'The Marvelous Wonderettes:' Forever Female at the Northlight Theatre

In the smallish pantheon of shows that followed in the footsteps of "Forever Plaid," that early 90s ode to the boy bands of the 1950s and 60s that uses a small cast, one set and a "juke box" of Baby Boomer radio hits, many of them quite naturally feature girls. ("Beehive" comes to mind, as does the recent "Shout.") And now comes "The Marvelous Wonderettes," which began at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 1999 and stopped in Laguna Beach and Los Angeles before landing quite successfully in 2008 at the Westbeth Theatre, Off-Broadway in New York. It is still there a year later, but now Chicago, or rather Skokie, has what I believe is the first post-New York production of this candy-colored confection, courtesy of Northlight Theatre. The show opened on Saturday, September 27, 2009, and is now announced to run until November 1st.

Four quite busy young Chicago Equity actresses bring the show to life here. And with some 33 songs listed in the program, it's quite a life! The conceit of the show is that the audience is seated in the gym of "Springfield High School" (Go, Chipmunks!!) for the Class of 1958 prom. There is a center court circle, and a little stage nearby, streamers and a punch bowl and a fall-out shelter warning sign and a door labeled, "Boys Locker Room." But the scheduled entertainment, the boys' glee club ("The Crooning Crabcakes") is unable to perform, and the school's female song leader squad (apparently schools did this sort of thing back then) steps in to save the day. 

The production's publicity materials describe what happens next like this: "Between belting out 50s and 60s favorites like "It's My Party," "Mr. Sandman" and "Dream Lover," the girls trade gossip about high school hijinks and teenage romance as they vie for the title of Prom "Queen of Your Dreams." 

Well, most of that's in Act One. And you get the idea. A foursome performs a lot of cute songs they were never intended to perform "for real," and the audience gets to know their unique personalities, their relationships, and a little of their hopes and dreams. And they blend perfectly onstage, if not quite so in real life. Sound familiar? Like "Forever Plaid," there is a boisterous action sequence, a "go out into the aisles" sequence, and even a "bring some unsuspecting person out of the audience onstage with us" sequence. And just a hint of a plotline. Just a little bit of an obvious evening, then, if pretty well done. And the costumes and wigs by New York's Bobby Pearce are witty, wondrous and pitch perfect. 

However, with Act Two, "The Marvelous Wonderettes" shows us more, just a bit more, of these girls. For now, you see, it is ten years later, at the 10-year reunion of that high school class. The girls are wearing go-go boots and mini-dresses now, and even have a hint of Motown around The Edges of their white-bread musical offering. And each girl, now at a different stage of life and love than the others, blossoms a bit, tells her (unseen) man how to treat her right, and reconciles her conflicts with the other girls before a cascade of confetti seals the deal on the audience-character-actress lovefest.

A comparison of the songs used in each act is revealing. Act One includes such bubble-gum hits as "Lollipop," "All I Have To Do Is Dream," "Dream Lover," Stupid Cupid." "Secret Love," "Sincerely" and "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight." All of this sweetness is presented with no trace of irony or guile, and only a hint of grey-tinged reality. We are in the world of these innocent young girls, even though the microphones the girls use don't even have cords, and the band accompanying the girls is....well, not only unexplained and unmentioned, but absent. (Apparently Northlight is using pre-recorded instrumental tracks, which to this reviewer is disappointing, as the New York production uses a band of four.)

Finally, in Act Two, just a hint of awareness creeps in, as the "amazing" similarity between the girls' love lives and the songs they are singing merges into two layers of meaning, for the audience if not for the characters. When these 28 year old women sing "You Don't Own Me," "That's When the Tears Start," "Leader Of the Pack," "Rescue Me" and, yes, "Respect," it no longer matters that we are their classmates and they are good at close harmony. The pop songs they sing finally work just as well as character-driven musical theater songs, just enough to save "The Marvelous Wonderettes" from being a skit that you or I or your Aunt Jean could have not only concocted but performed.

While hearing the best of a genre of music that may never be reclaimed by post-liberation women, but have always remained with us as a painless reminder of how things used to be, we in the audience at Northlight actually see some meaning in the juvenilia, some growth within the hormones, some reality in an Eisenhower-era pre-integration community. 

Northlight's cast sings their solos and quartet numbers as if born to this type of music, though it was their mothers or the older aunts who really were. The best of the bunch in my mind is Laura E. Taylor as Missy, the nerdish one who doesn't know she's nerdish, who becomes a school teacher but still belts out "Secret Love" from the film "Calamity Jane" as if her life depends on it. (Love the cat-glasses.) Taylor is a unique and thoroughly captivating talent, here and elsewhere. 

Cat Davis as the blonde, gum-chewing Suzy, grows from a little girl in Act One to a long-haired beauty "in the family way" for Act Two, in which she evokes a balanced blend of Kristen Chenoweth's Sally Brown and Galinda. Tempe Thomas's Betty Jean is the little spitfire whose "It's My Party" really raises the production to a level of artistic expression hard to find in the early going. And Dina DiCostanzo, whose vocal gifts seem less abundant than the other three actresses, holds her own musically, looks fantastic as the beautiful Cindy Lou, and hits every mark of emotional, theatrical and choreographic vitality. 

Written by Roger Bean as a tribute to his mother and here (as elsewhere) directed by him, "The Marvelous Wonderettes" moves along nicely and makes its points by the end. Choreography by Janet Miller is perky and well-rehearsed. Northlight's "Wonderettes" also features the same design team as the Off-Broadway production (including the sets of Michael Carnahan and lights by Jeremy Pivnick). All is well here.

The sound, by local designer Cecil Averett, confuses me, if only because I am used to hearing voices get louder when mouths get closer to microphones. Even with prop microphones evoking mid-century styles, this can be emulated. A small point, perhaps, and the songs could all be heard quite well (recorded band and all), but this show about a live performance sounds too good, too even and too theatrical. Sometimes a singer cradles a microphone not to be romantic, but because she's singing.

So, then, what's the final analysis? If you love these songs, and millions of us do, you will not be disappointed by the performances here. And two distinct, even iconic, eras of womanhood in America are depicted here, in a lighthearted way. If you go to "The Marvelous Wonderettes" expecting exactly this, you will be pleasantly surprised to find a little bit more meaning than if you were listening to an oldies radio station. It isn't Ibsen, but "The Marvelous Wonderettes" is painless, diverting and even a little bit thought-provoking before it's all said and done. "Sincerely." 

Northlight Theatre's "The Marvelous Wonderettes," written and directed by Roger Bean, with music direction by Brian WilLiam Baker and choreography by Janet Miller, plays September 17-November 1, 2009 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, Illinois, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets or more information call 847.673.6300 or visit northlight.org. 

Photo ID:

BLUE DRESS: Cat Davis (Suzy)

PINK DRESS: Dina DiCostanzo (Cindy Lou)

APRICOT DRESS: Laura Taylor (Missy)

GREEN DRESS: Tempe Thomas (Betty Jean)

  

Photo credit: Michael Brosilow