©Newark Star-Ledger
Oct. 29, 2001


A REALLY BIG SHOW
Cole Porter musical offers great song and dance
By Peter Filichia

The Paper Mill Playhouse is offering theatergoers a terrific ride in a time machine.

The folks in Millburn have set their way-back machine for 1936, when Red, Hot and Blue opened on Broadway -- seven long years before Rodgers and Hammerstein revolutionized the musical theater with Oklahoma! It was a time when musicals weren't realistic, and rarely cared about making much sense.

But if '30s musicals seemed to be written for those who had I.Q.'s of 30, there were compensations: great songs and dances enacted by fabulous performers dressed in stunning costumes in front of splashy sets. And that's precisely what the Paper Mill is currently producing with Cole Porter's Red, Hot and Blue.

Notice that the title's been changed to feature the famed songwriter's name. That was one idea from director Michael Leeds, who also adapted the original book from Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Still, Leeds retained the asinine plot the pair wrote, in which lawyer Bob Hale is looking for the missing young woman to whom he'd been betrothed at birth. The lady can be easily identified because -- and here come the grisliest musical theater image until Sweeney Todd started slicing people into pies -- she once sat on a hot waffle iron and can thus be easily identified from the resulting scar.

Bob, though, is in love with Nails Duquesne, a widow who likes him, too. But he feels he must honor his commitment to marry the, uh, marked woman. So Nails graciously decides to hold a contest to find her.

It gets sillier, and Leeds uses every euphemism -- and vulgarism -- for gluteus maxiumus in the two-and-a-half hour show. What he also does is drop seven of the 17 songs Porter originally wrote for this musical, while raiding the songwriter's catalog to include some standards -- "You Do Something to Me," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "Just One of Those Things."

While those work splendidly, not all the interpolations do -- such as "It Ain't Etiquette," where Nails instructs convicts how to behave in society when they released. "If you meet J.P. Morgan," she sings, "don't greet him by tearing your girdle off." That's unnecessary advice for convicts, but it does reveal that the song was written for another context in a different show.

No matter. Debbie Gravitte does the song in her trademark brassy-belter manner, and that's all a theatergoer could ask. Here's a lady who throws herself into the center stage spotlight, and dominates every production number with a voice that hasn't been heard since the great leading ladies of yesteryear. "I feel like a million dollars," she proclaims, and she's worth that much in a production that looks as if it cost that much, too. Kenneth Foy has provided umpteen sets and the dozens of Ann Hould-Ward's costumes use every color found in the most expensive Crayola box.

Jim Walton is one of the best in the business when playing a suave character who gets suddenly manic if a plot deals him a difficult twist of fate. As Bob, he has the chance here, because Leeds' book says that if Bob doesn't marry his intended, the government will have him executed.

Don't ask. Cole Porter's Red, Hot and Blue is a show where the more explanations are offered, the less sense they make.

There are plenty of parts for second bananas, though, and there's a ripe, tasty bunch of them here. Felicia Finley is delicious and winning as the debutante who's fallen for a former pickpocket, played by Michael Gruber, who perfectly creates a low-class character who isn't a caricature. As Policy Pinkle -- a con who doesn't want to leave prison because he's come to see "the big house" as a "big home" -- Bruce Adler couldn't be better, and got not one but two rounds of applause when doing a routine in which he played two people at one time. In fact, he deserved three rounds of applause.

Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography is just what the musical ordered, especially when Finley and Gruber don't just begin the beguine, but also bring it to a big finish. His best production number just might be the one in which Gravitte sings, "I'm throwing a terrific ball tonight." At that moment, those who can forget the vast improvements that musicals have made in the last 60 years will be glad they've been invited.

Cole Porter's Red, Hot and Blue!
Where: Paper Mill Playhouse, Brookside Drive, Millburn
When: Through Dec. 2.
Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Saturday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

How Much: $29-$59. Call (973) 376-4343


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