When
asked where Irving Berlin ranked in American music, fellow
giant Jerome Kern famously said, "Irving Berlin has no
place in American music. He is American music." The enduring
truth of Kern's assessment underpins the showbiz panache of "I
Love a Piano," presented by Musical Theatre West. This
delightful West Coast premiere of Ray Roderick and Michael
Berkeley's salute to America's greatest tunesmith is as invigorating
a song-catalog revue as any since "Ain't Misbehavin'."
A regional success, "I
Love a Piano" refreshes its oft-abused genre. Instead
of random numbers or chronicling Berlin's career, Roderick
(who directs and choreographs the show) and Berkeley focus
on the title instrument. Its passage across 70 years of national
identity forms an overview through which 64 Berlin songs supply
narrative. It proves a masterstroke.
A brief overture from musical
director John Glaudini and his superb orchestra accompanies
three moving men, who deposit the piano. The six prototypal
characters launch a present-day prologue that seamlessly segues
to Alexander's Music Shop in the early 1900s. From here, "Piano" takes
flight and rarely comes down thereafter. This stems from Berlin's
matchless output and the six sublime performers who send the
surefire material straight to our solar plexus.
Although Dan Pacheco could use
seasoning, his boyish bravado suits juvenile Jim, and Jill
Townsend is exemplary as ingénue Eileen. Stephen Breithaupt's
animated Alex meets his match in the marvelous Julie Dixon
Jackson, who as Sadie invisibly flips from screwball to soulful.
As George, Kevin Earley has never been better, and Kathi Gillmore,
her mercurial Ginger both droll and vulnerable, is a discovery.
Roderick's inventive staging
trumps theme-park contours with style and heart. Designs are
plush, especially Todd K. Proto's kaleidoscopic costumes and
Debra Garcia Lockwood's lighting, and there are too many witty
moments to recount beyond three examples.
The first is the Act 1 ending,
after draft letters intrude on a dancing medley and move us
into Berlin's World War II output. This builds to a touching "White
Christmas," then "God Bless America," as Pacheco
and Townsend simulate the famous Life cover embrace to heart-stopping
effect.
The second is the hysterical
backstage sequence in Act 2. This peaks with Breithaupt and
Jackson belting out "You're Just in Love," Earley
and Gillmore tearing into "An Old Fashioned Wedding" and
then both songs at once, which rocks the house. Finally, there
is the finale, everyone in modern cocktail garb and the title
song bringing it home. I knew 15 minutes in that I was thoroughly
enjoying "I Love a Piano" — by the ending,
I was in love. Blame it on Berlin, and Roderick and Blakeley,
and everyone else connected with this enchanting entertainment.
'I Love a Piano'
Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200
Atherton St., Long Beach
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2
p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Ends: May 7
Price: $25 to $50
Contact: (562) 856-1999, Ext. 4, or www.musical.org
Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
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