Featuring
the 1980’s era pop stylings of Olivia Newton-John and the Electric Light
Orchestra, with many parody references to the film of the same name that bombed
(and then became a cult fave), the play is a self-aware festival of harmless schlock
and a bushel of meta jokes at its own expense.
For
the uninitiated, the muse Clio, renamed Kira, has come down from Mt. Olympus—disguised
as an Australian girl wearing roller skates and leg warmers—to help Venice
Beach chalk artist Sonny realize his life’s ambition: opening a roller disco.
So
they approach a hot shot real estate agent, Danny, who is also a failed
clarinetist. See, he was inspired years before by Clio (in another guise), but
he chose the path of making money and shunned the arts. Losing Clio’s heart in
the process.
Two
of Clio’s six muse sisters, Melpomene and Calliope, try to sabotage her efforts
by making her fall in love with Sonny and thereby forcing her to lose her
standing as a goddess.
Of
course, silliness ensues, all in the service of familiar soft-rock songs such
as “Strange Magic,” “Evil Woman,” and the title ditty.
Goofy
as it is, that doesn’t make it easy to play. The tendency with this kind of
fluff is to overdo the shtick until the play is stuck is a death spiral of
actors straining to hard to nail every song and kill with each gag.
This
production directed by Scott Spence exhibits some of those unfortunate traits,
with several familiar tunes screeched instead of sung, and a few punch lines
punched so hard they go cross-eyed.
But
the nine-person cast develops a workable vibe thanks in part to Martin Cespedes’
tongue-in-cheek choreography, much of which would fit nicely into a Partridge
Family TV reunion special.
In
the central role of Kira, Kathleen Rooney has the requisite blonde good looks
and a strong voice, although her obvious attempts at singing with an Aussie
accent sometimes go awry. As Sonny, Sam Wolf has the blank expression of a
clueless ‘80s dude and happily underplays some of his lines.
The
comical combo of Melpomene and Calliope is portrayed by Amiee Collier and
Leslie Andrews with varying degrees of success. When they relax into their
characters, they’re very funny. But when they’re forcing the jokes, it feels
like you’re being jabbed in the ribs once too often.
Greg
Violand lends his smooth singing as Danny, although it’s too bad there’s no
clarinetist in the band to give voice to his character’s licorice stick.
The
other four sisters dance and sing backup. Kathleen Ferrini and Maggie Stahl
handle their duties with style but most of the laughs go to the cross-dressed Ben
Donahoo and Matthew Ryan Thompson (who also turns in a smooth tap number as
young Danny).
This
Xanadu, while not exactly a pleasure dome throughout, is often diverting and certainly looks handsome
on Trad A Burns’ set featuring Greek columns with disco lights inside.
Xanadu
Through
October 14 at the Beck Center, 11801 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, 216-521-2540
No comments:
Post a Comment