[NEohioPAL] Review of "Xanadu" at the Beck Center for the Arts

[Bob Abelman]

Beck Center's 'Xanadu': Loved it. Seriously

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 9/21/12

 

 

When reviews come out in the morning papers after a Broadway show's opening night, it is typical for the theater's marketing team to place an ad in the trade publications emblazoned with critics' superlatives.  When the musical "Xanadu" premiered in 2007, expectations were so low that the ad simply read:  "The critics loved it. Seriously."

 

"Xanadu's" source material was the outrageously bad 1980 movie of the same name, which featured the inept yet adorable pop-singer Olivia Newton-John and the sadly faded hoofer Gene Kelly.  Newton-John played the Greek muse Clio, who descends in disguise from Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach, California, to inspire a struggling artist named Sonny to create a roller disco. Kelly played the businessman, Danny, who stands in their way despite having been visited by this same muse in his youth.  

 

The kitschy, overproduced and poorly acted film was an embarrassment and a box office flop.   So too, thought naysayers, would this on-stage incarnation.

 

To everyone's surprise, the Broadway show's brazen self-awareness of its origin's putridity placed the superficial 1980s, the movie's absurd storyline, and its cache of synthetic pop hits-such as "Have You Never Been Mellow," "I'm Alive," and "Strange Magic"-in just the right comical context and with the perfect amount of over-the-top parody.   The show was a hit.

 

Upon the announcement of Beck Center's production of "Xanadu," expectations were once again low due to an absolutely horrific national tour of the show that blew through Cleveland in 2010.  So bad was that production, with its uninspired performers and their half-hearted performances, that one review in the morning papers renamed the show "Xana-don't" (yes, that was mine) and others weren't nearly as kind.

 

The Beck Center production, seen during the opening weekend's Sunday matinee, is absolutely wonderful and a raging success.  Seriously.

 

Filled with triple threat performers who sing marvelously, dance beautifully, and have impeccable comic timing with an ear for parody, the Beck Center stage comes alive and sustains its high energy self-deprecation throughout the one-act production.  

 

The adorable Kathleen Rooney, as Clio, has the chops to belt out the majority of the show's songs, carry its creative choreography while on roller skates, and mock Olivia Newton-John's pseudo-sexual breathlessness with aplomb.

 

Rooney is surrounded by an equally stellar cast.  

 

As the two muses who try to sabotage Clio's efforts by making her fall in love with Sonny and thereby lose her status as a goddess, Amiee Collier and Leslie Andrews are brilliant.  Everything they do-from the outrageousness infused into their anthem "Evil Woman" to their non-stop, uninhibited playfulness-adds an entire layer of hilarity to the proceedings. 

 

Although the other four muse sisters are less featured, Kathleen Ferrini and Maggie Stahl are no less entertaining or imaginative and the cross-dressing Ben Donahoo and Matthew Ryan Thompson manage laughs where, on paper, there are none.  Donahoo and Thompson are also the only members of the ensemble genuinely impressive (and not absolutely terrified) on roller skates during the show's grand finale, and Thompson's dance performance during the fantasy number "Whenever You're Away From Me" is flat-out spectacular.

 

Sam Wolf, as Sonny, and Greg Violand, as Danny, hold up their end beautifully.  They capture the superficiality and greed of the 1980s, respectively, and do so with incredible charm, appeal, and loads of talent.  

 

The real muses in this production are director Scott Spence, whose sense of humor is imprinted in every moment of every scene; choreographer Martín Céspedes, whose sense of movement and cinematic vision captures all that was wrong about the film and right in the Broadway production; and music director Larry Goodpaster, who masterfully replicates with a team of five what the Electric Light Orchestra required seven to achieve.    

 

By all means, Xana-do.

 

"Xanadu" runs through October 14 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.    For tickets, which range from $17 to $28, call 216-521-2540 x10 or visit www.beckcenter.org.

 
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