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What a perfect hoot! Put the talented kids at Studio 58 together with sharpie director Dean Paul Gibson, an A-team of designers, deliciously clever choreography from Shelley Stewart Hunt and a Lloyd Nicholson four-piece band that sounds like a full orchestra, and the sweet goofiness of Sandy Wilson’s faux-1920s musical is transformed into an absolutely delightful evening of theatre. Pam Johnson’s set looks like a page of sheet music from the show. On it come shuffling, in the words of the opening song, “perfect young ladies,” English ones, students at Mme. Dubonnet’s finishing school in Nice. Their educational goal: boyfriends. Sheila White’s costumes are delicious eye candy: the girls in flapper dresses, the boys in straw boater hats. All the performances are terrific but a few of the women really stand out. Of the central corps of young ladies, Tamera Broczkowski sings beautifully, Lindsey Angell’s Betty Boopish voice is adorable, and Alecia Braun is a little dynamo. As the French maid, Maria Oldeen c’est magnifique. Oldeen and Braun can really dance, too. But no one looks out of place in the dance numbers. The entire ensemble gives you your money’s worth. This is a slight, silly, campy show, as lightweight as can be. But it’s superbly entertaining, professional-quality musical theatre. |
