Tired of modern musicals with no catchy melodies you can hum as you exit the theater? Weary of talky numbers that all sound the same? Sick of brand new shows that are anything but fresh? Wondering why-oh-why can’t there be just one talented writer of the American musical creating masterpieces in the 21st century?
I have to admit these questions had crossed my mind. So imagine my gratitude and delight upon sampling Five Course Love, a three-year-old musical that Frank Loesser or Rodgers & Hart might well have cooked up.
So who is this stormy famine-buster who has ended the drought and made the flower of my deep appreciation bloom anew? He is writer/ composer/lyricist Gregg Coffin, and I think he may be single-handedly responsible for saving the American musical from the parched plain of extinction. Or at least from threat of boycott.
On Dan Wheeler’s adorable and very pink set that decisively evokes Valentine’s Day in June, three actors become 15 characters who are desperate to find love on five misbegotten dates. We feel their pain. We are also hysterical with laughter.
Twenty-five terrific numbers, all wondrously hummable and distinct, are fodder for the imaginative and entirely uninhibited choreography by Brian Paul Mendoza. Vocal performances are all top-notch.
In the oh-so-talented hands of actress Jennifer Shelton, Texas two-step lovin’ Barbie becomes Mafia-moll-with-a-death-wish Sofia, turns whip-wielding German dominatrix Gretchen, morphing into the squeaky-voiced unworthy-of-all-the-attention Rosalinda who makes the wrong choice (I can relate), and finally into 1950s diner dweller and hopeless romantic Kitty.
The guys, Cristopher Carothers and Perry Lambert, transform themselves just as masterfully to become Shelton’s characters’ suitors, as well as a colorful collection of restaurant proprietors. Upon the prolific uttering of the name of Lambert’s German character Heimlich, a la Cabaret’s Joel Grey replete with a little red spot on each cheek, each character struck his/her own belly and coughed.
Lightning-fast costume changes are amazing, as are the clever “excuses” for exiting the stage to accomplish them. The sound of dishes crashing to the floor, a running gag throughout the show, take care of most of Lambert’s exits. Shelton’s and Carothers’ departures are generally more conventional, with the exception of the laugh-out-loud dragging off stage of a “dead” body–one of Carothers’ less fortunate personae.
Wheeler’s rolling restaurant signage (think the destination bar on a bus that switches from “Downtown Long Beach” to “Out of Service” ) and a swapped tablecloth are the ample clues to the change in venue from a Texas BBQ to a mob-ridden Italian joint to café Der Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz to Ernesto’s Cantina to the Star-lite Diner, and hence from one perilous rendezvous to another.
A three-piece live band can and should be viewed from time to time at the rear of the stage for the amusing little props that add to the show’s fun.
What elevates Five Course Love even further above most newer musicals is that, amid all of the mayhem and hysterics, Coffin has taken care to give us three or four characters that tug at our heartstrings, and hard.
ICT’s own fabulous caryn desai [sic] directs the marvelous cast of three in what could be the best new musical to come along in at least two decades. My only problem was deciding what to sing on my way home–“I Loved You When I Thought Your Name Was Ken” (with apologies to Oscar Wilde) or “The Ballad of Me.” What a glorious dilemma.
Five Course Love continues at International City Theatre in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, located at 300 East Ocean Boulevard, through July 15. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $40 on Thursdays; $40 and $45 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Call (562) 436-4610 for information and reservations or visit www.ictlongbeach.org.
