Word: schmeiser
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...little kids--the kind who populate his books--who play at making a movie, and, in the process, take turns presenting "screen test" sequences which digress into the characters' original tales. Not that much in the way of either tales or transitions survives. The kids' ringleader is Rosie (Dede Schmeiser), who spends most of her time fantasizing about the terrible things that may have happened to her little brother, Chicken Soup (Steve Gutwillig), who tags along after her by parental edict. One hanger-on is named Alligator (Valerie Gilbert)--she's the one who sings the alphabet solo, which starts...
Equally frustrating are the scenes spotlighting Rosie, for Schmeiser's electric performance is filled with signs pointing nowhere. Script and actress both provide flashes from time of a fascinating, absolutely believable personality--the imperious kid everyone knuckled under to in childhood, who planned the games and made up an the rules, whose whims were law. But from this take the part wanders into aimlessness. Like the rest of the cast, Schmeiser is forced to superimpose grown-up sexuality on otherwise recognizable eight-year-old dialogue; what's more, between pelvic gyrations, she and cohort Kathy (Susannah Rabb) are saddled with...
...form of Greenie (Allen Gifford), the owner of the band's recording studio, who injects the struggles of two decades past, offering a suitably Messianic and inspirational figure to the jaded and cynical boys of the eighties. Brooks Whitehouse as Frank Mills, the leader of the band, and Dede Schmeiser as Donna Barona, his groupie girlfriend, on the other hand, fall a little short: Whitehouse a little stiff and stylized in his portrayal of an already implausible character, Schmeiser too broad and too brassy...
...though some of his most ambitious pieces lose some of their subtlety due to the cast's occasional lack of balance--Freyer has come up with a fine score. Two complex ballads with wonderful lyrics indeed are the highlights of the show. When the three female U.S.O. troupers (Dede Schmeiser, Carla Seidel and Susannah Rabb) sing "Here's to the Guys," or Hope and Alura sing "The G.I. Blues," the show takes on the magical fusion of perfect elements...
...outcasts of the play, Herbert Dean (Leo-Pierre Roy) and Kitty Dean (Dede Schmeiser), whose gaucherie sets off the Cavendish style, demand obnoxiousness from their performers. They get it here, in full doses, but a bit more variety might help them get through the last two acts without turning off the audience...