From Russia, With Love (42nd Street Plays Moscow)

"So I'm doing this dinner theatre production of Guys and Dolls and the producer's 18-year-old niece is playing Miss Adelaide..."

"So I'm doing this tour of The Fantasticks and we're booked in this church that doesn't allow dancing..."

"So I'm touring A Delicate Balance with Elaine Stritch and we're in this dry county..."

Sure, sure. Put three or more actors in a room and you're bound to hear some good horror stories. But even the most jaded cocktail gathering of theatre vets would perk up their ears at a line like "So I'm dancing in the chorus of the Moscow production of 42nd Street..."

It seems that after enjoying the current Broadway revival of 42nd Street six times, wealthy Russian Boris Krasnov, despite having no theatrical producing experience whatsoever, decided he must bring that joyous Broadway extravaganza to the mother country as the first American musical to open for an extended run in Moscow.

Joshua Scheer's all-singing, all-dancing one-man comedy show From Russia, With Love (42nd Street Plays Moscow), which recently ended an engagement at Don't Tell Mama, is a well-told tale of one performer's culture clashing experiences as part of this history making production which opened in October of 2002 at a theatre called The Palace of Youth.

With the good humor of a trouper just trying to do his job, Scheer expresses a sincere affection for the city of Moscow and its people despite an absurd collection of circumstances that seemed to curse the production. For one thing, the tap shoes never arrived. Yes, 42nd Street without tap shoes. The show's climactic dance moment, where the chorus taps (or in this case, soft-shoes) up and down the enormous, brightly lit staircase, was done without a staircase, on a flat floor. The character of Anytime Annie was referred to in the production's simultaneous translation as "Annie Spreads Her Legs". (When asked why the production was so unprepared for opening night, producer Krasnov was quoted in the Moscow Times as saying "Look, we chose a very difficult show. It's not A Chorus Line.")

Directed by Kathy Brier, Joshua Scheer tells his story with the slick panache of a Catskill comic, quick with the one-liners and even quicker with the tap shoes. One of the evening's funnier moments is when Scheer demonstrates the 42nd Street ensemble tap routines. Dances designed to show off the synchronicity of fifty gypsies are quite comical when done as a solo. With musical direction by Eddie Guttman, Scheer embellishes his story by interpolating songs from the show's score such as "We're in the Money" and "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me" (along with other Broadway standards), performed with a grandly traditional musical comedy belt.

If the show has any weakness, it's the scant amount of time spent discussing the tragic event which took place at a neighboring theatre. Shortly after the Moscow's 42nd Street opened, Chechen terrorists held captive 700 audience members, performers and crew of the nearby hit musical Nord-Ost, threatening to blow up the theatre if Russian troops were not withdrawn from Chechnya. The three day ordeal, which ended when the theatre was stormed by special forces, resulted in over 150 deaths. Although Scheer does acknowledge this dark episode, it appeared glossed over in an effort to keep the proceedings light and funny.

But that's a minor complaint for this hour long roller-coaster of jaw-dropping episodes. If Scheer wanted to, he could probably expand this unique story into something a bit more theatrical, but as it stands, From Russia With Love (42nd Street Plays Moscow) goes out there a youngster and comes back a star.

For Michael Dale's "mad adventures of a straight boy living in a gay world" visit dry2olives.com

 

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