"Dames at Sea” is a mid-1960s musical trifle that works overtime to be
cheeky good fun. Thanks to a cast with twinkle-toes and polished pipes,
it succeeds — for a while. Before long, though, monotony sets in and
won’t go away. Even top-notch tap-dancing can get repetitive.
George Haimsohn, Robin Miller and Jim Wise created the show as a broad
parody and packed it with chipper pastiche songs. The plot gleefully
serves one cliche after another.
It’s all about spoofing lavish 1930s
movie musicals in which a girl instantly goes from rube to riches.
Enter Ruby (Eloise Kropp) fresh off the bus in Times Square from Utah.
She’s got nothing but dancing shoes and a hunger for fame. She’s also
just hungry. She hasn’t eaten in days.
In no time flat Ruby gets a job from theater producer Hennesey (John
Bolton), a snack from chorus girl Joan (Mara Davi), love and the tender
ballad “It’s You” from sailor-songwriter Dick (Cary Tedder), and help
from Dick’s Navy pal Lucky (Danny).
All good. But then Ruby gets the stink-eye and worse from ego-mad star
Mona Kent (Lesli Margherita), who puts her paws on Dick and “It’s You.”
Will Ruby get to shine on stage? Will the show even open? Will there be a
happy ending and three brides in white? One guess. If it sounds a lot
like “42nd Street,” that’s because that 1980 show traces the same turf.
“Dames at Sea” launched in 1966 on a tiny Off-Off-Broadway stage with a
couple pianos. It put Bernadette Peters, who played Ruby, on the map.
Now on Broadway for the first time, in this revival choreographed and
directed by Randy Skinner, the cast is still small but the production
values are beefed up.
In some ways, this “Dames at Sea” mirrors what it’s lampooning, so it’s
neither fish nor fowl. Put another way, “Dames at Sea” doesn’t make a
big splash or sink. It treads water.
No comments:
Post a Comment