Sunday, January 17, 1999

Show's music is its one strong suit

By MORRIS SULLIVAN
NEWS-JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

DAYTONA BEACH — Whether you're a director or sitting in the audience of "Swingtime Canteen," you have a choice of two very different approaches. Is it a play with songs, as is most musical theater, or is it a collection of songs connected by a string of relatively inconsequential interludes?

If you attend Seaside Music Theater's production of "Swingtime Canteen," you'd best approach it from the "collection of songs" angle. The plot, what little there is of it, was pulled directly from the B grade propaganda films that Hollywood produced by the bushel during World War II, as are the characterization and dialogue.

If a director were to approach this as a play, concentrating on the text, he would have a daunting task in his hands. The show was developed in workshop by three playwrights. The director would be forced to choose between playing it stylistically straightforward or as high camp, which one of the playwrights, Charles Busch (who is mainly known for his campy satires of genre movies), probably had in mind.

Director Chuck Hoenes chose to play it straight, which is probably not the best choice. However, the audience on opening night, the vast majority of whom came of age during the era, would have, at best, not appreciated and, at worst, been offended by a camp approach.

Besides, the songs take up most of the onstage activity. Selected from the wartime repertoire of the Andrews Sisters, the music ranges from fiery swingers like "In the Mood" to rousing period- pieces like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," and from the stirring four-part harmonies of "I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time" to solo showcases like "I'll Be Seeing You."

For the most part, the music is wonderfully executed. The singers handle the complex harmonies impeccably and beautifully belt out the showcase numbers. The instrumentation falters occasionally. The script demands the actors not only be talented singers, but also play some of the instruments. Fortunately, most of the cast is able to execute the sometimes difficult instrumental tasks adequately, and even with an occasional flourish of flashiness.

Unfortunately, due to the conflict between the playwrights' muddy intentions and the vision of the director, the in-between-songs part of the production falters.

The setting is a USO show in London. The dialogue begins with tired old jokes and the deliberately canned-sounding between-song patter of the all-girl band that has arrived to entertain the GI's and sailors. As the story develops, the personalities and circumstances of the group's singer/dancer/ musicians emerge and the dialogue shifts into clichO-filled clashes of ego followed by predictably sentimental interludes, climaxing with an odd mix of both as the "happy ending" unfolds.

The characterizations are stereotyped and two- dimensional. There's Marian Ames (played by Elizabeth T. Murff), the aging starlet who leads the all- girl band. Singer/drummer Jo Sterling (Denise Davidson) is a former tomboy who is caught up in a war of egos with leggy glamour queen, Lilly McBain (Cristin Hubbard). Meanwhile, the unwashed, industrial tough-girl, Topeka Abotelli (Karen Oster), threatens to take on the Axis powers single-handedly, and inner strength emerges from the bashful girl from Wisconsin, Katie Gammersflugel (Catherine Motley).

The cast members are obviously competent, but the script and direction doesn't give them much to work with. Some elements of the staging don't help much, either. While the cast is reasonably accomplished and the choreography is authentic, the overly complicated set sometimes gets in the way and the dancing at times appears a little awkward and lacks snap.

The costumes are unimaginative. The set designer, Bob Fetterman, chose to color the set in bright red, white and blue flanked by oversized replicas of propaganda posters. Lighting designer Annmarie Duggan echoes the set with more red and blue. While the plan works at the beginning, all that red and blue soon becomes tiresome.

But who cares? See the show for the music it's pretty darned good.

'Swingtime Canteen'

Who: By Linda Thompson Bond, William Repicci and Charles Busch, with orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Bob McDowell and special material by Dick Gallagher.

When: Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Feb. 7.

Where: Ormond Performing Arts Center, 454 Yonge St., Ormond Beach.

Tickets: $20 - $22, with discounts for students, youth under 18, and teachers. Tickets are available by calling the SMT box office at (904) 252-6200.