In the sixty-six years of its existence, and certainly in the fourteen years since performances have been indoors and in the round at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, Sacramento’s Music Circus has specialized in productions of musicals that feature great song-and-dance numbers. Many of these productions have been old chestnuts from the first half of the last century.
“Nice Work If You Can Get It” would qualify as one of those, for it certainly features great song- and-dance numbers that were penned long ago, but it isn’t an old chestnut – or at least it isn’t a classic from more than 70 years ago. Instead, it is a recent creation that uses songs from over 70 years ago. The songs came from the Gershwins (George and Ira), but the story is by Joe DiPietro, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for creating the story into which the great songs of the Gershwins are cleverly placed. And as directed by Charles Repole, the Music Circus production that was staged last week was one of the best and most enjoyable of recent years.
The story Mr. DiPietro has concocted is a standard boy-meets-girl tale, but it is enlivened by supporting characters who really steal the show at various points. In sum, the cast features ten principal roles, and each role is well-defined, despite the lack of any real gravitas attached to any of them. In the end, all ten were appealing in last week’s production, and the cast members playing them all had standout moments.
Matt Loehr was excellent as Jimmy, the playboy son of a high society woman (wonderfully played by Jamie Jones), whose appearance late in the second act works perfectly, even ingeniously, in pairing up all of the principles. Kristie Kerwin, as Billie, was Jimmy’s love interest, and she was equally believable as the scruffy tom-boy in the first act and the love-scorned woman in the second.
But the cast was stellar throughout, led by Michael Kostroff as Cookie, who accidentally becomes a faux butler to Jimmy, and Mark Bradley Miller as Cookie’s sidekick, who accidentally becomes a faux banquet chef. Also excellent, with scene-stealing performances, were Madeleine Doherty as a temperance society woman who ends up drunk and swinging from a chandelier at one point, and Paige Faure as the socialite modern dance star who is Jimmy’s fiancée until he manages to disengage from that commitment. Rounding out the cast were the always fine Ron Wisniski as the dancer’s father, Rich Hebert as an intrusive police officer, and Holly Ann Butler as a love-starved dance hall gal. A top-notch twelve-member ensemble completed the cast.
The musical highlights of this terrific production were almost too numerous to mention, but we’ll give it a shot. Mr. Loehr and Ms. Kerwin had a great tap dance duet on “’S Wonderful”; Mr. Loehr, Mr. Kostroff, and the dancers had another dance highlight on “Fascinating Rhythm”; Mr. Loehr and Ms. Kerwin sang the title song, and then Mr. Loehr gave it a strong reprise; Mr. Miller and Ms. Butler had fun with “Blah, Blah, Blah”; Ms. Doherty had a fine solo on “By Strauss”; she, Mr. Hebert and Mr. Wisniski (and the male ensemble) perked up “Demon Rum”; and Ms. Faure and the ensemble sang and danced on “I’ve Got a Crush on You.”
Great credit must also go to Mr. Repole for keeping the story interesting enough to allow the great music to seem to fit the story (most of it does) and for somehow devising that amazing chandelier scene and another that had Ms. Faure in a wedding dress that had the longest train in musical history.
The musical direction was ably handled by Craig Barna who conducted the excellent fifteen-piece orchestra. (Dennis Castellano was credited as musical supervisor.) The terrific choreography was by Michael Lichtefeld; the excellent period costumes (including that crazy wedding dress) were designed by Heather Lockard (from an original design by Martin Pakledinaz); and the sets were designed by Stephen Gifford.
In sum, this production was Sacramento’s Music Circus at its best. It certainly doesn’t hurt to start with the great songs of the Gershwins, but with a powerhouse cast and a thoroughly professional crew, this “Nice Work If You Can Get It” was as nice as it can get.