[NEohioPAL] Review of Beck Center's "The Marvelous Wonderettes"

[Bob Abelman]

Beck Center's jukebox musical soars, despite its material 

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 9/23/11

 

Jukebox musicals-those theatrical productions that use previously released popular songs as their musical scores-are a mixed bag.  Some manage to merge brilliant, memorable music with solid storytelling.  Others, not so much.  

 

At the top of the food chain is the biographical variety of the jukebox musical, such as Jersey Boys.  Actors impersonate the actual artists (in this case, The Four Seasons) and perform their songs as accompaniment to the telling of their life stories.  

 

Down a rung or two are the musical revues.  These productions showcase the collective works of a particular composer, such as the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in the show Smokey Joe's Café, without being tied to a storyline or revealing biographical insight.   It's all about the music. 

 

The Marvelous Wonderettes, currently on stage at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, is an example of the bottom feeder of jukebox musicals: the remix narrative.  

 

Shows like this recycle popular tunes and interweave them with a skeletal storyline that is inspired by the music but has nothing at all to do with the original artists.  The appeal of a remix narrative is the nostalgia generated by the pop music of our youth.  The storyline is merely a hook on which to hang songs that otherwise have no unifying themes or connective tissue.  

 

The storyline in The Marvelous Wonderettes, written by Roger Bean, is rice paper thin.  

 

It features four female best friends who, at their 1958 senior prom, provide the evening's entertainment.  Between the performance of period songs such as "Mr. Sandman" and "Sincerely," we learn about the girls' dreams and aspirations.  Act 2 takes place at a 10-year reunion and, amidst renditions of "It's in His Kiss" and "It's My Party" among others, the girls share their achievements and disappointments.   

 

The play certainly pushes the nostalgia button for those with first-hand experience with this music and this particular strain of teenage angst, but it is also woefully predictable and frequently inane fare.  The girls' superficial and often silly musings are insufficient support for a musical-even a remix narrative jukebox musical-and their connection to the songs that spring forth without much buildup is tenuous at best and frequently forced.

 

Nonetheless, this Beck Center production of The Marvelous Wonderettes is nothing if not flat-out marvelous.  The credit clearly goes to the four performers and their wonderful, off-stage back-up band. 

 

Caitlin Elizabeth Riley, Amiee Collier, Nikki Curmaci and Theresa Kloos create distinctive, textured and abundantly appealing personas that are at once familiar and beguiling.  

 

Each of the four has a world-class singing voice that, collectively, captures the magical harmonies of the ageless classics they perform and, when placed as the lead vocal, sells these songs for all they are worth.

 

Each of the four effortlessly executes the thoroughly charming, era-appropriate dance steps created by Riley, who is credited as the show's choreographer. 

 

In short, Riley, Collier, Curmaci and Kloos are superb.  The two hour production of The Marvelous Wonderettes would seem endless in lesser hands but flies by in theirs.  The second act, which shamelessly overextends this show's precarious hook, comes across as a bonus thanks to these performers.  

 

The music provided by Karen Langenwalter on reeds, David Maxson and Jesse Fishman on guitar, Bill Hart on drums, and Larry Goodpaster and Bryan Bird on keyboards is tight, true to the original recordings, and transportive.

 

Director William Roudebush wisely stays out of the way of what by all appearances is a perpetual motion machine of a musical, requiring no winding or maintenance to run smoothly.  His initial conception and construction, and that of Ben Needham's realistic high school gym set, is more than sufficient to keep this show going and going strong.

 

The song that ends the first act of The Marvelous Wonderettes is Karen Chandler's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me."  This production, thanks to Riley, Collier, Curmaci and Kloos, does just that. 

 

The Marvelous Wonderettes runs through October 16 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.  For tickets, which range from $10-$28, call 216-521-2540 x 10 or visit www.beckcenter.org.

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20110920/8ec0764e/attachment-0003.htm>