July 8 – August 31, 2008
Written and Directed by Roger Bean
Orange County Register Theater Review
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
'The Marvelous Wonderettes' in Laguna brings back marvelous memories
Review: Laguna Playhouse's nostalgic show examines the innocence of the '50s and the dynamism of the '60s through the prism of a female vocal quartet.
By PAUL HODGINS The Orange County Register
The marvelous thing about "The Marvelous Wonderettes" is that, truth be told, they aren't that marvelous.
The winsome foursome that populate Roger Bean's endearing, hydrogen-light little musical can be catty, vindictive, backbiting and blithely egotistical. They're also the best of friends who, even though still in high school, have been doing this close harmony thing for too long and are letting pettiness and boredom creep into their routine.
It's that very human and quintessentially teenage element that makes "The Marvelous Wonderettes" so goofily entertaining. At the Laguna Playhouse, Bean shepherds a sterling cast, two of them veterans of this perennially popular show, with the kind of assurance and attention to the story's underlying drama that you'd expect from a director/creator.
The setup primes us for small-town shenanigans. It's 1958, and the success of Springfield High School's Senior Prom is threatened by an unexpected disaster: the evening's big act, The Crooning Crabcakes, canceled at the last minute. But the Wonderettes have no doubt they can fill the male quintet's shoes. "If the boys can do it, so can we!" one of them announces.
Bean quickly establishes each girl's character as they cavort on Michael Carnahan's beautifully realized set, which looks so much like an old high school gym you can practically smell the stale sweat socks. The details are wonderful – the chipmunk mascot, bomb shelter signage, championship banners and badly typed concert program tell you everything you need to know about this small-town, mid-century world – and Bobby Pearce's costumes are hilariously over-the-top. Janet Miller's intentionally clunky choreography is the sloppy icing on the slapdash cake.
The foursome consists of Missy (Misty Cotton), the prim, level-headed one, who's got a crush on one of her teachers and is easily the quartet's most talented singer (though she doesn't know it); Cindy Lou (Darcie Roberts), a statuesque beauty with a sultry delivery and that annoying sense of entitlement beautiful people exude; excitable Betty Jean (Julie Dixon Jackson), whose got some creative and, um, boy issues with Cindy Lou; and Suzy (Bets Malone), a gum-chewing, lovable bimbo who has a budding romance going with Richie, the guy who runs the show's lights and isn't afraid of demonstrating his luminous love from the tech booth.
The spine of the story is dead simple. The girls employ a cootie catcher (if I have to explain that, you're too young to see this show) which they've renamed a "dream catcher." They use it to choose a song that describes each one's dream lover. We hear '50s tunes both classic and obscure, including "All I Have To Do Is Dream," "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" and "Lollipop." There are also a few distractions to disguise the first act's concert feel – the audience gets to vote for the prom queen, and the quartet represents four of the five candidates – but that bit of business, funny as it is, seems like filler (the vote is rigged anyway).
The second act of "Wonderettes" is stronger, if only because the girls are allowed to age 10 years and their 1968 reunion concert is made tense and forced by lingering hurts and the slings and arrows that post high-school life throw at us. Each member of the quartet gives us a snapshot of her world since high school in a three-song medley. Here Bean gets clever with classics such as "Leader of the Pack" and "Preacher Man," but the sequence has a "Mamma Mia!"-like feel – the songs are shoehorned uncomfortably into the story at times.
The evening ends with a rousing rendition of "Respect" that includes some clever comic mishaps (spelling isn't Suzy's forte, OK?) It's also one of the few moments when these actresses can let loose with their vocal talents, which leaves you wishing that Bean could have included more such opportunities. Cotton, especially, has a powerhouse instrument that deserves more time in the limelight.
"The Marvelous Wonderettes" is pure white-bread entertainment – one suspects this small Eisenhower-era town is bereft of every conceivable minority, including Episcopalians – but that makes its humor all the more endearing. It's a snapshot of a time when two girls falling for the same boy really was the biggest problem in the universe. And stepping back into an age of innocence, even for two hours, seems like the perfect antidote to our turbulent times.
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Honorary Associate Producer
(Above photo from the recent Los Angeles production of The Marvelous Wonderettes)
