which the
show received the Best Musical award, convinced
McFaden that the script was ready for prime time.  It
is getting its professional world premiere in
Cleveland.

I don’t know what the competition for the festival was
like, but from my perspective this is not an award
winning piece of theatre.  The story line is obvious,
it contains no high and low emotional levels and much
of the dialogue is trite and unnatural.  It also plays
up every bad stereotype of gay males.

Even if the script was excellent, the quality level of
the local production, under the off-key direction of
the author,  is poor.  The acting is mostly surface
level, and the vocal abilities of the cast are
generally shallow.  As the person sitting next to me
moaned, “This is pathetic.”

There are some positive aspects.  Alex Puette as
Benny, one of the young lovers, is a good dancer,
attractive, a more than adequate singer and is
generally believable in his acting.  Dorothy Savage is
delightful as Chloe, the naive flapper, who falls in
love with one of the young men before she realizes he
is gay.  She sings well and is Betty Bop adorable.  
Ian Atwood, as a bouncer at a gay club, sings well. 
Rose Leininger gives the right tone to the role of
Chloe, when she gets old.  Kyle Primous develops some
nice choreographic moments, but except for Puette, he
is working with performers with limited dancing
skills.

Unfortunately, Chad Moore, with a bad bleach job, is
physically wrong for the role of Oscar, who supposedly
becomes the unbelievably handsome, buffed stud
performer of the Chicago gay circuit.  He has
difficulty with the singing, dancing and acting
aspects of the role.  Neal Alan Oblonsky, complete
with a very bad make-up job, fails to make his role of
the Old Oscar credible.  Zak Hudak had a few good
moments as Miss Amanda Luze, a drag queen, but he
needed to be more naturally flamboyant, and less
screachy, to make the character soar.  The Bearcat
Boys, a quartet who both sing and play the role of
upper class bon vivants, are generally weak in their
singing, dancing and performance skills.   Of the
trio, only Mike Caraffi developed a believable
character, but he had trouble keeping his focus on
stage.  

The technical aspects of the show, especially the
scene changes, which slowed down the whole production,
were very amateurish.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:   It’s painful to review a show
with such few positives and it is even more painful to
have to discourage people from going to see a
production, but I have to call it as it is and ‘AIN’T
WE GOT FUN!’ isn’t much fun.  


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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