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Sunday, May 04, 2008

'Piano' Finally Comes Alive During Act II

By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
      On Friday night, Act I and Act II of Irving Berlin's “I Love a Piano” were like night and day.
       The first act was blah. The second act was on fire.
       At intermission you wondered, Was that first act really as ho-hum as you thought? Yes, it was.
       Vocally, the six performers did their job in the act, but dramatically and choreographically they were at times underwhelming. Plus much of the material was unmemorable. You could drop “Let Me Sing and I'm Happy” and “Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil” and not miss them, either from a musical or narrative standpoint.
       In this two-hour revue, some of the major historical events and eras of the first half of the 20th century (e.g. Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II) served as backdrop for the music of the prolific Berlin.
       Director-choreographer Ray Roderick may have failed to take advantage of the potential drama or humor in an era or in Berlin's famous tunes — such as “Alexander's Ragtime Band,” the jazzy “Everybody's Doin' It,” the potentially potent “Puttin' on the Ritz” and “God Bless America.”
       Roderick should have had the audience do a singalong or, short of that, had the performers and the unseen three-piece band put more oomph in them to grab the audience's attention.
       Several people sitting around me at Popejoy Hall seemed to agree with my sentiment.
       One female patron whispered “I'm bored,” to her husband halfway through Act I. Another said she would have left at intermission had the shuttle been running.
       Act II opened in the postwar years with the silly songs “What Are We Going to Do with All the Jeeps” and “What Do You Do with A General?”
       The show finally comes alive in Scene Two. Jim (Sean Schwebke) and Eileen (Darcie Bender) are dressed as happy hobos singing “We're a Couple of Swells.” That lively number segues into the popular “Easter Parade,” though the hobos try to disrupt the parading upper-crust swells George (Mark Baratelli), Sadie (Karla Shook), Alex (Christopher Lengerich) and Ginger (Jillian Nyhan Zygo).
       Songs in Scene Three came from the hit Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun.” The performers, seen in an audition setting, fired up the show. The anthemic “There's No Business Like Show” and the comedic “Anything You Can Do” — carried the day.
   

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If you go WHAT: Irving Berlin's “I Love a Piano”
       WHEN: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. today
       WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus
       HOW MUCH: Tickets are $30, $40 and $47.50 online at www.unmtickets.com or at the door

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