Excerpted from The City Paper, Toledo, Ohio, Page 25, Nov. 2 - Nov. 8, 2000

Curtain Call
By Alyce Lutomski

Tapping her way into your heart

Busby Berkeley! The magic of the ’30s silver screen! Those fantastical production numbers those precious geometrical overhead shots that are completely lost on the audience in the film. Goodbye, reality! Who needed it during the Great Depression?

Ruby Keeler brought it back to earth the naive ingénue with so much grit that she’d faint before she’d take a break from dancing. The kid thrust into the footlights: "You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!" And she did.

"Dames at Sea," playing at the Village Players’ Upton Avenue theater from Nov. 3 to 18, pays homage to the Berkeley boy-meets-girl-with-tap-shoes scenario, full of songs with that 1930s bounce. Ruby Keeler passed the torch song to Bernadette Peters when "Dames" premiered, and now it’s passed on to another youngster.

Melissa Kidder is a phenom - a Bowling Green high-school senior who stunned the Players with her audition and has nailed down the part of "Ruby," the tap-dancing ingénue. Of course, the boy is "Dick" for Dick Powell, Keeler’s eternal juvenile partner, played by the multi-talented Joe Dennehy. He was fantastic as Cliff in the VP’s great "Cabaret," as well as in the Rep’s "West Side Story" and "Chorus Line" and at the Croswell Opera House.

Director Terry Watson doubles in the role of the Captain, joined by Norb Mills as Hennesey, the producer. Sue Carter Smith is Joan, the showgirl who befriends Ruby, and Pamela West-Williams plays Mona, the star, whose misfortune gives Ruby a big break. Ryan Mahaffey plays Dick’s buddy, Lucky.

A great, fun show with rising star Kidder and a great cast. You’ll be able to say you knew her when. Info: 472-6817.

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Last Modified: 02/25/06