There’s
a reason why booking agents don’t create some of the best stage musicals.
It’s because…they’re booking agents. In defiance of that logic, Great Lakes
Theater has decided to grace their stage with a musical created by booking
agent Larry Gallagher, and it lives up to what you might expect from a guy who
spends his days arranging tours and planning events for his clients.
Titled
Beehive, the 60s musical, the show is
a chronological tour of music from the 60’s as recorded by women—singles and
groups. With all the creativity it takes to buy the rights of other people’s
songs, and then add snippets of flimsy connecting narration that probably
took all of two hours (including lunch) to write, the show is a lazy pastiche
that would get shrugged off as lame entertainment on most discount cruise ships.
But
here it is, at the prestigious Great Lakes Theater, featuring a cast of young
performers from Baldwin Wallace University under the guidance of BW faculty
members Victoria Bussert (director) and Gregg Daniels (choreographer). And it
all couldn’t go much farther wrong than it does.
In
the first short (45 minute) act, the girls croon tunes from the early 60s about
heartbreak and such. And while it isn’t offensive, there’s little to recommend
it. The cast—Adrianna Cleveland, Annalise Griswold, Shelby Griswold, Christiana
Perrault, Camille Robinson, Hannah-Jo Weisberg—all sing acceptably well. Each of
the performers is given character names for no apparent reason, since we learn
virtually nothing about these “characters.”
It’s
all about the songs, which are staged by Bussert and Daniels with little
imagination on the almost bare stage, backed by some less-than-dynamic backlit
panels that—wait for it—sometimes change colors! The women go through their 60s
paces, from “It’s My Party” to “My Boyfriend’s Back,” lining up this way and
that, swinging their arms languorously and throwing in some hip rolls for good
measure. In short, it ain’t
exactly galvanizing. And in a show desperate for some eye candy, costume
designer Esther M. Haberlen’s soft pastel, below-the knee dresses are changed
midway through the act for…almost identical soft pastel dresses.
After
an extended and unnecessary intermission, in a futile attempt to give the brief play the time-span
heft of a more fulsome production, the women reappear in snappier outfits representing
the end of the miniskirt 60s. In this even shorter 25-minute act, the performers are
called upon to impersonate some famous singers of the time. Robinson, Perrault
and Cleveland do pretty well with this as Tina Turner and others.
But
it all comes apart during an extended feature segment when Shelby Griswold is
called upon to impersonate Janis Joplin. Eschewing the soulful gravel of
Joplin’s voice for loud volume, Griswold shreds the magic that Joplin
created on stage. And wearing a faux tie-died pants suit from Marshall's while sucking from a
bottle of Southern Comfort doesn’t make it right.
If
you can’t do a kickass Joplin impression (which was done in this Hanna Theatre
building more than ten years ago by the remarkable Katrina Chester and later by
the exceptional Mary Bridget Davies starring in Love, Janis), then don’t make it a spotlight segment. Just sing the
songs Gallagher stapled together and be done with it.
As talented
as the kids from BW can be, you’d think GLT could find some quirky
end-of-the-season show that could employ their stable of talented and
experienced professional actors. That
would be a treat. And we could let Larry Gallagher get back to setting up banjo act gigs in Altoona.
Beehive,
the 60s musical
Through
May 20 at Great Lakes Theater, Hanna Theatre, 2067 E. 14 St., 216-241-6000,
greatlakestheater.org.
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