Playwright: Cy Coleman ( music ) , David Zippel ( lyrics ) , Larry Gelbart ( book )
At: One Theatre Company, Athenaeum Mainstage
Phone: ( 312 ) 902-1500 ( Ticketmaster )
Runs through: Aug. 7
Bright, young One Theatre has heaped energy and ambition on City of Angels, plus dollars far beyond the means of most two-year old troupes. How they've bankrolled this big venture might be a story in itself, but it's not for this time and place. Running almost before walking, the company has reached the limits of what is achievable for them at present, and City of Angels is the mixed result.
This extremely challenging show has a difficult, jazz-based score by the late, great Cy Coleman, and a convoluted double story set in late 1940's Hollywood. Stine, a young novelist, is turning his noir detective story into a screenplay for overbearing producer Buddy Fidler. As Stine writes and rewrites, scenes from his script play in parallel to scenes from 'real' life. Both sides of the divide provide illicit love affairs, secrets and power plays.
The Coleman score contains typical musical comedy songs plus cinematic smokey underscoring for the detective scenes. Under musical director Dirk A. Van Brussel, a 17-piece orchestra rips through the full original orchestratons in grand style. The show is worth seeing for the music alone although the subtle, lovely strings sometimes are buried by reeds and brass.
The 19-person cast mixes veterans with relative newbies, not all of whom have full professional credentials. Some still are students and a few are theater educators for whom performing is secondary. The acting is wildly uneven. Vocally, they are pretty fair but the sound mixing leaves some singers nearly inaudible ( sweet-voiced Diego Colon seems most victimized ) and portions of dialogue undecipherable. As Buddy Fidler, Vince Lonergan is intelligible when he speaks but not when he sings. His fault? The sound-mixer? Both?
Guided by director Kevin Wall, the semi-professional company gets through this biting, tough show and makes sense of it. But to be wonderful, to enchant viewers, City of Angels really needs talent a notch higher. Also, the absence of choreography hurts the show. This is what I mean when I say One Theatre has reached the limits of the achievable at this stage of their game.
Nonetheless, there are tasty treats, among them the psuedo-period ballads Lost and Found ( sung by Giselle Ghofrani ) and Stay With Me, and the effective Act II party scene which intertwines a number of dramatic and musical elements. The show looks good, too, with Late Deco scenic design by Rick and Jackie Penrod ( cleverly suggesting the Hollywood Hills with green neon ) and striking period costumes by Elizabeth Shaffer, who's establishing a fine career.
One Theatre makes no small plans and welcomes technical and artistic challenges. The troupe may do great things one day, with City of Angels a daring step in the right direction.