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FeedSomething to “SHOUT!” about
Courtesy of MusicalFare
From L to R, Michele Marie Roberts, Lyndsey Leigh Thuerck, Nancy Sam, Amy Jakiel and Hannah L. Sharp give their sassy all in MusicalFare’s “SHOUT!”
Ready for a fast-moving entertainment featuring over 30 great 1960s songs—with no semblance of plot to get in the way?
In Musicalfare's current production of SHOUT! The Mod Musical, five women—only identified by color, as in Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue and Green Girls—keep the groovy revue moving along. Buffalo theater mainstays Amy Jakiel and Michele Marie Roberts are the relative vets, while Nancy Sam returns to the professional stage after a stint in community theater and raising her kids. Recent grads Hannah L. Sharp and Lyndsey Leigh Thuerck, both fresh-faced and game, complete the ensemble.
The set, designed by Chris Schenk, should clue you in right away to the non-linear, lack-of-story; it’s fantastically colored and lit, and set up just like a variety show. The fabric panels are hip and evocative.Costumes, shoes, wigs, props and makeup are all fun; any company that has the Drozd sisters, Kari and Susan, working in tandem in these areas has a very talented team indeed.
Some quibbles: the filler jokes aren’t very funny—I’d liked to have heard that “we know this joke is bad” drum crash after the Laugh-In style cameo moments. Goldie Hawn these ladies are not. And one bizarre scene at the beginning of the second act, featuring pot-smoking and a dissemination on male and female anatomy, still has me scratching my head. Both the material and the presentation were just trying too hard to be saucy.
As for the thin thread that ties the goings-on together, it concerns a bunch of British birds with confused accents, poring over Shout! magazine, seeking advice on life, fashion, and of course, romance.
But why fuss, when you’ve got all that great music? Stick to the singing, I say, and leave the philosophy to the pros. Songwriters like Bacharach/David, Tony Hatch, the Isleys and Lamont Dozier have plenty to tell us about the times. We left this show humming, and I bet you will, too.
The show is up through October 17 at MusicalFare, musicalfare.com, 839-8540.
