© The Hartford Courant
April 22, 2002


Lavish Dames Lacking
by Malcolm Johnson

The program for the Goodspeed Opera House revival of "Dames at
Sea" contains John Pike's lively account of the humble beginnings
of this vest-pocket "42nd Street" at the Caffe Cino 40 years ago
Michael P. Price is launching perhaps the most lavish production
of the show ever. But an illuminated deco inner proscenium,
black-and-white movie titles and vivid period slides cannot hide
the thinness of this parody of Ruby Keeler-Dick Powell musicals.

The company of six works mightily to put over this familiar tale
of an ambitious young thing who replaces the leading lady and
comes back a star. David Engel, who doubles as the embattled
producer-director and a Navy captain, does an exceptional job
of creating two entirely different characters. The five others,
sleek Corinne Melancon, perky Andrea Chamberlain, brassy Paula
Leggett Chase, innocent Joel Carlton and frisky Michael Gruber,
tap their hearts out as three dames and two gobs. But too often,
everyone seems to be trying too hard.

The opening comes at a moment in theatrical history when "42nd
Street" is back on Broadway and the somewhat similar, reconditioned
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" has also rolled into town.

Way back in 1962, "Dames" predated renewed interest in the 1933
Busby Berkeley backstage musical with the kaleidoscopic choreography.
The movie of "Millie," parodying gold-digger flappers of the
'20s, came in 1967, the year before "Dames" returned for a long
commercial run off-Broadway. It was not until 1980 that Gower
Champion brought "42nd Street" back to Broadway, dying before its
opening. So "Dames," which came along before videos and cable made
the Depression-era Warner Bros. musicals old hat, was original at
the dawn of the modern camp era.

Its problem today is that the songs by composer Jim Wise and
lyricists George Haimnsohn and Robin Miller merely repeat the
melodies and words of the numbers that inspired them with no great
invention or wit. "42nd Street" becomes "Wall Street," "Shuffle Off
to Buffalo" becomes "Choo-Choo Honeymoon." "Dames at Sea" does not
just recycle songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The Gershwin estate
should have sued over "That Mister Man of Mine," the torch song that
steals shamelessly from "The Man I Love," and "The Beguine" might
well have been actionable for the Cole Porter interests.

Act I of "Dames at Sea" takes place in a theater where Engel's Harry
Hennesey, the hard-driving Julian Marsh figure from "42nd Street",
is trying out a new show starring Melancon's Mona Kent, the Dorothy
Brock over-the-hill diva. Chase's leggy Joan, apparently inspired by
Joan Blondell ("Footlight Parade," two "Goldiggers" pictures and
"Dames"), has the wise-cracking chorine duties. Carlton's
impressionable tenor Dick is the required Powell wide-eyed tenor,
a sailor-songwriter. Michael Gruber's irrepressible Lucky is a stock
buddy, attached to Joan. And Chamberlain's Ruby is the new girl in
town, the classic Keeler role.

Under the peppy staging of director-choreographer Scott Thompson, this
"Dames" does not feel like an old movie, however. Chamberlain's Ruby
comes across as an impression of Bernadette Peters, who originated the
part at the age of 17. Only Engel catches the flavor of the old Berkeley
backstagers in his driven, harried playing of Hennesey.

One bright twist in the book, also by Haimsohn and Miller, comes when
the producer loses his house in a sequence of tumbling masonry, complete
with a wrecking ball. After intermission, a toy battleship cruises across
the stage (a favorite Price device). And all hands hit the deck of the
shipshape craft designed by Michael Bottari and Ronald Case, who also
designed the costumes --- with special attention to the soignee frocks
for Melancon, and to the gowns, which dress up the finale, "Let's Have
a Simple Wedding." But nothing is simple here. Goodspeed has mounted
full shows, with choruses, with less largess.

DAMES AT SEA continues through July 6 at the Goodspeed Opera House,
Goodspeed Landing, East Haddam. Performances are Wednesdays at 2 and
7:30 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and
8:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $22 to $47.
Box office: 860-873-8668.


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