OK. Reality isn't what one expect from slapstick comedy and particularly a musical. Yet what exactly is the message of this musical? Even nuns need to shake their booty? Catholics need some gospel lessons from the Baptists? A black sister can show white sisters how to get some soul? If you need some mindless entertainment with some obvious laughs, this will do. This show opens up in Atlanta this month and hopes to head to Broadway.
Ironically, the Kander and Ebb show, Curtains, which features a four-time Emmy-winning TV star (David Hyde Pierce), who possesses only a servicable voice, is a more satisfying musical. Much in the manner of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone that opened at the Ahmanson in downtown Los Angeles before moving on to Broadway, this show lovingly mimicks old musicals. Yet while The Drowsy Chaperone had a narrator who was listening to a cast recording of a musical and giving out commentary about his personal life and the personal lives of the cast, Curtains is a play-within-a-play conceit.
A Boston homicide police officer, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (David Hyde Pierce) goes a theater after the leading lady of the Robbin'Hood of the Old West is killed on opening night. As he unravels the murder mystery, he falls in love with the small-town girl making Niki Harris (Jill Paice), and helps doctor up the script and the music. Set in 1959, this show has old-fashioned values and looks back fondly at musicals of a more innocent time.
Curtains doesn't have the shock effect of Kander and Ebb's more famous piece, Cabaret, or its socio-political punch. The dancing (choreographed by Rob Ashford) won't make you think of Cabaret or Chicago either.
Instead, Kander and Ebb's last show (Ebb died in 2004) is a delightful trifle - light and fluffy without a single serious thought or commentary about the world. Instead of bump and grind, we have sweet little numbers. There is a flash of wit in the number where cast members remember the first murder victim "The Woman's Dead." There are the rousing, audience-pleasing numbers "Show People" and "Thataway!." Tony Award winner, Debra Monk as the show's producer belts out "It's a Business" which talks about the reality of musical theater. There's also a cute evolution of one musical piece, solved by the musical-loving Cioffi, "In the Same Boat." Predictably, we have an egotistical director (Edward Hibbert) and the bimbo chorine (Megan Sikora).
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