Dames at Sea, Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre
Thursday, September 23rd, 2004 by AnniAndy Meyers is super talented and hot! I want him to father my babies!
That’s for your collection of reviews, Andy. You’re welcome.
Ok, onto my review.
Dames at Sea was originally written to spoof movie musicals of the 1930s. It is intentionally hokey, silly, and completely unrealistic. When it was first performed in 1966 with Bernadette Peters as Ruby, I can see how it might have been percieved as a nice homage to that specific brand of entertainment. However, with today’s modernist sensibilities and/or cynicism, its difficult to look at it without a certain degree of disdain. I mean, it is REally cheezeball material. But it is also very sweet. I just have a hard time appreciating characters and plot lines from an era that is long dead, and that I never experienced. I assume most younger viewers would feel the same way, which explains why 90% of the audience was over the age of seventy.
The actors handled the material well. I do believe they found the balance between making the characters believable and making it clear that they were silly and unrealistic. For example, the male and female leads meet each other in the beginning of the show, when she is an unknown farm girl from Centerville, USA. By the end of the show, she is a big Broadway star, and the two of them are talking (singing and dancing, rather) marriage. Not exactly Neil Simon. However, even within the context of this ridiculousness, the performances were solid enough to give these characters as much depth as was possible.
Kathleen White as Ruby was really a joy to watch. Her comic sensibility mixed with sweet ingenue naivete was perfect for the role. I wish she had committed more to a specific style of singing, however. It felt like she was stuck somewhere in between belting and softness the whole show. Chrysten Peddie as Joan really captured the balsy-broad-best-friend-toughie-with-a-soft-heart-type really well. Her manner of speaking reminded me a lot of Jennifer jason Leigh in The Hudsucker Proxy. Same era. She is one hell of a belter. Andy Meyers as Dick was sweet and charming, and brought a good amount of youthful innocence and naievete to the role, which in turn made it all the more believable. Very fun to watch throughout the production.
My only casting issue is with Judith Jarosz as Mona Kent, the washed-up-but-still-desirable Broadway star. Jarosz does not have anywhere near the acting or dancing chops of her other cast mates, and looked horribly out of place among the rest. Her presence in the show makes the entire show weaker. Had the role been played as that of a beauty past her prime, it may have worked. However, it was played (and directed) as a woman who is still commanding and lovely. Incidentially, Mrs. Jarosz is the director’s wife. And I thought that only happened in Los Angeles!!!
The show, while not my particular cup-of-tea, is well handled by the cast, and I can see why it is being revived. Because old people like it. And old people spend money on theatre. So, I say, Bring on the senior citizens!!!


