Theater Reviews : This ‘Town’ Could Be a Bit More Wonderful

It’s not exactly a wonderful show, but the resolve of Saddleback College to revive the long-dormant “Wonderful Town” is a good cultural act.

We don’t get to see this Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical very often (the previous Los Angeles-area revival starred Nanette Fabray in 1975).

It remains a quintessential ‘50s-era Broadway show, with equal weight given to the terms musical and comedy . It has too much pizazz and verve to be a museum piece, but it definitely takes us back to a long-gone era when the line “life is gay, life is sweet, interesting people on Christopher Street” had a very different meaning than it’s had since the days of Stonewall.

Set to a book by Joseph Field and Jerome Chodorov, which is based on their play “My Sister Eileen” (based in turn on Ruth McKenney’s semi-autobiographical stories in the New Yorker magazine), “Wonderful Town” celebrates mid-20th Century New York, young love and the antics of on-leave sailors. It is as modest as sisters Ruth and Eileen, fresh in the big city from Columbus, Ohio.

But this production, directed by Phyllis B. Gitlin, doesn’t quite deliver the sisters’ discovery of wild bohemia in 1930s Greenwich Village and the sheer joy of pop culture abandon. With a few exceptions, Gitlin’s cast and musical director John Massey Jr.’s orchestra are a little too careful to get all the notes and beats right. They don’t really let go. “Wonderful Town” celebrates freedom; this edition could use a little more of it.

Because everything in the story revolves around fledgling writer Ruth (Dru Alexandra Obade) and equally fledgling actor Eileen (Jill Niemela), we are fortunate to have two actors in the roles with keen musical comedy chops.

As Ruth, despairing to both attract men and sell her story to nice-guy editor Robert Baker (Michael Gene Brown), Obade constructs a winning central heroine. She’s a bit undone by the scatting of “Swing,” Bernstein’s most adventurous song in this score, but otherwise holds things together.

Niemela believably makes the guys swoon and charms by doing it so unselfconsciously. She is simply cute as she’s draped by adoring cops in “My Darling Eileen,” and she displays the show’s best voice in “A Little Bit in Love.”

The pair receives shaky male support. The strongmen are Ralph Ohlsen as Wreck, the friendly quarterback secretly married to Anne Jensen’s nice Helen; Darren Zinzer as nerdy clerk Frank, and the versatile Jesse Swimm as the obnoxiously pushy Chick Clark. Swimm reappears in the police station as a gooney cop and milks every moment.

The weak man is Brown as editor Baker, who runs hot and cold with Ruth. As the center of sanity, Brown looks fine, but he can’t handle his songs.

Other problems include the harsh-sounding miking, some audible lethargy in the orchestra and a seriously uninspired display of dancing care of choreographer Dorothy Anderson Garant.

The look--Walter B. Huntoon’s set of manually moved flats, Kevin A. Cook’s lights and Charles M. Castagno’s smart costumes--alternates between storybook-charming and confused. Ruth and Eileen’s alfresco dinner, for instance, appears to take place in the middle of the street.

Still, “Wonderful Town” provides the student cast with a thorough exercise in the ways of traditional Broadway show biz and the audience with a glimpse into the tradition--before it was taken over by roller skaters, phantoms and helicopters.

* “Wonderful Town,” McKinney Theatre, Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $9-$10. (714) 582-4656. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

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Dru Alexandra Obade: Ruth

Jill Niemela: Eileen

Michael Gene Brown: Robert Baker

Darren Zinzer: Frank

Ralph Ohlsen: Wreck

Jesse Swimm: Chick/Danny/Cop

Anne Jensen: Helen

George Boyer: Appopolous

Carolyn Velasco: Mrs. Wade

Holly Lynn Stiles: Violet

Thomas L. Baba: Linville

Peter Robert Deutschmann: Galjour

Heather Stoltzfus: Guide

A Saddleback College Theatre Arts department production. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on stories by Ruth McKenny. Directed by Phyllis B. Gitlin. Musical direction: John Massey Jr. Choreography: Dorothy Anderson Garant. Set: Walter B. Huntoon. Costumes: Charles M. Castagno. Lights/sound: Kevin A. Cook.