By Eric Marchese for Orange County Register
Never GONNA DANCE
Long Beach's West Coast premiere is a romantic, playful tip of the hat to the genre.

Many of the best stage musicals of the past two decades have been the accurately termed "retro musicals" for the way they mine the stage and screen of the '30s and '40s for inspiration. No one can question the technique - musicals were in their heyday during that period, and today's producers and librettists have sought new ways to incorporate classic material. Chalk up "Never Gonna Dance" as one of the best retro musicals of recent memory. Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher took the 1936 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie "Swing Time," with its raft of great songs by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields; interpolated several more songs by Kern and other lyricists (like Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy McHugh and P.G. Wodehouse); reshaped the scenes and dialogue; and voila - a new stage musical was born in 2003.

Musical Theatre West's large-scale West Coast premiere fills the spacious Carpenter Center with enough dancing for 10 shows and a score that alternates between sweepingly romantic and playful. Directed by Larry Raben, music-directed by Darryl Archibald and choreographed by Lee Martino, the production is a happy, rhapsodic salute to the 1930s, to '30s musicals and, by extension, to the entire genre.

The plot is pure movie-musical stuff: Vaudeville dancer John "Lucky" Garnett (the Astaire role) has decided to turn his back on the small-time and wed his beloved, Margaret. When he's late for his own wedding, his snooty future mother-in-law, who looks down her nose at show biz, bets him he can't earn $25,000 in New York City in 30 days - without dancing. If he loses the bet, he forfeits the right to marry Margaret. Armed with his "lucky" 25-cent piece, Lucky arrives in the Big Apple. Comic complications pair him with Penny Carroll (the Rogers character), a teacher at the Swing Time Dance Studio and a talented amateur dancer. His engagement, her near-engagement and other staple musical comedy setbacks keep them apart before a whirlwind happy ending.

Raben's vibrant staging reteams David Engel and Tami Tappan Damiano, the successful leads of MTW's 2003 staging of "Crazy for You." The pair turn "Pick Yourself Up" into a hot, kinetic, romantic dance number, and infuse "The Way You Look Tonight," a Kern-Fields classic, with gentle reverence. As Lucky, Engel is more self-deprecatingly masculine than Astaire, with a breezy air and self-confidence, even bravado, and a soft, often expressive tenor to match his graceful, agile dancing. He brings energy and brisk comedy to Lucky's attempts to suppress his urges to dance in the "I Won't Dance" number, as Martino's sinewy dance moves match Kern's sexy music. Damiano is more contemporary than Rogers, which means she's less glamorous and more practical but also more vulnerable, a down-to-earth type of girl who just happens to be an amazing dancer. When Penny sings "I'm Old Fashioned," Damiano's voice soars as she compares her Midwestern self to corn among the Tiffany diamonds of Manhattan.

Penny's pal Mabel is your garden-variety smart-talking second banana, given cheerful sarcasm by Harriet Harris. Henry Polic II fulfills the same function and provides stalwart good cheer as Lucky's confidant, impoverished broker Alfred J. Morganthal.

Joshua Finkel hones comedic narcissism to an art form as Ricardo Romero, the Latin heartthrob in pursuit of Penny, a hothead hambone who mangles the English language (and who never goes anywhere without his trio of backup singers). Deborah Fauerbach misses the comic opportunities of playing Margaret, but Kim Van Biene is aptly snobby as her blue-blooded mom. Yvette Tucker and Danial Brown dish up sizzling dancing as the hot young couple who give Lucky and Penny a run for their money. John Moschitta Jr. makes much of the small comic-relief role of dance studio owner Mr. Pangborn, a takeoff on old movie character actor Franklin Pangborn. James Gruessing is nicely hyperbolic as the big-time promoter, Major Bowes.

The seven-man, seven-woman chorus more than holds its own against the leads and supporting players - it shines. Archibald and his orchestra have an expert handle on the vintage score, and Martino's choreography gives the musical numbers pizazz. In some instances, as in the swingy "Shimmy With Me," the dancing is far hotter than what one might have been seen 70 years ago.

This is also a visually dazzling production, thanks to Joe Yakovetic's scenic design and Thomas G. Marquez's costumes. The opening number, "Dearly Beloved," features the chorus in shimmering pink wedding-party garb. The Latin-themed nightclub where Ricardo performs is replete with green palm trees and pink flamingoes. The view from the top of an unfinished skyscraper is both impressive and dreamy, making that set an apt metaphor for "Never Gonna Dance," the impressively dreamy new kid on the block.

2/24/2006

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