‘Grand Night’ not good, but it’s easy to enjoy
It’s tough writing about “A Grand Night for Singing,” because even though I don’t think it’s a good show, it is easy to enjoy if you’re a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II fan. (And who, of sane mind, is not?)
Signature Productions’ version of this 1993 Broadway revue gives us five singers (Peggy Micco Koning, Donielle La Vancher-Juenker, Justin Rodriguez, Lamont Russell and Ashley Waldman), five onstage musicians and a potpourri of the hit songs you’d expect.
What’s particularly fun is that the program includes some numbers unknown by the general public that go against the grain of the duo’s special brand of wholesomeness. If you’ve had your fill of the likes of “Oklahoma!” “The King and I” or “Carousel,” you still may enjoy discovering the handful of gems from the rarely seen “Flower Drum Song,” “Allegro” and “Me and Juliet.”
The pair wrote a slew of very sensual ditties, proving that the innocence in much of their work was calculated. Hearing so many different kinds of numbers in one evening reminds you of how diverse these geniuses were.
Director/choreographer Keith Dotson gets a lot of help from designers Steve Huntsman (scenery) and Jay LeDane (lights), who create an elegant setting out of crisscrossing “marble” staircases. And the cast members all are competent singers. I wanted the show to go on longer, because I always felt the possibility of another great composition just around the corner.
But there is a problem with the performances. Most of these pieces are dramatic or comic mini-one-acts, and most of the cast do not demonstrate sufficient acting skills. It’s annoying, for example, to hear a woman croon about how her life has been turned upside down by love, while she’s wearing a generic smile and projecting all the intensity of a sedated librarian.
The two male performers have sweet, soft, velvety voices, but they’re often the wrong kind of voice for the tough-man songs they’re given. And worse, their manner and style are too much alike. I rarely believed the vocalists were really experiencing the emotions they were singing about. I wondered, too, if the director really understood the passions behind this music.
The production, though, boasts at least one perfect moment. When Rodriguez delivers the hauntingly forlorn “Love, Look Away” (from “Flower Drum Song”), character, performer and song merge into one. It’s the single occasion that makes you feel Rodgers and Hammerstein were about something more than just pretty notes.
Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.