Word: victorian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...meantime, several of the other '70s freaks fall in love with their Victorian counterparts. Barnaby Wild (Greg Schaffer), a.k.a. Harley, falls for the empty-headed but incredibly well-endowed Jane. And Areola Derby, the Puerto-Rican roller derby queen (Sherwin Parikh) begins a frollicking, rolling romance with the Andatramp manservant, Hugh Loser (Bart St. Clair...
Rocca and Izenberg's writing talent is best displayed in their jokes about the Victorian era and in their excellent lyrics. The Victorian characters introduce themselves in a Charleston-esque number called "Taste Makes Chaste" ("Birds may do it and so may bees, but we're shut firmly at the knees"). And when Belle goes through a crisis as she faces the fact that she may never be born, she sings a punny, existential song with questions like, "So if I fell in a forest would you hear...
...plot does not, however, manage to explain the closing French Can-Can kickline and Wizard of Oz sequence, which have literally nothing to do with each other, the plot, the Victorian era or the '70s. (My guess is that the writers associate the 1939 movie with their childhood, and so with the '70s period as a whole.) But you can't change every stupid tradition at once, and this fresh, fun production has more going for it than any Pudding show I've seen...
...uniformly strong perfomances are enhanced by the usual great choreography. Karen Pisani Pastore has the amazing gift of making even the most clumsy actors appear to be almost dancing in the musical numbers. The Ukranian dance sequences in the Russian number and the Victorians' non-Victorian "Taste Makes Chaste" particularly stand...
...Victorian costumes are even more wonderfully fanciful, with huge leg-o'-mutton sleeves and artificial wasp waists. Starr's character is initially decked out in a purple and hot-pink number with a flattering chignon wig and a huge hat complete with pink bird and huge ostrich feathers. Kaiser has feathers and flowers literally stemming from his hair, or possibly from his Eyrehead...