Xanadu takes to Tacoma Musical Playhouse through Feb. 12. (Photo by Kat Dollarhide)
Staging a campy musical about the waning days of disco and all things roller-skating and leg warmers can be tough. The trick is to bring the full-on cheese with over-the-top acting to deliver the oh-so-dated music and one-liners back to their former glory. Bad music and cheesy dialogue require great acting to milk the otherwise less-than-witty script for its golden cheese of flavorful funness.
And this show's cast just did not deliver the full sharp Tillamook cheddar. It was … umm, Gouda, but not Gouda enough for Tacoma Musical Playhouse's high standards. Now that you are curdling from that pun, let me explain.
TMP's staging of "Xanadu" brings the first local production of Douglas Carter Beane's fantastic farce about a gaggle of Greek goddesses finding their way around Venice Beach, Calif. in 1980 instead of Venice, Italy. The show started out as a Universal Pictures movie that has become a bit of a cult classic with its pairing of Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. The beautiful Greek muse Kira (played by Leah Wickstrom) descends from her godly perch to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny (Matt Posner), to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time – the first roller disco in a former theater along the Venice strip. Kira then falls in love with this mortal in jewel-hugging cutoffs only to have her jealous muse sisters take advantage of the situation.
What plays out is a mix of retro jokes about the 1980s and a parade of unbearably formulaic songs that include "Magic," "All Over The World," "Suddenly," "I'm Alive," "Evil Woman" and "Xanadu." Toss in a few flamboyant guys in drag as muses, some roller skates and some Valley girl slang and you quickly get the flavor of the show. Jokes landed. People laughed. Songs were sung. But nothing really had the signature TMP "wow" factor.
Wickstrom and Posner did well at anchoring the show, but the balance of the playbill just left me wanting more.
The duet of "Evil Woman" by Stacie Hart as the muse Melpomene and Kari Zimmerman as Calliope, for example, could have been a time to pull out all the vaudevillian camp imaginable, but it was less zany than what was required. The song needed a Spinal Tap "11" and only brought a mid-range camp on the zan-o-meter. The show is peppered with similar lost opportunities where high-energy goofiness was required but not delivered.
All in all, the show was entertaining and brought some belly laughs, but just did not bring enough of that cheddar to provide for a full meal of zany, comedy theater.
"Xanadu" runs through Feb. 12 with shows at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays with 2 p.m. matinees also slated for Feb. 4 and Feb. 11. Tacoma Musical Playhouse is located at 7116 Sixth Ave. Tickets are $25 and $27 and available at TMP.org or by calling (253) 565-6867.
