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City of Angels
Book by Larry Gelbart
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by David Zippel
Directed by Frank Roberts
Musical Direction by Ann Stewart
Produced by Music on Stage
At the Cutting Hall
150 E. Wood Street
Palatine, IL
Call 847-289-4419 or www.musiconstage.org
April 21, 22, 23, 29 & 30, 2006
City of Angels plays rocky and fumbles
City of Angels is rarely mounted because it takes a large cast, a 14 piece orchestra deft at jazz, a large set, and many costume changes involving performers who must play multiple roles, who can sing and deliver the quips. The show contains two stories and features a complete movie score with scatting and voice over narration plus a complete jazz score with cute story songs, bebop patter numbers, torchy ballads and bouncy jazz rhythms.
The best part of the community theatre production done by Music On Stage of Palatine is the orchestra that sounded terrific and landed the tough Cy Coleman score deftly. Kudos to Ann Stewart the musical director.
I don’t normally review community theatre because by the very nature of community theatre there are limits on the talent pool and the agenda is more about getting everyone involved that producing great theatre. I was invited to review this show. My problem with community theatre is that I simply can’t judge these productions differently than professional productions. Good theatre is good theatre and bad is bad. Period. I don’t lower my standards because the local community is producing the show.
Music On Stage’s mounting of City of Angels was a mixed bag with some successes but ultimately the show was just too difficult for the cast. There were too many flubbed lines, missed lighting cues and flat, off key singing to make the show work.
From the opening number, a rousing movie number filled with action underscoring and scanting from four girls, the show starts to wobble. City of Angels won six Tony Awards in 1990 including “Best Musical,” ‘Best book and best musical score. It was the first Broadway musical to feature a full jazz score.
City of Angels pokes fun at the private-eye genre of film noir ala Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. With colorful 40’s costumes, we are instantly catapulted by the two independent stories that eventually intertwine. Set in seductive, glamorous and glitzy Hollywood of the 1940’s, City of Angels follows the story of a young novelist named Stine (Tom Moore) and his alter ego, Stone (Dan Collins) the hard-bitten private detective through a series of misadventures, femme fatales and complicated plot twists that qualifies as a “whodunit.” Filled with sharp, witty, often sardonic wisecracks, double talk and hilarious gags, City of Angels should have laughs to spare but poor timing left many zingers get by. Even the lyrics have their share of funny cracks and sexual innuendo. This is smart writing that was poorly executed.
While the two stories take some time to unfold, we are engaged by the jazzy underscoring and the film noir motif where Stone become the hero and Stine, his creator, become the lackey of the control-freak director, Buddy (played as a cartoon buffoon by Clyde Patterson). Each story is purposely filled with 40’s film clichés, stock characters in predictable situations. The bouncing from ‘reel life’ to ‘real life’ generally works, lighting color changes make the segues plausible. A quicker pace wouldn’t hurt.
The songs, such as “What Do You Don’t Know About Women,” the brilliant “Tennis Song” together with cutesy clever numbers such as “Ev’rybody’s Gotta Be Somewhere” and the catchy “You Can Always Count on Me” add a tuneful turn to the detective plots. Unfortunately, the voices went from weak to adequate. The lack of vocal talent hurt the show and the uneven acting didn’t help things. Tom Moore as Stone had some fine moments and Carrie Dabelow offered nice work as did Angie Kell-Brandenburg as Stine’s wife.
I praise the ambition but City of Angels is much too tough a show for a community theatre group to handle. Those curious about City of Angels might find enough here to satisfy.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed April 16, 2006
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