Breaking Up is Hard to Do

It’s the ‘60s. Left at the altar, Marge finds “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” so best friend Lois persuades her to get away and forget. They eschew any “Lonely Night” by booking an end-of-season stay in a Catskills resort “Where the Boys Are” -- Esther’s Paradise.

Esther’s egotistical nightclub star Del croons “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” to all ages of appreciative gals. He’s really aiming to impress an incognito scout from “American Bandstand.” Lois mistakenly acts as a “Stupid Cupid” between him and Marge. Actually, Marge attracts Gabe, secretly the writer of the songs that make Del a success.

While Del pretends Marge is a dream like “Betty Grable,” Harvey, the resort’s “King of Clowns,” hankers after Helen Holliday’s nice, attractive Esther. In her presence he feels “Next Door to an Angel,” and it may be that she needs more than a widow’s memories of marriage.

When disenchanted Marge thinks she may be headed for a “Solitaire” life, Gabe and she share “Laughter in the Rain.” After a number of relationships and discoveries of “Bandstand”-worthy talent get straightened out, all can sing “Love Will Keep Us Together.”

With appropriate musical backing, the cast does justice to Neil Sedaka’s songs. Sarah Cassidy’s Marge matures nicely, and Alana Opie shows Lois is as worthy an entertainer as a friend. That Brian Minyard rightly infuses Del with a satiric ego doesn’t mean his songs aren’t good to hear.

Robby May evokes sympathy for Gabe. As the comic so old-fashioned that he was playing “when the Dead Sea was only sick,” Steve Carroll keeps the audience laughing at but always liking him.

The Golden Apple has an established fine record of producing juke box musicals. Director/choreographer Kyle Ennis Turoff isn’t “Breaking Up” that record in the least staging Sedaka’s songs.