This is the local premiere of a musical by playwright Nagle Jackson,
author of A Hotel on Marvin Gardens, and Robert Sprayberry based on
the 1935 novel by Horace McCoy which Sydney Pollack turned into a popular
movie in 1969 staring Jane Fonda. Following this run, the production will
travel to Yaroslavl, Russia, to perform as part of the Seventh International
Theatre Festival at the Volkov Theatre. The piece is tremendously
challenging for a collegiate company, and director Gail Humphries Mardirosian's forces make a game try to deliver its many songs, perform its
many dances and make the book scenes in-between convincing. By the second
act, however, they seem to run out of steam long before the contestants in
the dance marathon approach their second month of nearly non-stop dancing.
Storyline: The focus of this musical set in a dance marathon during the
great depression is on six couples who keep on dancing for over a month in a
fixed contest on a pier in Venice, California in the deepest days of
the Great Depression, when dancing for fifty minutes an hour, twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week was one way to be able to eat and perhaps win a
cash prize.
Jackson and Sprayberry have written a
complex, challenging and demanding musical that would tax the capacities of
many professional companies. The score includes ballads, big-band pop songs,
vaudeville routines, production numbers and, of course, dance pieces. There
are eighteen different songs delivered by nearly a dozen different members
of the cast. Some, require strong voices, others require solid comic
timing and still others call for tricky collaboration. The book attempts to
create no fewer than thirteen distinct characters, each with their own
backgrounds, fears and hopes.
Practically every member of the principal
cast at least begins strong, and each works hard to maintain the intensity.
However, it takes extraordinary skill to perform fatigue with the intensity
of a highly dramatic moment, and that is what each is called upon to do as
the evening moves on. Among those who do the best job of it are Benjamin Naramore, as the marathon's sleazy master of ceremonies, and Josh Lortie, as
his assistant on roller-skates. Katie Brobst, as the blond who would rather
be shot than fail to win fame and stardom, and Josh Sticklin, as her
idealistic farm boy of a dancing partner are also quite good. Two couples of note are Barron
John Weyerhauser and Cee-Cee Swalling, as a pair who have won marathons
before, and Mark C. Almy and Audrie Fennecken, as professional marathoners
with a striking specialty number. Jeannie Hosler's performance as a country
girl whose pregnancy becomes clear as the contest continues gets better as
the evening goes on.
The cast certainly has all the support of a
quality production. The set is impressive, the costumes and lighting design
are
first rate, and the six-piece on-stage band is sharp. Choreographer Brett
Smock gives the entire cast moves that work well both as ensemble numbers
and as individual character-revealing moments. However, the full-out sprint
which the script calls for in the opening of the second act is so exhausting
to the cast that they never seem to recover their momentum, let alone catch
their breath.
Music by Robert Sprayberry. Book and lyrics
by Nagle Jackson and Robert Sprayberry. Directed by Gail Humphries
Mardirosian. Music direction by Douglas Bowles. Choreography by Brett Smock.
Design: Meaghan Toohey (set) Barbara Tucker Parker (costumes) Justin Matthew
Thomas (lights) Matthew Michael Nielsen (sound) Richard Ching (stage
manager). Cast: Chelsea-Rae Abbate, Mark C. Almy, Mia Branco, Katie Brobst,
Bethany Lynn Corey, Aubrie Fennecken, Jeffrey D. Holt, Jeannie Hosler,
Jeremy King, Josh Lortie, Benjamin Naramore, Nyk Schmalz, Josh Sticklin,
Cee-Cee Swalling, Vishal Vaidya, Baron John Weyerhaeuser. |
