{"id":17906,"date":"2015-05-03T08:11:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T15:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=17906"},"modified":"2015-05-03T08:11:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T15:11:55","slug":"comic-actions-highlight-revival-of-musical-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/comic-actions-highlight-revival-of-musical-farce\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic actions highlight revival of musical farce"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Keith Pinto, who stars as the \u201cWhere\u2019s Charley?\u201d title character (and masquerades as his aunt), is hoisted by James Bock (as his buddy, Jack). Photo by Patrick O\u2019Connor.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was barely out of short pants when Ray Bolger starred in Broadway\u2019s \u201cWhere\u2019s Charley?\u201d in 1948.<\/p>\n

But I remember bouncing around the neighborhood singing \u201cOnce in Love with Amy,\u201d the biggest hit from the musical, for anyone who\u2019d listen \u2014 even though I knew no one with that name and had no real concept of boy-girl passions.<\/p>\n

I just saw the show again, a 42nd St. Moon production at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

It was deliciously quaint.<\/p>\n

Keith Pinto, who takes on the title role with phenomenal gusto, is no Bolger \u2014 especially when it comes to soft-shoe dancing.<\/p>\n

But his comic chops are superlative.<\/p>\n

And his mock tango\u2019s priceless.<\/p>\n

Director Dyan McBride makes sure the other 13 cast members keep up with Pinto \u2014 particularly when it comes to wide-eyed, cartoon-like antics or outlandish melodrama.<\/p>\n

The impossible-to-believe but amusing storyline was lifted from a popular 1892 play, \u201cCharley\u2019s Aunt.\u201d What I watched, therefore, was a revival of a farce from the last century that referenced a play from the century before that.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Oxford University is the setting. Chaperones are required for a proper woman to be in a man\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

Charley Wykeham and Jack Chesney (James Bock) want to entertain the women they\u2019re smitten with but Charley\u2019s aunt, who could be the go-between, is late arriving from Brazil (\u201cwhere the nuts come from\u201d).<\/p>\n

Jack convinces his buddy to impersonate the mega-rich relative, Dona Lucia D\u2019Alvadorez (Stephanie Rhoads).<\/p>\n

And two elderly male gold-diggers fall for her\/him.<\/p>\n

Soon afterwards, the real auntie shows up to complicate things.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Getting ready for their dates in \u201cWhere\u2019s Charley?\u201d are (from left) Doretta (Maria Mikheyenko), Rosamund (Noelani Neal) and Violet (Katherine Levya). Photo by Patrick O\u2019Connor.<\/p><\/div>\n

The show, whose melodies and lyrics were penned by Frank Loesser, who later composed \u201cGuys and Dolls,\u201d tips its musical top hat to Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharley\u2019s Aunt,\u201d though men had filled female roles for eons, was credited with being the first staging of explicit drag in Western theater. It worked, too, as precursor to such cross-dressers as RuPaul, Dame Edna, Bruce Jenner \u2014 and, I guess, J. Edgar Hoover.<\/p>\n

Not to mention drag performances in \u201cLa Cage aux Folles,\u201d \u201cPink Flamingos,\u201d \u201cSome Like It Hot,\u201d \u201cTootsie,\u201d \u201cMrs. Doubtfire\u201d\u2014 and a slew of mediocre movies with Tyler Perry as Madea.<\/p>\n

The sweet spot of this revival, however, is the clowning.<\/p>\n

Scott Hayes supplements Pinto\u2019s tour de farce via an over-the-top performance as lecherous Mr. Spettigue.<\/p>\n

The character repeatedly chases Charley, not unlike the silliness of a Road Runner episode.<\/p>\n

An appreciative audience titters.<\/p>\n

The crowd laughs even louder at set pieces \u2014 Charley awkwardly serving tea, his removing Spettigue\u2019s wandering hands from his knees, and Amy (Abby Sammons) screeching \u201cThe Woman in His Room\u201d (with timing as extraordinary as Lucille Ball could have delivered).<\/p>\n

A trio singing \u201cThe Gossips\u201d provides yet another great comic turn: Rosamund (Noelani Neal), Doretta (Katherine Leyva) and Violet (Marie Mikheyenko).<\/p>\n

Musically over all, female voices are exceptional, males not so much.<\/p>\n

I particularly enjoyed hearing two women in duets \u2014 Kitty Verdun (Jennifer Mitchell) with Jack, her suitor, on \u201cMy Darling, My Darling,\u201d and Dona with Jack\u2019s father, Sir Francis Chesney (John-Elliott Kirk) on \u201cLovelier Than Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pleasurable, also, is when Charley breaks the fourth wall, asking the audience to sing along with him on \u201cAmy,\u201d a throwback to what Bolger, who won a Tony for his performance, originally improvised.<\/p>\n

And colorfully subdued costumes by Rebecca Valentino are fetching.<\/p>\n

Weaknesses, regrettably, appear as well.<\/p>\n

The dancing, though mostly precision-like, lacks spark. I suspect the original Broadway movements by George Balanchine were slightly better.<\/p>\n

And while accompaniment by pianist Lauren Mayer is appropriately invisible, her choppy overtures aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

British accents rise and disappear with frequency.<\/p>\n

And Act 1 feels drawn out (it runs 80 minutes) \u2014 like a Carol Burnett sketch that was extended \u2014 and extended, and extended.<\/p>\n

Ticket-buyers, despite such negatives, expect 42nd St. Moon shows to be positive experiences over all.<\/p>\n

They are (and this is).<\/p>\n

And they should be: The troupe\u2019s been doing classic musical theater for decades.<\/p>\n

And doing it well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s Charley?\u201d will play at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St. (at Front and Battery streets), San Francisco, through May 17. <\/em>Evening performances, 6 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays. Matinees, 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $21 to $75 (subject to change). Information: www.42ndst.moon.org<\/a> or 415-255-8207.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5] I was barely out of short pants when Ray Bolger starred in Broadway\u2019s \u201cWhere\u2019s Charley?\u201d in 1948. But I remember bouncing around the neighborhood singing \u201cOnce in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"