It’s telling that there’s no program listing for the changing colored, stretched-curtain design of Come Fly With Me’s backdrop, for it’s the best part of this show. All else seems to be imported by Florida Studio Theater, which has never to my knowledge, itself created such an amateurish revue. It has little or no real script, the music is divided between on-site and recorded, and its cast members lack chemistry and vocal chops, individually and together. The sounds of a plane taking off accompany the singers’ introduction, helped by their well-targeted opening medley, unified by Sammy Cahn’s “It Seems to Me I’ve Heard That Song Before.” The group begins trying to interact with the audience but soon ends with songs with a time theme: “Time After Time,” with Mindy leading; “Five Minutes More” and “Day by Day” following as Perry takes over with a mainly comical vocal emphasis. The group next begins going off-key together. An inane sequence has Perry and Mindy going on at length about NYC vs. Paris, France, as each’s favorite place. No appropriate songs. A rare piece of pertinent info comes next: Cahn was nominated 40 times for Oscars. One winner, “I Fall in Love Too Easily” sung weakly by Samantha, is followed by her mention of Mario Lanza. Percy then murders “Be My Love” that Lanza sang on film. David Zack comes in with equal treatment of “Because You’re Mine,” another Lanza hit. Obviously experienced as a cruise ship performer, Perry brings onstage an audience member to help the gals sing “Three Coins in a Fountain.” Help consists of the man sitting between the two who sing. After this, the group does “It’s Magic” comically, apparently not realizing it’s a love song. The boys close Part I with a silly “Bei Mir Bistu Shein” interrupted by the gals who mildly jitterbug with them until a return to the vocal. A salient feature of Part II, from which all the people in the tables around me at opening were gone, becomes a change of costumes from pilots’ dark blue uniforms and old-time stewardess’s light blue skirted ones to evening wear. The men wear tuxes; the women, identical black strapped (with rhinestones), short flowing skirted evening dresses. Each performer has a featured number: Perry’s “As Long as It Comes From the Heart” like Jimmy Durante (and seemingly Perry’s claim to fame); Samantha’s “Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night” on key; Mindy’s “I’ll Walk Alone” incongruously joined by David. She’s with all for “Kiss Me Once and Kiss Me Twice.” The subtitle of that one, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time,” characterizes the show. A penultimate medley features songs about love, mainly in or going toward marriage. It leads mysteriously into the final songs “Class” and “My Kind of Town (Chicago).” A disconnected ending for a strange conglomeration.
