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REVIEWS
St. Ambrose group braves challenge of 'Angels'
By Ruby Nancy,
"The Quad City Times"
City of Angels is a
big stage musical, a modern show in the tradition of Broadway's sweeping
spectacles, and is one of the few new shows that really meets that
standard.
It's simply huge,
and the theatre company that takes on the challenge of this show has to
be full of brave or foolhardy souls to even try producing this
three-hour, 47-scene, 150-costume musical drama.
Davenport's St.
Ambrose University is producing City of Angels this weekend, and the
score for the production comes in under the brave column. The students
and staff at St. Ambrose are definitely up to the task of this
challenging musical.
The show's premise
is the source of its complexity: City of Angels is a huge,
multi-layered story. Fiction writer Stine turns out serial pulp that
centers on a swaggering 40's-era detective named Stone, a gritty
character he half-wishes he could be. Stine is in Los Angeles working on
a screenplay for one of his books, struggling to keep the show's
direction from rewriting every scene in the book. Scenes in the musical
flip in and out of Stine's personal life, Stone's book-bound adventures,
the screenplay's text and, eventually, the "scenes" as they are
performed on a film set.
The result is a
show that spoofs everything from the gritty conventions of detective
novels to the excesses, glitz and intrigue of Hollywood film
production--and the drama offers wry chuckles and some belly laughs,
too.
Set in late-1940s
Los Angeles, City of Angels has a fantastic score full of swinging
jazz, smooth ballads, some doo-wop, and even a torch song or two--and
all this wonderful music gets the strong voices and lively orchestra it
deserves. The spare choreography by Shellee Frazee ranges from dramatic
to subtle, angry to hilarious, and snappy to smooth--enhancing the
interwoven story lines without ever pulling the focus away from the
action.
Gorgeous costumes
(by SAU alum Brian Hemesath), including some lush "black and white"
costuming, set the mood and pay tribute to the smooth styles of the
period. Strong lighting, designed by Kristofer Eitrheim, and several
dozen quick scene changes also contribute greatly to the final product
here.
The large
cast--primarily students--do a wonderful job with multiple roles, and
their energy and enthusiasm for the spectacle aspect of the production
are major components of its success.
Some of the
standout performers include Phillip Potter, as the swaggering Stone.
Potter has a wonderful singing voice, and he gives the detective a
fauxblase, deliberately world-weary,
of-all-the-PI-offices-in-this-town-she-had-to-walk-into-mine sound and
attitude that are delicious without being overstated.
Kacie McIntyre has
great fun as Big Six and as studio security, and Russ Berberich sounds
great as Jimmy Powers, pop radio star who wants to be an actor. Jamie Em
Johnson (Gabby/Bobbi) has a fabulous voice and turns in two wonderful
acting performances as well.
Jill Schmits
(Mallory/Avril) is delightfully squeaky in the anti-ingenue roles, Aimee
Schmitz (Alaura Kingsley/Carla Hayward) is slinky as the "dangerous
female," and Megan O'Connell (who also plays two other roles) is an
absolute stitch in a scene where she plays a masseuse who works on a
self-absorbed film producer/director.
Louis J. Hare II
(as Buddy Fiddler) plays that movie mogul (and as Irwin S. Irving, his
completely recognizable carbon in the screenplay), and he does so with a
lusty gusto that is thoroughly enjoyable. Dressed in snug, superbly
tailored suits or barely dressed at all--and always in complete love
with himself--Hare's Fiddler is an energetic, well-connected,
manipulative bundle of pure id. Hare can sing and move well, and he lets
it all hangout with an unselfconscious glee that is full of
leering, self-gratifying charm.
Beth Curley also
turns in outstanding work in the roles of Oolie and Donna, the fictional
and real secretaries. Her tired-but-spunky, always-faithful, realistic
portrayals give the show heart as well as fun. Though she puts out
fantastic vocals and superb acting through the show, her gutsy, funny,
resigned "You Can Always Count On Me" is hands-down the number-one sing
in the dozen or more great ones in City of Angels.
Ted Stephens
III is another standout, as Stine, the fiction writer who tries to get
some of his work in the screenplay he is being paid to write. He plays a
lanky dweeb of a man, full of imagined strength and too-real weakness,
and pulls of the complex role with sensual, literary grace. He is also a
singer with an absolutely fabulous voice, and his vocal numbers soar
with supple, marvelous skill. His duets with Potter--"You're Nothing
Without Me" and its reprise--are gorgeous, fully-realized songs, good
enough to make you buy another ticket just to get to hear them again.
If you haven't
bought that first ticket yet, you haven't been paying attention, so let
me tell you again.
This
City of Angels is great--and no matter how busy your weekend is, you should
make time to see this show.
Need more reason
to clear your calendar immediately? Like all the SAU mainstage shows,
City of Angels shares the Galvin stage with a host of other events, so
it runs for a single weekend only--and more than any other I've seen
there so far, it emphasizes what a shame that truncated schedule is.
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