Word: luisa
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Directors Harry Dorfman and Patty Woo are unfailingly faithful to Tom Jones's 1959 script, and that is the production's greatest weakness. The unabashed sappiness of the romance between Matt (Rick Farrar) and Luisa (Cathy Weary) demands an audience steeped in bad musicals to be funny. Out of historical context, the parody is too broad to be effective. Even the attempts at self-parody in the second act are unsubtle, and we keep wishing someone on stage will pull the plug, drain the syrup, and dazzle us with fast comebacks and some naked sarcasm...
...acting is very good, even excellent. Farrar is funny as the gooey 20-year-old who believes he is rebelling against his father by falling in love with the girl next door, and his voice is strong enough to carry off his musical numbers. Weary's sweet, swooning Luisa is equally effective, and her voice is the best of the cast. Their duets are some of the finest numbers in the show--rapid musical banter honed sharp by careful rehearsal...
Randy Clark, as Luisa's father Bellomy, and Stu Cleland, as Matt's father Hucklebee, are satisfactory, if uninspired. They are cramped by a script that demands they do little else but cultivate their gardens, whine about the natcher'l contrariness of young'uns and congratulate each other for manipulating their children into falling in love. We would like to laugh at these semi-competent parents, clad entirely in suburban plaids, but there is no one to whom they can play the foils, and the satire falls flat. Still, they do a fine job with their duets, singing and dancing...
...plays El Gallo. Roy is a veteran of many Harvard theatricals, and his performance is not a casualty of incompetence, but miscasting. El Gallo is the most difficult role in the show. He must sing the beautiful opening ballad "Try to Remember," introduce the characters, narrate the action, abduct Luisa and allow himself to be beaten by Matt, and philosophize on the Meaning of It All. Roy is a good actor, but he is all wrong for the part, El Gallo is supposed to be dark, handsome, suave, sophisticated and on-key; Roy has a paunch his cummerbund...
...only piano, harp and bass at his disposal, musical director and piantist Dan Ullman achieves a surprising spectrum of moods with the score. Except for the touching ballad "Try to Remember," the songs are musically undistinguished. Still, the musical numbers are the strong points of the show. Matt and Luisa's closing duet, staged with admirable restraint, nearly redeems the dialogue that precedes it--and it would completely if Schmidt and Jones didn't feel obligated to insert El Gallo at the end with another substanceless speech...