THEY’RE BA-A-A-A-A-CK
Here’s the story: we are at the 1958 Springfield High School senior prom, and the entertainment isn’t coming because the leader of The Crooning Crab Cakes got busted for smoking around the girls’ lockers. Fortunately, there is a replacement four-girl group named The Marvelous Wonderettes who belt and rock sophisticated harmonies as they humorously grapple with adolescent issues such as lost love and rivalry. Any spectator in their right mind will understand this production for what it is: a charming love letter to classic songs. Ever since Roger Bean wrote and directed this silly, whimsical jukebox musical, it’s frothy nostalgia factor and cool arrangements of 50s and 60s tunes keeps packing them in from coast to coast.
Now, San Diego Musical Theater presents the original off-Broadway cast at their new digs at the Birch North Park Theatre. Beth Malone, Bets Malone (who also co-directs and choreographs), Lowe Taylor, and Misty Cotton are back with this appealing showcase of outstanding vocals, cheeky archetypal characters (the tomboy, the teacher’s pet) and rip-roarin’ renditions of the Golden Oldies. Without aggrandizing the genre of jukebox musicals, this is theater as comfort food. And in a world of global warming, wobbly economies and revolution, people are starving for escapism.
With so many delightful moments in the show, we shouldn’t care that there really isn’t a plot (unless you consider the girls’ performance at the prom in act one and their performance at their 10-year reunion in act two a plot). The occasionally nonsensical set-ups (a feud that suddenly resolves itself for no reason) are merely a device to get to the next standard. Act two is a bit of a letdown — the counterculture of 1968 is as glossed-over as the plot — but that’s not what this sentimental night is about. Here’s the bottom line: this sugary-sweet, professionally polished show looks great, sounds great, and guarantees some laughs (even with syrupy audience participation). My advice: don’t think, don’t analyze, just sit back while the fantastic musical director Don Le Master and these powerhouse singers knock some old-school favorites out of the park. With that attitude, The Marvelous Wonderettes will be both marvelous and wonderetteful.
photos by Megan & Ian Swanson
The Marvelous Wonderettes
San Diego Musical Theatre
North Park Birch Theatre in San Diego
ends on February 26, 2012
for tickets, call 858-560-5740 or visit SDMT
