Reviewed 7/14/04
When first I moved to Arizona from New York, I appreciated the fact that though there were obviously not as many theatres as I had grown up with, there was still an impressive amount of talent in productions staged by such companies as Mill Avenue, Actors Lab, and Arizona Musical Theater. Oops, c’est la guerre. But with all of the talent and great options available I have bemoaned the fact that a very specific type of theatre, the Cabaret, has never been able to sustain itself. There have been a few starts, but just as many quick finishes. Some of my favorite nights in theatre were spent in a small Greenwich Village bar named The Duplex where there are not one but two cabaret theatres, downstairs and up, that feature two specific types of Cabaret: Downstairs is exclusively for those smart, clever, sassy, one-to-five person song sets that observe the fallacies of modern life with a jaundiced eye. Upstairs is an open mic piano bar exclusively for, well, you’ve seen “Just Jack!” on Will and Grace; think that but with actual talent.
Desert Stages’ Gerry Cullity, giddy with his company’s snazzy new building that offers him two very different performance spaces, has called upon his New York tri-state area background in an attempt to push provincial Phoenix into appreciating a more diversified and eclectic menu of theatre options. The Actor’s Café is the smaller space, and it has an interesting mix of two- and four-seat round tables and theatre-style seats ringing the walls; something for everyone. Discussions are still underway about offering coffee (ordinarily there’s a two-drink minimum at those in other cities, but rezoning has denied them the chance for a liquor license) and the possibility of BYOB, but this is as close to a Cabaret as we’ve gotten yet. It is here that he has mounted a lively version of DiPietro and Roberts long-running (at least in other cities) musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. This is a fourth time around for this show in the Valley, with the difference in the three that I've seen being that Cullity has actually achieved the right atmosphere for mounting this nudging view of the differences between the sexes where romance is involved. He has also brought together a trio of All-Stars from his previous productions and added a ringer who has kept a low profile here in town but deserves to be steadily working from this point forward.
Goldy
Award winners Jessica Godber (center) and Michael J. Aurit (left)
are one half of the quartet, while DST veteran and highly talented Jonathan
Bowersock (right) is joined
with Equity professional Alaina Beauloye (far right) to finish
out the group. Cullity has chosen to use performers on the younger side of
this
all-age-range-encompassing
script that usually features a younger couple and a middle-aged one, and sometimes
this causes a few bumps, but it doesn’t make a dent in the hilarity and
pointedness of the feature. The ladies are often forced to wear the most hideous
wigs to transform, but such is life in the quick-change world of the Cabaret.
This doesn’t stop the fact that each has a strong skill that makes this
evening a hoot.
Godber definitely reinforces her triple-threat status. She flips through a variety of characters, each funnier than the last. She croons like a songbird unless she’s asked to squeak like a geek in “A Stud and a Babe,” where she sacrifices her sweet singing for the greater comedy. She bounces easily through Cullity’s energy-infused choreography.
Beauloye is a little older, a little wiser, but seemed a bit more tentative on the final preview night than the others. She still was able to give us her equal share of the noisy action, but did not seem as into character as Godber. Still, she is a force of talent, with her strong voice, strong character choices, and on-par dancing.
The two men have their separate strengths. Aurit is a stronger actor. His singing voice works in this setting, but his forté is his malleability in transforming from one broad character to another without a hitch. Bowersock, on the other hand, has a lovely voice. His characters remain reasonably static, but when he croons his share of the songs, he definitely holds up his end of the evening.
Compliments are due for the fifth important performer of the evening, Kristan Jakubczyk, whose accompaniment excellently supports the actors.
There is still some room for improvement: The lighting is a patchwork affair. While Cullity does not confine his performers to the stage, some in a sold out audience will miss action behind them, and as is always a problem with tables ringing a stage, legs and purses hinder some movement through the audience, increasing the trip factor.
However, this is the start of a potentially great thing. Cullity envisions much more than typical Cabaret fare for this space: he has plans for staged readings of new works, productions of classic, tougher hitting scripts that do not necessarily work in his theatre-in-the-round space, and some solo performances. I pray that this type of space finds its audience and can continue to explore. I know I’ll be there every opening night, supporting as I can any furthering of the theatre horizons of this town.
