Curtains

Curtains
By Rupert Holmes, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Peter Stone. Bankstown Theatrical Society. Bankstown Town Hall Theatre. October 8 – 16.

For a second time in the space of a single weekend, I’ve enjoyed a Sydney community musical theatre production that has strayed from the well-worn repertoire, with entertaining results.

Written by Kander and Ebb (Cabaret and Chicago), the musical theatre pedigree of Curtains is assured, but their final Broadway collaboration, a backstage musical-within-a-musical whodunit, is probably unknown to all bar absolute musical theatre fans.

In a nutshell, a troubled Broadway-bound musical is playing an out-of-town tryout season when the leading lady is murdered on stage. A musical theatre obsessed detective arrives to investigate, promptly proceeds to help fix the show and fall in love with the soubrette, while all around him, production personnel are dropping like flies.

The score, while not Kander and Ebb’s greatest, is characteristically enjoyable, with highlights including a great Broadway anthem in Show People, and an abundance of musical genre pastiche.

James Worner’s direction overflows with pizzazz and high theatricality, and the big dance routines, choreographed by Cameron Lewis, are over the top, campy fun, bristling with stylistic homages to Broadway and Hollywood. The Wild West at it’s wildest has probably never been raunchier than Thataway, while the Fred and Ginger send-up in Tough Act to Follow is a delight. In the Same Boat is delightfully kitsch. Patterns and formations are very effective.

The characters in Curtains encompass just about every theatrical stereotype you can imagine, and the situations run the gamut of theatrical and whodunit clichés. In nearly all cases, the cast really nailed them.

Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (Michael Lewis) could have stepped out of an early American cop show, with a twist of “Let’s put on a show." Hard-bitten producer Carmen Bernstein (Julia Brovedani) is big and brash, with a Mermanesque edge. Director Christopher Belling (Graham Egan) is high camp without ever going over the edge. Soubrette Maryann Wright (Niki Harris) is so wide-eyed and innocent, that she is almost too nice to be true. Ghastly faded film star / leading lady Jessica Cranshaw (Katie Young) is aptly excruciating. Replacement leading lady / lyricist Georgia Hendricks (Chapin Ayres), who hasn’t been on stage in years, hoofs it with style and gusto. Composer Aaron Fox (Brad Clarke), harried and lovelorn, can’t take a trick, longing to rekindle the flame with ex-wife and lyricist Georgia by (Hollywood cliché) writing songs together again. Ambitious chorine Bambi Bernét (Nicole Hunt) is lively and doggedly persistent. Nervous backer Oscar Shapiro (Christopher Griffith) hovers anxiously throughout.

The orchestra, under musical director Kane Wheatley, does full justice to the score, with a big, bold Broadway sound, and the sound mix is excellent, except for odd moments when the chorus is overpowered (not a problem for the principals, with individual mics).

Frequently changing, relatively elaborate sets effectively capture the scenery of the not-so-great musical within the musical and backstage. It was a shame, though, that an attractive false proscenium didn’t quite match the stage opening.

The pace never flags in this fun evening of musical theatre froth and bubble.

Neil Litchfield
 

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