Excerpted from The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Section D, Page , Nov. 8, 2000
A tuneful celebration of cliches
November 8, 2000
BY TAHREE LANE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Dames at Sea celebrates cliché in a fine little song-and-dance show.
In a scant two hours, its talented cast of seven pulls you into the cartoonish world of 1930s musicals. It leaves you with nothing to analyze and an appreciation for theater where everything clicks, including toes and heels.
Dames, which runs through Nov. 18 at the Village Players Theatre, features a boo-hiss prima donna, a been-around chorus girl with a heart-o’-gold, and a wide-eyed innocent from Smalltown, USA, who gets off the bus in the Big Apple with nothing but a pair of tap shoes and a smile.
On the male side are a grumpy director who has a show to put on and the minor inconvenience of a theater being bulldozed and some sailors: a handsome songwriter, a ditzy swabby, and a rich-boy ship’s captain.
Our ingenue is Ruby (Melissa Kidder), an adorable ringer for Betty Boop with pincurls, batting eyelashes, and boop-boop-de-doop voice. She dreams of tapping her way across Broadway. She also wants romance badly enough to sing, "I’ll darn his socks and wash his shirts until they shine." (Remember, it’s a cartoon.)
Pamela West-Williams is Mona Kent, the star we love to hate, and Sue Carter Smith plays Joan, the seasoned chorus girl whose mother tongue is Bronx: "Now look wut ya done, ya big lug!" Both are top-notch.
Director Terry R. Watson also did the choreography, which includes good tap and otherwise graceful movements that can be tough to teach to nondancers. And, he plays two characters with comic flair.
Joe Dennehy turns in an animated performance as the sailor-songwriter starstruck by Mona but in love with Ruby ("Broadway, I’ll lick you yet!").
Ryan Mahaffey does a fine job as Lucky, the sailor who’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and veteran Norb Mills is a dandy grouch who finds religion at the happy (what else?) end.
Overall, the vocals are above average and the 15 tunes by Jim Wise are pleasant but not memorable. However, the on-stage piano and percussion accompaniment add a lot. And the Singapore Sue scene is a stitch.
"Dames at Sea" is at the Village Players Theatre, 2740 Upton Ave., through Nov. 18. Curtain is at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $14; $12 for seniors and students. Information: 472-6817.
Last Modified: 02/25/06