Theatre review: Wonderful Town

FOREVER associated with her portrayal of Maria in The Sound of Music, Connie Fisher brings the requisite pep and sparkle to this feel-good revival, leading an effervescent cast in a production that’s almost 60 years old, but which gleams with the polished sheen of a cared-for classic.

FOREVER associated with her portrayal of Maria in The Sound of Music, Connie Fisher brings the requisite pep and sparkle to this feel-good revival, leading an effervescent cast in a production that’s almost 60 years old, but which gleams with the polished sheen of a cared-for classic.

Never mind that, from its real-life basis in the memoirs of journalist Ruth McKenney through various print and dramatic incarnations, the story is a wholly banal confection and the period details are all over the place – the 1939 setting eschewing neither hepcat lingo nor lyrical reference to James Dean. Small town Ruth (Fisher) and her blonde bombshell sister Eileen (Lucy van Gasse) arrive in Greenwich Village with big ambitions but barely two dimes to rub together. But from the moment they’re mistaken for good-time girls and Ruth repeatedly strives and fails to get her stories published, this winning musical is a Technicolor romp, Leonard Bernstein’s rich, playful score enlivened by delightful dance numbers. The plot descends into schmaltz by the end, but there are some truly leftfield sequences on the way, as when Ruth is swept up in a conga by Brazilian sailors or Eileen finds herself the darling colleen of the Irish police force, breaking into a jig in the station house.

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As the leading man, Michael Xavier is firm of jaw and lusty of voice, the ensemble beams with enthusiasm and van Gasse’s bewitching of every man she encounters is wholly believable. Fisher is never called upon to approach the vocal heights she scaled for Maria. But she is a true leading lady, owning a rendition of 100 Easy Ways To Lose A Man.

Rating: ****

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