Review: A WONDERFUL NOISE Is a Wonderful Time

A book musical, written in the twenty-first century, that's set in the 1940's, has period, not current, music, and isn't either ironic or a parody? Impossible, you say, and yet Michael Hollinger and Vance Lehmkhul have brought us A WONDERFUL NOISE, currently playing at Villanova Theatre, directed by Harriet Power, which is exactly that.

It's also a bit of a surprise - a musical about barbershop quartet competition? Yet it's not flooded with a surfeit of barbershop, which the average audience member probably can't enjoy for a sustained period; barbershop was a bit old-fashioned even at the start of that decade. Rather, the songs are the sort that fit both the popular music and the musicals of the period, with everything from jazz to marches. It's not just the barbershop quartet music that invites comparison to THE MUSIC MAN; there's a definite Meredith Willson air to the music and lyrics.

And, set at the beginning of the 1940's, in many ways it's a musical about war: about competition itself, about World War Two, about the battle of the sexes. For in 1941, the military wasn't the only place that didn't admit women - neither did the SPEBSQSA (now more generally known as the Barbershop Harmony Society), the organization for barbershop quartet performers. The main plot revolves around a male quartet from Missouri that's come to perform at a competition in Saint Louis, and a women's quartet from Philadelphia determined to disguise themselves as men and break into the competition. Complications, as required by the laws of musical comedy, ensue: the two quartets bump into each other in the lobby, they're in adjoining rooms, and there's a spark of interest growing between one of the men and one of the women - if only he weren't Jewish and she, whoops, an Italian Catholic - while another one of the men and one of the women, bigger whoops, are ex-lovers who are at war not only over their breakup but over a song to which they both contributed, that both quartets want to sing.

The show has its flaws, primarily the curse of wanting to tackle way too many subplots. One of the men, Ned (Matthew Moorhead) is a conscientious objector, but this story line is introduced and dropped. Jewish guy, David (Michael Killiany) meets Catholic girl Rose (Rachel Del Vecchio) thinking she's the Jewish girl, which is Sadie (Megan Rose). Two of the women, Sadie and Judy (Galen Blanzaco) barely exist in the story line, while all of the men have plot points. And then there's the love-hate-love tale of Mae (Laura Barron) and Chip (Chris Monaco). This all goes on while the women, in a story line that pushes the borders of farce, are trying to disguise themselves as men, but their false barbershop moustaches won't come off. Trimming the subplots and saving them for one or more other shows would tighten the show considerably.

But the acting and singing are unquestionably solid, and the pit orchestra is clearly enjoying itself; the music is quite fine, and frequently leave-the-theatre-hummable. "Give A Girl A Chance" is not only a pre-feminist anthem, but it's energetic and tuneful, while "I Can Sing That" begs to be a Judy Holliday show tune. "Chin Up" is an eleven o'clock number that lives up to that concept, and while it borrows nothing from the other song, is reminiscent of "Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat" from GUYS AND DOLLS in its rousing enthusiasm. There's far less barbershop than you'd expect, not much more than in THE MUSIC MAN, in fact. If anything's lacking musically, it might be the presence of one or two more barbershop numbers; perhaps some of the excess subplot could be replaced by "Shine On, Harvest Moon" or "Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nellie" to make the barbershop plot more authentic. Surely a show about barbershop quartets should make it all the way through at least one complete barbershop classic.

But the show is bouncy, and it's fun, and if everyone seems to be having just a bit more sex than was usual in period musicals, well, it is set at a convention, and in a hotel. It's worth a look, especially if you miss real book musicals or if Judy Holliday musicals are one of your secret weaknesses. It's a classic small musical of the sort that one doesn't see much any more but that populated Broadway when musicals didn't have to run for two years or more to break even on an investment in staged excess. For tickets and information, visit villanovatheatre.org.

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