|
July 11, 2004 Two shows stand out at Stratford Festival (excerpt) by Tony Brown |
|---|
|
Cynthia Dale looks and sounds like the girl next door, which makes her just right in "Guys and Dolls." But it makes her all wrong as Reno Sweeney in a
colorful but mechanical "Anything Goes" at the Avon.
Sweeney is supposed to be a femme fatale, a nightclub performer who doesn't just sing but belts. Decibel queen Ethel Merman originated the glorious 1934 Cole Porter role, and Patti LuPone, only slightly less brassy, led the rewritten 1987 Lincoln Center revival. Dale is a willowy, delicate beauty, not a man-killer. And while it is possible to listen to her for hours, she simply cannot rear back and haul out the big guns required for "Blow, Gabriel, Blow." The Stratford production, with a cast of 35, is otherwise solid, the usual Canadian company supplemented by a pair of New Yorkers, boyishly charming Michael Gruber as leading man Billy Crocker and rubbery Jimmy Spadola as Moonface Martin, public enemy No. 13. But director-choreographer Anne Allan and designer Patrick Clark present what is essentially a copy of the 1987 New York production. De-lovely? Sure. But it's hardly the top.
|