A Sign of the Times, at New World Stages, is the latest in a seemingly endless parade of shows made up of pop hits from either a particular time period, or from a particular artist. This time it’s not even entirely from one artist; most songs here were made famous by Petula Clark in the early 1960s. The rest are songs that were on the radio at around the same time Clark was topping the charts. The songs are catchy and nostalgia-inducing (“Downtown” is one of my favorites from childhood), but the paper-thin story surrounding them is predictable and shallow.
Lindsey Hope Pearlman’s book follows aspiring photographer Cindy from suburban Ohio to hip, happening NYC, and lightly touches on the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Liberation, the Vietnam War, the advertising world of Mad Men, and even Gay Power (Richard J. Robin is credited with creating the story).
The majority of the numbers are fairly routinely staged by director Gabriel Barre and choreographer JoAnn M. Hunter with few surprises, but there is one stand-out—“The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss).” Cindy and her roommate Tanya are comparing the romantic intentions of their respective beaus and start the song as if it were a test in a women’s magazine like Cosmo. Suddenly their apartment window is transformed into the magazine cover and three of the ladies of chorus emerge dressed in lab coats and armed with clipboards to sing back-up. It’s clever, fun, and adorable, unlike too much of the rest of the show.
Fortunately, Chillina Kennedy as Cindy and Crystal Lucas-Perry as Tanya sport impressive pipes and acting skills to enliven their paper-doll roles. Kennedy is particularly effective in a powerful rendition of “You Don’t Own Me,” and Lucas-Perry is smashing in all of her numbers such as “Rescue Me” and “Something’s Got a Hold of Me.” If your standards aren’t particularly high, a stop at this Sign would pleasant but hardly memorable.
