Director Leigh
Barrett’s production of the Maltby/Shire revue, CLOSER THAN EVER (playing @ New
Rep through Sept. 28th) soars when the women are front and center.
(Barrett has split the songs among two male and two female singers.) The men mostly
have the angst ridden and sentimental songs but the women get the plum comic numbers.
When you have Barrett and Kathy St. George interpreting the material you’re
home free.
Well, not
necessarily. A couple of months ago I saw an ill fated production of COMPANY. I
could hardly wait for Barrett’s “Ladies Who Lunch.” It’s always the
showstopper. I’m sure it would have been, were it not for a sinister sound
system which entirely cut out the audio on the “Ladies,” leaving the audience
in misery. So here’s kudos for New Rep’s acoustics and their impeccable sound
system (something I used to take for granted).
Some of the
songs are ho-hum but a few are inspired: Barrett’s cheeky “The Bear, the Tiger,
the Hamster and the Mole” is a scientific rundown of the female of the (animal)
species, where “the male has control for one moment only,” (and that would be
the mating moment). We’re in hysterics even before the song arrives at the
ambidextrous oyster who can fertilize her own eggs, thank you very much!
St. George acts the heck out of the not so demure “Miss
Byrd” who flies away at lunchtime, unseen, to refresh her, let’s say, enthusiasm
for the rest of the workday. And St. George
sizzles in her sexy paean to the musicians who play the bass fiddle: She purrs,
she scats and she playfully messes with John Styklunas’ hair as he’s
accompanying her on base. The incomparable Jim Rice on piano makes the show
tick and he even sings a little harmony.
Brian Richard
Robinson gets laughs with “What Am I Doing” (up on her roof) as the guy
who can’t move on and David Foley gets to tug at our heartstrings with the
tender “Fathers of Fathers.” The singers spend a good deal of time pushing Jon
Savage’s multiple doors into place or carrying on (what look like) heavy
stuffed chairs and I began to worry that someone would pull a muscle. This is,
after all, a show about “getting older” and one would hope, wiser than that.
See CLOSER THAN
EVER for the ladies who are indeed funnier than ever.
