(out of 
)For the first time in their history, Arizona Theatre Company is gearing up a show for a Broadway opening. No, it's not the landmark production that took the Copper State by storm recently, Long Day's Journey Into Night, but a flashy, glitzy, revisionistic revue of the tremendous body of work by the great songwriting team of George and Ira, The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. What the team of Mark Lamos and Mel Marvin have done in conceiving this tip-of-the-hat seems to have been to look at most of the successful shows running on Broadway over the past decade, and find a way to capture their styles and revise Gershwin ballads accordingly. While this is sometimes effective, and usually enjoyable, it doesn't stop the uncanny feeling that we are watching snippets of a variety of musicals, from Rent to Stomp to Fosse, and gaining no new insight into the material in the process. Worse, the production sometimes has the visual quality of a light show and jazzercize tape, making it eerily reminiscent to the kind of production numbers one would expect to find performed on a cruise ship.
A group of ten supremely talented and frenetic performers, five
men and five women, perform these new takes on old standards,
directed by co-conceiver Mark Lamos, and choreographed
by David Marques. Nothing should be taken away from this
ensemble, as they give all the heart and sweat required of them,
and sometimes even more. They are all triple threats, singing,
acting and dancing themselves into a frenzy and selling the show
for all of its worth. All of them are Broadway-quality performers,
as exemplified by the multi-talented Sara Ramirez, who
switches from Torch Song ("The Man I Love") to Love
Ballad ("Isn't It a Pity") to Comedic ("Just Another
Rumba" and "The Half of It Dearie Blues") as easily
as switching outfits. Ms. Ramirez is a standout in a superb cast,
and is used very effectively.
Responsibility for the questionable choices of this production
land squarely on Mr. Lamos and Mr. Marvin, who have taken the
safe, simplistic, and somewhat derivative road in compiling and
presenting their material. Why on Earth does the theme song for
the show, "Fascinating Rhythm," look like a production
number from Fosse? Is there any purpose for making the
jazzy "Slap That Bass" smack of Chicago or Cabaret?
Why does the wonderful blues ballad "But Not For Me"
look like it was cut from Rent? What does this revisionist
reproduction do for the songs they profess to be a tribute to,
save for make them more marketable to a '90s audience? There is
even the faint whiff of pandering in such interpretations of numbers
like a politically correct, single sex version of "Isn't
It a Pity" and the AIDS tribute "They Can't Take That
Away From Me." Yes, the production numbers are visually striking,
and the energy is infectious, but the raison d'être
of this entire production is the problem, not the entertainment
value of its performance.
An example of this is Peggy Eisenhauer's visually striking,
but overproduced lighting, which runs from subtle goboes to garish
strobe and chaser effects. Paul Tazewell's costumes also
suffer from these wild mood swings and overproduction, tossing
in liberal amounts of spandex, sequins and sultry outfits to an
overwhelming result. And one question, Mr. Tazewell, wasn't it
a bit literal to put those silly wings on the woman singing "Little
Jazz Bird?" Visually effective and consistent is Michael
Yeargan's creative use of flies and moving flats for the scenic
design, one of the few things that was impressive without being
imposing.
As the evening wore on, and my companion and I were buffeted from
song to song, and reminded of yet another popular recent show
that had nothing to do with the song with which it was linked,
we grew to appreciate those numbers that hearkened back to the
original era, and didn't involve blaring music, light shows, and
writhing, half-naked forms. "Nice Work If You Can Get It",
as performed by Kena Tangi Dorsey, is a perfect
example of retaining all of the power of the song and still allowing
a modern audience to plug into it.
Admittedly, I have never been a fan of the Musical Revue. While
some (Swinging on a Star,
Five Guys Named Moe) have done better than others to commemorate
famous songwriters, ultimately, a Greatest Hits album generally
seems the better choice to an evening of reminiscence and disjointedness.
The audience on the night I saw it gave a standing ovation, so
obviously raison d'être is not as big a concern to
a general audience as it is to me. When a show is heading to the
Great White Way, shouldn't an honest-to-God justification of stylistic
choice be just as important as entertainment value? Please feel
free to write to me and voice
your opinion on this...
Production Details:
The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm Conceived by Mark
Lamos and Mel Marvin. Words and Music by George
Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Arizona Theatre Company
Herberger Theatre,
Phoenix
(602) 252-8497
January 1st - January 24th, 1999