Through Sun 10/18
It’s a mixed bag and an odd mix. With terrific dance numbers, a murderous storyline and a cynical (yet probably true) look into many writerly hearts, Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical opened this season’s Broadway Series at Playhouse Square. Working with a script written by Woody Allen (based on the screenplay of Allen’s 1994 film of the same name) and musical numbers from the 1920s, the director of the tour version Jeff Whiting and choreographer Clare Cook offer an old-school look at the Roaring Twenties.
The light story turns on novice playwright David Shayne (a winsome Michael Williams) and his artistic and romantic missteps while getting his first play produced for Broadway. That the play has made the big time is due less to its merits and more to producer Julian Marx (a conniving Rick Grossman) and his deal with gangster Nick Valenti (played with authority and charm by Michael Corvino). Valenti will back the show if his girlfriend, the comically untalented Olive Neal (overplayed by Jemma Jane with an accent sprewing out so fast and thick she needs subtitles), can star as one of the leads.
To keep Olive from straying, the gangster assigns his henchmen Cheech (the appealingly tough yet ultimately nerdy Jeffrey Brooks) to “dissuade” backstage romances. Romances do spring up, but the real love story concerns Cheech’s discovery, while watching rehearsals, that he’s got very good ideas about what makes a play work: turns out the gangster’s an excellent and (as it turns out) over-dedicated playwright. Too bad for him as he learns that writers often give their “all” for their art.
Other characters include a classy Emma Stratton as established actress Helen Sinclair, Bradley Allan Zarr whose comical leading man Warner Purcell dotes on comfort food when thwarted in his pursuit of Olive, and a plaintive Hannah Deflumeri as Ellen, Shayne’s betrayed girlfriend.
The music is 1920s all the way. Funny how the tunes all seemed the same here (“Tiger Rag,” “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” “Runnin’ Wild,” etc.), when other arrangements of these same songs show they can be quite distinctive. Likely it’s the limited orchestration offered. It works for dancing though.
And so it’s the engaging choreography and bright costumes by William Ivey Long that showed off the skills of ensemble dancers that made the show work as well as it did. Dancers included Blaire Baker, Mary Callahan, Jake Corcoran, Cleveland native Elizabeth Dugas, Carissa Fiorillo, Patrick Graver, Andrew Hendrick, Lainee Hunter, Justin Jutras, Brian Thomas Martin, Conor McGiffin, Andrew Metzgar, Corinne Munsch, Kaylee Olson, Joey Ortolani, Kelly Peterson, Lexie Plath and Ian Saunders.
But certain features of this show rang sour. These days bullets, gang shootings and killing people who merely inconvenience one just isn’t comic — if it ever was. The headlines opening week about yet another school shooting (in Oregon) and the murder of children on Cleveland streets — an unlucky coincidence — sure took a lot of the fun out of the show. Violence, even filtered through the eyes of Woody Allen (a favorite writer) just didn’t seem funny.
Bottom Line: Great dance numbers, too many murders, realistic look at writerly egos.
Bullets Over Broadway runs through Sun 10/18 at PlayhouseSquare’s Conor Palace Theatre. For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go online to playhousesquare.org.
[Written by Laura Kennelly] [Photo by Matthew Murphy]Cleveland, OH 44115