Tom, Debbie, and Will Prather own two dinner theatres back east: The Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, PA, and the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Myers, FL. They have chosen Mesa, of all places, to open their third location, the Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre. It's not as crazy a scheme as it would first seem. Between the snowbirds, the retirees, and its proximity to the sixth largest city in America, there is a lot to recommend the former ABCO at Brown and Higley. It's far enough away from the established Copperstate Dinner Theatre to avoid stealing patrons or bruising egos. It also does the dinner theatre execution just differently enough to keep it from feeling like every other dinner theatre you've been to; the food is served in a buffet-style, the stage is larger than a postage stamp, and by keeping their shows rotating through their various venues, they can keep a consistent repertoire of their favorite actors available and employed all season. There is one last thing that they've done with their premiere production of Crazy for You that will differentiate them from almost every other valley theatre: they've concentrated on high energy dance to sell tickets. By finding the niche that had been missing from Phoenix theatres, they've given themselves a great start.
When one walks into the cavernous lobby of the Broadway Palm West, it's not hard to see what they started with. However, moving into the theatre itself, which is enormous and must be daunting to Sound Designers and performers both, the first thing to strike you is the fact that this is a stage that can handle twenty tap dancing actors.
If you are a party of two, there's a distinct possibility, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, that you'll be seated at a table with another party. The congenial wait staff will take your drink orders, and you'll be left to saunter into the Stage Right buffet room, where warming tables are set up with a typical collection of salad offerings, and a myriad of choices for entrée and vegetable. Each production will bring a new set of choices. I forgot about my diet and sampled everything they offered, save for the Pork Loin, which my companion said was her favorite. I was impressed with the Crab Stuffed Salmon and the London Broil, though the Southwestern Chicken and the Manicotti were not to my liking. The vegetables were also hit-and-miss, with tasty Garlic Mashed Potatoes and String Beans with Caramelized Onions, while the Wild Rice with Dried Cherries was better in theory than execution, and the Pasta Salad was bland. I topped this off with a nice and tangy slice of Lemon Meringue Pie while my companion complained about the lack of chocolate on the dessert table. Satiated, I settled down to the show.
The Prathers' initial musical offering is the cobbled script of Crazy for You, Ken Ludwig's reengineering of George and Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy. This 1992 Broadway success is really a distillation of elements from movie musicals of the '30s and '40s. It liberally borrows songs from the Gershwin canon and works them into the script in the same process musicals used to do before Oklahoma! exploded on the scene, making the book the driver of the show. The story of a spoiled New York playboy going out West and falling in love with a local girl is as hackneyed as they come. Add in the elements of saving an old theatre and a gaggle of vacationing Follies girls dancing with a bunch of cowhands, you know you're not here to make any great textual discoveries. Crazy for You is an excuse to sing great Gershwin tunes and dance like mad. Director M. Seth Reines and choreographer Jeremy Benton have infused this production with so much energy; it's easy to forget silly things like a plot.
Reines hasn't paced the show as much as sprinted it. The silly one-liners and unbelievable situations fly by, but once he gets to a ballad, he lets his performers take their time, luxuriating in the lush Gershwin tunes. One can't help but fall in love with singing and dancing whiz Kim Reed as she dreamily croons "Someone to Watch Over Me," or float like an angel with equally talented dancer Chris Warren Murry to the dance break in "Shall We Dance." Mr. Murry, while fleet of foot, is a tad weak in his vocal offerings, but still does a good job with such songs as "They Can't Take That Away From Me."
When Reines hands the show to Benton, things get even better. The choreography is true to that of the original Broadway production, utilizing many of the same surprises and moves created by dance luminary Susan Stroman. As if this weren't exciting enough, the cast performs these difficult moves with precision. Whether they're turning the girls into instruments for "Slap That Bass," or using a hodge-podge of metal to create a spectacular tap dance on the streets of Deadrock, Nevada in "I Got Rhythm," it's easy to see that quality dancing is important to this company.
While the producers will be bringing many of their performers from out of town, such as the two leads and the enjoyable offerings by Elizabeth Block as Tess and Nicole Marie Zachowski as the snobbish Irene Roth, they have also delivered on their promise to utilize local talent. The excellent performances of Chris Nickerson as impresario Bela Zangler, Kathi Osborne as the overbearing Mother, and John Haubner's fiery Lank should help to dispel the annoying banter I heard from other tables saying that the Prathers would "cast professionals from out of town alongside some local people," as if none of the Phoenix talent pool could be considered professional. Nickerson impressed me with his mirrored duet with Murry in "What Causes That?" while Haubner proved an excellent ragdoll during his "Naughty Baby" duet with Zachowski and the male ensemble.
While there were some who didn't like John C. Rager's set, I've experienced a lot less on the stages of dinner theatres, so I personally think it is an impressive use of mobile, dual-sided set pieces and painted backdrops. Russell Thompson's lighting is effective, although the sound design is still suffering from the attempt to turn an ABCO box into a theatre.
This is the type of dinner theatre I remember while growing up in Westchester County, save for a bigger stage and a better meal. While there were some off performances and just a bit of roughness in the details, this company's experience has obviously gone a long way to help it start strong. Although I may still have my trepidations about their survival through their first Phoenix summer, I look forward to their next offerings.
Production Details:
Crazy for You Book by Ken
Ludwig, Music and Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin
Prather Family of Theatres
Broadway Palm West
Dinner Theatre, Mesa
(For a map to location,
click this
link)
(480) 325-6700
November 20th - December 31st, 2001