'A Marvelous Party!' Celebrates Coward in Cambridge

A Marvelous Party! The Nöel Coward Celebration

Words and music by Nöel Coward

Devised by Mark Anders, David Ira Goldstein, Patricia Wilcox

Musical arrangements, Carl Danielsen

Director, Scott Edmiston

Music Director/Pianist, Will McGarrahan

Set design, Christine Jones; Costume design, Hilary Hacker; Lighting Design, Karen Perlow; Sound Design, David Remedios; Movement, Kelli Edwards; Production Stage Manager, Chris De Camillis

CAST  Remo Airaldi, Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, Karen MacDonald

Performances through July 29, 2007 @ Zero Arrow Theatre

Box Office 617-547-8300 or www.amrep.org

Life is a cabaret, old chum, and you are cordially invited to partake of a splendid evening at the Zero Arrow Theatre in Cambridge where the words and music of Nöel Coward are playing nightly this month. The space is converted into a nightclub atmosphere with table seating, a cash bar, and wait staff scurrying about. It makes for a festive mood as the audience anticipates the start of the show.

A Marvelous Party! The Nöel Coward Celebration is the American Repertory Theatre's contribution to a wonderful summer of entertainment in Boston and environs. Under the direction of Scott Edmiston, Party! flows smoothly and seamlessly through a revue of more than three decades of Coward's clever and spirited songs, intermingled with spoken passages from his autobiographies, interviews, poems, and diaries. While many are familiar with Coward as actor or author, he also wrote nearly 50 plays and over 400 songs. This staging of 33 tunes merely scratches the surface, yet represents several periods in his life ? his early musicals, his cabaret act, and his Las Vegas stint.

The songs selected by Edmiston range from the sublime to the ridiculous, with the former challenging the cast to wring out all of the emotion from the composer's words, and the latter giving them the opportunity to clown with abandon. Remo Airaldi, Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, and Karen MacDonald are all veteran performers at the A.R.T., but are more recognized for their dramatic roles. However, they each have musical backgrounds and effortlessly form a cohesive quartet because they have worked together for so long.

As solid as they are as a team, each of the actors has a moment to shine alone in the spotlight. MacDonald's rendition of "The Coconut Girl" (1963) from Coward's last Broadway show The Girl Who Came to Supper, is an arc of four or five songs and includes her duet with herself as a woman on a swing and her suitor, concluding with the humorous "Walla Walla Boola" dance parody. Quoting Coward, LeBow avers, "She stopped the show - but then the show wasn't traveling very fast." He is featured in a rapidly-paced "Mad Dogs and Englishmen (go out in the midday sun)" (1930), one of the better known songs from the Coward catalogue. Derrah delivers "Matelot" (1945) slowly and sweetly, not an easy task in the midst of several comically frothy numbers. And Airaldi takes the (fruit)cake when he salsas a la Carmen Miranda, maracas and all, in "Nina" (1945).

The ensemble numbers offer close harmony, animated mugging, and some simple choreography. A couple of my favorites are the opener "I Went to a Marvelous Party" (1938), "Mrs. Worthington" (1936), "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" (1961), and Coward's adaptation of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" (1944). The voices of the cast members are distinguishable, as are their types - LeBow is the debonair one, Derrah is sort of a regular Joe, Airaldi is a cross between Pavarotti and Stubby Kaye, and MacDonald characterizes every woman. The foursome has high quality acting skills that enable them to sell the songs and stories and charm the audience, notwithstanding the fact that there might be better singers and dancers out there. After all, this is cabaret and we want bawdy entertainment!

Music Director/pianist Will McGarrahan, a hyphenated man of many talents, contributes to the music hall ambience as he energetically hammers the keys on the upbeat tunes, and then artistically caresses them for the ballads. Perhaps because of his own experience as an actor and singer, he does an outstanding job of following the pace of the performers, never missing a beat.

The creative collaboration is effective in all areas: the red stage lit from above by a ring of lights and anchored by the shiny ebony piano, the enlarged photo portrait of Coward illuminated by two blue-white neon tubes, the long bar decorated with colored lights and bottles of varying shapes and sizes; the costumes complementing the red and black of the set; each of the actors wired for sound; and the resourceful use of the surroundings.

If you are familiar with these resident actors and their classical talents, you may find it worth the price of admission to see Derrah as a song-and-dance man, Remo ready for the beach, or Karen being childishly adorable with a handful of balloons. However, even if you are not a regular patron of the A.R.T. and don't know these four - or, perhaps, especially if you're not a frequent visitor - this show is a good entrée. A Marvelous Party! celebrates Coward, the company of the A.R.T., and the fantastic summer theatre season. A toast to truth in advertising!