Word-of-mouth has created a lot of buzz around the 5th Avenue's new production of "Wonderful Town."
Lines started to appear last week outside of the 5th's box office for a show that almost everyone who hasn't seen it describes as, "Isn't that the one where three sailors dance around New York?"
Actually, the sailors appear in "On the Town" (a later musical also featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein).
In "Wonderful Town," two sisters dance around New York, getting into various hijinks, including a madcap conga with members of the Brazilian Navy.
Don't worry too much about the plot (there isn't much anyway); the show is just an excuse to string together a number of wonderful songs by Bernstein with sparkling lyrics by the incomparable team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Written in the 1950s, the story is really a fairy tale of the heyday of Greenwich Village in the artistic 1930s. The current production further removes the whole thing from reality by giving everyone neon-colored costumes and bright postcard-picture sets.
Because this is a 5th Avenue original production, the casting geniuses have pulled in a top troupe of local talent for the leads.
Charming the socks off the audience and the critics, Sarah Rudinoff plays as Ruth, the witty writer and older sister of devastatingly pretty Eileen. If you've been hanging out at fringe festivals or smaller venues, you already know that Rudinoff is a killer cabaret entertainer and the powerhouse behind such one-woman shows as "Go There" or "Broad Perspective."
Rudinoff's impeccable comic timing shines in such songs as "One Hundred Easy Ways" about how not to impress a man and the Act I finale "Conga" where she flings herself like a ragdoll into the arms of the 5th's ensemble of handsome men.
Never mind that the Brazilian sailors are an equal mix of blue-eyed blondes and Asian-Americans, the guys quickly change costumes and reappear as a group of Irish policeman to serenade "My Darlin' Eileen." The vocal and dancing talents of all the men make the quick changes in nationalities just part of the fun as well as ample evidence of the depth of talent in this town.
As the lovely Eileen, beloved of policemen and everything else male onstage, Billie Wildrick has the vocal chops to keep up with Sarah Rudinoff. Wildrick wowed 5th Avenue audiences as Columbia in "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and Philia in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." She also recently picked up a Seattle Footlights Award for her ditzy Mayzie La Bird in SCT's production of "Seussical!"
Like Rudinoff, Wildrick has honed her comic timing in cabaret and fringe shows and she looks like what Damon Runyon would call "a swell doll" in this production.
Backing up Rudinoff and Wildrick are two terrific singing actors, Timothy McCuen Piggee and Brandon O'Neill. As the befuddled editor of Ruth, Cornish College of the Arts assistant professor Piggee gets most of the tender love ballads, well-suited to his good looks and velvet voice. O'Neill has a breakout role as the befuddled Wreck, the upstairs neighbor and out-of-work football player. He's so good in the part that you wonder if Comden and Green wrote "Pass the Football" for him.
And it says something about the polish of this production that the 5th even added such notable local actors as Carol Swarbrick (the fantastic Mrs. Lovett in the recent "Sweeney Todd") and David Pichette (a regular lead at ACT and the Seattle Rep) in minor comic roles as a frustrated society matron and a Greek landlord, respectively.
"Wonderful Town" closes with the Sunday matinee on April 9. If you're looking for a spring fling where all the audience is expected to do is laugh and have a thoroughly good time, drop by the 5th Avenue Theatre box office at 1308 5th Avenue. Tickets range from $19 to $71.
Catch Stephen Schwartz
Most people know composer Stephen Schwartz for the current Broadway smash "Wicked" or his 1971 hit "Godspell." Besides several Grammy awards, Schwartz also picked up a couple of Academy Awards for his work on Disney's "Pocahontas."
One of his earlier works was an odd but haunting little musical called "Pippin" about a son of Charlemagne. More an allegory about the Vietnam war than a medieval history lesson, the show moved off Broadway and into the college circuit some time ago. Now, before "Wicked" comes to town, you can see "Pippin" at the 5th Avenue Theatre in May.
As usual for the 5th's original productions, the company is also providing a free "Spotlight Night" to preview the show.
Schwartz will be on stage at the 5th on April 9 to answer questions from the 5th's artistic director David Armstrong. Expect the pair to review Schwartz's long career in Broadway musical and dish a little insider dirt about what it takes to get a musical produced these days.
The 5th's Spotlight Nights also include some live musical sampling from the composer's history sung by local actors (although Armstrong has been known to persuade composers to take their own turn at the piano) and a brief slideshow history of a musical's first Broadway run.
Given the ticket price (it's free), these 90-minute shows are definitely the best deal in town for musical theater junkies. Reservations can be made online through the 5th Avenue's website or show up at the box office on April 9. The Spotlight Night starts at 7 p.m. on April 9 and runs to 8:30 p.m. with festival seating.
Rosemary Jones writes about arts and entertainment for the Capitol Hill Times. She can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.Hill[[In-content Ad]]
