'Dames at Sea' bubbles over
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Marc Tumminelli is Lucky and Tessa Faye is Joan in the Saint Michael’s Playhouse production of “Dames at Sea.” Courtesy Saint Michael's Playhouse |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: June 22, 2009
COLCHESTER – If you think you've heard the songs and jokes in "Dames at Sea," it's because you probably have, or at least something just like them. All the music is derivative and most of the ideas and jokes are stolen, but that doesn't matter one bit, because the 1968 musical comedy is a parody of the big Broadway musical comedies of the 1930s – and it's delightful.
Saint Michael's Playhouse opened its summer season of Equity professional summer stock last week with a charming and effervescent production of this silly and entertaining confection, with music by Jim Wise and book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller.
You've heard the plot before. Young, naďve and innocent Ruby has just arrived in New York from the hinterlands to become a Broadway star. Accidentally she meets Dick, a boy from her Utah hometown and now a sailor, who wants to be a songwriter. Of course, the two fall immediately in love. The only thing that stands in their way is Mona, the sultry star of the show, who eyes Dick's songs and Dick himself for her own.
Of course, this is a spoof of the huge and overblown musicals of the Depression era, so the cast has only six members who are accompanied by two pianos and percussion. It's all silly but a lot of fun – with a multitude of bawdy double entendres.
At Saturday's performance, the St. Mike's production, directed and choreographed by Keith Andrews with musical direction by Nate Venet, was fast-paced and bubbly. The characters were all delightfully two-dimensional, beginning with the dark-voiced Abby Lee as the sultry femme fatale Mona. She was contrasted by the silly innocence of Lindsay Sutton as the ingénue Ruby. And all is oiled by the wise-cracking Joan, delivered with apt comic timing by Tessa Faye.
Although the men's roles were less interesting, they were equally well-played. Davis Rossetti's Dick was simple as simple can be, while Marc Tumminelli's Lucky was Joan's foil, Lucky. Stephen Hope played both Hennessey, the producer, and the captain of the ship with a charming sense of doom. All were fine hoofers and singers in the Broadway style.
The staging by Carl Tallent and costumes by Rachel Kurland were bright and colorful, beautifully exaggerated to over-the-top by Jeffrey Salzberg's imaginative lighting.
There isn't an introspective moment in "Dames at Sea," and that's just the way St. Mike's audiences want it.