Susan Ranahan's concept is brilliant. Morland Cary's melodrama, Love Rides the Rails, begs for the hokey, and she delivers it from the moment you stand on line to purchase your tickets. She has brought in a popcorn cart to purchase the treat for both eating during the show, and for tossing at the bad guys. There is a Barbershop Quartet singing songs from 1898 and working the crowd. David Durnil's stage is made to be in the style of a burlesque theatre that would have presented this type of fare. There's the extremely talented Lance Ware tickling the ivories on a vintage upright piano and providing the appropriate musical punctuation to the play. Saloon girls show you to your seat and exhort you to cheer heroes Truman Pendennis and Harold Stanfast, moon over the innocent Prudence Hopewell, and hiss the evil trio of Simon Darkway, Dirk Sneath, and Carlotta Cortez. Up until the moment that Teri Krawitz' saloon owner Beulah Belle takes the stage, everything is perfect. From there, though, the problem becomes obvious. Melodrama is a lost art. Acting melodramatic is different from acting in a melodrama. It is crucial that, while overacting, there is also a sense of absolute commitment to the character and earnestness of their situation. This purity of kitsch is actually quite difficult to pull off, and few in the cast are adept at it. Done right, the conventions of melodrama are hilarious in retrospect. Done poorly, the presentation becomes monotonous, and it rests on the audience to liven up the evening and imagine what might have been.
While acing most everything else, including her broad blocking, Ranahan doesn't seem to have been able to find a cast who can handle the rigorous 19th century acting style. Only a few get it. Alexandra Gray gives the most balanced performance as evil-by-circumstance Carlotta. She is a great mix of sultry vixen and songstress. Rich Skidmore as white hat-wearing Truman holds his jaw at just the right angle, but can't carry his required songs. Tom Steele's foul evildoer Simon is a hoot, and while his level of overplaying would not work anywhere else in the cast, it does as the bad guy. Jeffrey Davey is funny as Simon's cohort, Dirk. From there, the collected ensemble includes several no-shows, a few over-the-tops, and a lot of indistinct choices.
An example of what doesn't work comes from our sweetheart, Prudence. As played by Michelle B. Campbell, she is too quiet, too weak in choices to take on even Little Mary Sunshine. Granted, the role is traditionally a milksop, but to work, there needs to be higher energy. Beveryn Lemons-Swaim makes few choices as Prudence's infirmed widow mother. The humor of these types of roles comes from the infirmed woman's ironic amount of strength, a choice only made once in the course of the evening. Maura Murphy plays extraneous French maid Fifi with lots of pep but little point. Paul Gibson presents trusted railroad man Fred Wheelwright with the energy of a caboose.
What keeps things interesting when the ensemble ambles around the stage is the audience participation. The paying public does their best to get into the show.
Tempe Little Theatre almost had me with this one. Ranahan came so close and made so many right choices. In the end, though, the audience couldn't head of into the sunset whistling the concept, shortchanged by the execution of many of the performances.
Production Details:
Love Rides the Rails A Melodrama by Morland Cary
Tempe Little Theatre
The Tempe Center for the Performing Arts
(480) 350-8388
December 7th - 16th, 2001