{"id":5706,"date":"2013-04-15T13:12:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T20:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=5706"},"modified":"2013-04-17T17:09:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T00:09:13","slug":"carnival-jumps-off-the-stage-at-42ndstreet-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/carnival-jumps-off-the-stage-at-42ndstreet-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"CARNIVAL! jumps off the stage at 42ndStreet Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>CARNIVAL!: <\/strong>(1961) Musical. Music and Lyrics by Bob Merrill. Book by Michael Stewart. Directed by Greg MacKellan. 42nd<\/sup> Street Moon, Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. (415) 255\u20138207 or www.42ndstmoon.org<\/a>. April 3 -2, 2013<\/p>\n

Converting movies to stage musicals has been both highly successful as well as disastrous. The charming 1953 movie Lili, <\/em>based on the novel Love of Seven Dolls <\/em>by Paul Gallico was a huge hit. And why not, since it starred Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Kurt Kasner. The 1961 stage show, now called Carnival!, <\/em>starred Anna Maria Alberghetti, James Mitchell, Kaye Ballard, Pierre Olaf and Jerry Orbach making his Broadway debut. In opened to rave reviews winning two Tony Awards.<\/p>\n

Other notable names starred in the many road shows but it disappeared from the stage in the late 1970s until New York\u2019s Encore series recently revived it with Anne Hathaway and Brian Stokes Mitchell. With such notable luminaries having filled the roles in the past, there must have been trepidation by Artistic Director in selecting his present cast.<\/p>\n

If so it is not apparent with an equity cast filling the major roles. The stage story line follows the movie script where orphan Lili Daurier (charming diminutive Ashley Jarrett), a unsophisticated waif runs away to joint the \u201cGrand Imperial Cirque de Paris.\u201d After falling in love with Marco the Magnificent (Bill Olson) a lothario of the first order, she is given a part in his show as a supplement to the worldly Rosalie (seductive Dyan McBride) who just happens to be Marco\u2019s live-in lover. After a disastrous (and hilarious) turn at her job, Lili is rudely dumped.<\/p>\n

Never fear along comes puppeteer Paul Berthalet (the ubiquitous Ryan Drummond)\u00a0 and his colleague Jacquot (Michael Doppe) to the rescue and Lili becomes a mainstay in their act with that features the puppets Carrot Top, Horrible Henry the walrus, Marguerite, and Reynardo the Fox. The signature tune from the movie, \u201cLove Makes the World Go Round\u201d gets a tear inducing rendition by Jarrett and the story is off to the races.<\/p>\n

The opening scene involves an accordion rendition of\u00a0 \u201cLove Makes the World Go Round\u201d before the lights come up full on the colorful set (Hector Zavala) that becomes filled with juggler\/acrobats (Jordan Plutzer and Kyle Stoner) and a plethora of beauties dressed in gorgeous costumes (Moises Mora) who dance up a storm (Jayne Zaban) throughout the show.<\/p>\n

Where \u201cLove Makes the World Go Round\u201d was the mainstay of the movie, Merrill has come up with other winners including \u201cHer Face\u201d, \u201cShe’s My Love\u201d, \u201cGrand Imperial Cirque de Paris\u201d, \u201cMira\u201d and the catchy \u201cYum, Ticky, Ticky, Tum, Tum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the matinee we attended was entertaining and expertly staged by MacKellan, the competent singing did not garner serious applause and the running time of two hours and 30 minutes taxed ones attention span.<\/p>\n

Kedar K. Adour, MD<\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARNIVAL!: (1961) Musical. Music and Lyrics by Bob Merrill. Book by Michael Stewart. Directed by Greg MacKellan. 42nd Street Moon, Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. (415)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"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":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kedar-k-adour"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"