It has the music and lyrics of a true American poet-composer of theater and film. It has a cast of Broadway-quality actor-singers-dancers. It has a spirited band plus conductor doing music that’s often arranged with originality, always with verve. What it doesn’t have is the continuity and class of a Frank Loesser show.
The plot of Luck Be a Lady: An abandoned nightclub in the early 1950s draws a Woman who remembers being kissed by and falling in love with a Young Man there. But an Other Woman waitress-performer drew him in on a lark, and he lost his fiance. The temptress ended up with an Other Man, though, and the now older Man wanders through life. Eventually, they all get together in the nightclub, led by a pianist who, with his band, has them singing and dancing and loving as couples who are right for each other.
There’s no dialogue. Everything’s expressed by songs with Loesser’s lyrics along with the singers’ miming and dance. Unfortunately, at times the songs aren’t in tune with the “plot” happenings, or it’s not clear what’s present and what’s flashback, or Man disappears for an inordinate amount of time, or there’s no apparent reason whatsoever for the director’s choice or progression of Loesser’s songs.
As for the cast, Louise Pitre doesn’t have to regret how she loved “Heart and Soul” and needs “Somebody, Somewhere” because, as she sings, “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You.” Her loved-one-grown-older, W. Joseph Matheson, does the title song proud but, in his underdeveloped role, rarely appears to let us know more about his voice. Why seductive Stephanie Umoh has to have as the Other Woman’s introductory song “I Got Spurs That Jingle, Jangle, Jingle” is a mystery.
Erik Altemus and Mary Michael Patterson, who play the Young Man and Young Woman, both have youthful charm. He’s a whiz with a uke, and she can tap well, too. James Davide Larson as Other Man makes the most of a paper figure, who seems to be around just to help out with the almost-plot.
Conductor and pianist Sinai Tabak has a bit of a role. What’s weird is that when the scene switches from past to present, he is still at the piano, though it was originally in disuse when Woman sat down at it.
The staging gets elaborate. There’s a broken proscenium arch inside a real one. A curtained scrim behind the piano rises to reveal a band. A backdrop with a sketchy pic of Loesser sports a pattern of clown-like diamonds that change color. (One all-green lighting design spills on the heads of some of the band; it looks like guess-what.) At times lighting goes wild, with spotlights illuminating the theater. Then again, there are a bunch of mirrored balls revolving from the ceiling and casting circles of light. Bulbs in a chandelier-like thing hang over the arch. Asolo Rep once again this year is putting production values over substance.
As I watched the show’s opening, I kept trying to pin down what I was seeing and hearing. Not a musical comedy with a real plot and dialogue. Not a revue or an animated concert. No unifying theme for the songs, as in a cabaret. Then a character stepped down into the front row, grabbed a woman, and whirled her in the final steps of a dance. Ah, audience participation! The final resort of an overproduced, underwhelming production: A Cruise-Ship Musical!
