BWW Reviews: TELL ME ON A SUNDAY at Arts West

Arts West in West Seattle is currently presenting Andrew Lloyd Webber's seldom produced one act, one woman musical "Tell Me On A Sunday".  And while the show boasts one of the best singers in town, it ends up coming across as under directed and over produced.

The story follows Emma, an aspiring hat designer, on her journey from London to New York to Beverly Hills and ultimately back to New York.  Along the way we see her grow from someone's girlfriend to someone's plaything to her own woman.  It's a pretty simple story but then it's only about 70 minutes.  Now I must say, I'm not a fan of Sir Andrew's work.  I see most of his stuff as so much flash and not a lot of substance.  Which is why this show is such a pleasant diversion for him.  He wrote it on the heels of "Evita" where he longed to go back to something small.  And when he managed to get out of his own way without falling chandelier's and such, he actually managed to tell a nice story.  It's not a perfect show but it's one of his better ones.  Plus it contains some of Webber's most enduring hits such as "Unexpected Song", "Take That Look Off Your Face" and titular "Tell Me On A Sunday".  So why Arts West and director Christopher Zinovitch chose to strip away all that works with the show and add in so much fluff that doesn't is beyond me.

As I said, the show has one of the best singers in the Seattle area in the lovely Danielle Barnum.  She's gorgeous, with incredible stage presence and a spectacular voice.  This should work for her.  She has the talent to pull it off.  Unfortunately what she didn't have was a director who trusted her to convey this story to us without the need for so many gimmicks.  Laden down with huge pauses for costume changes and (for some reason) two interminable airplane in flight speeches, and a video wall that distracted more than anything, the show does not manage to take us on this journey but rather goes from a sweet naïve girl at the beginning, and then there's some pretty songs, and then she's a very different woman at the end.  I missed the arc in the middle.  Also, for a show about a hat designer, there was a shocking lack of hats.

And let's talk a minute about that video wall.  So many companies out there have discovered the joys of not needing a big lavish set, but instead using video projections to convey locations.  And that's fine.  It's a wonderfully easy and inexpensive way to do something that looks great.  But know when to stop.  When it works well like Seattle Shakespeare Company's recent production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" it can only enhance a show.  But when overdone, it can kill.  So often throughout this production, the screen would display something Barnum had just sung about.  She sang about her boyfriends smile, we see a man's smile.  She sang about a janitor in the hallway of her building, we see an image of a janitor.  We're not stupid; we know what a janitor looks like.  Let us watch Barnum and not be distracted by the shiny new image above her head.

Barnum has proved herself to be an incredible performer in shows throughout the Seattle area.  Most notably her performance as the main character in "Jane Eyre" at Seattle Musical Theatre was stirring.  So we know she's got the chops, not only singing but acting, to convey this rich and complex character's journey.  It's just a shame that Zinovitch spent more time coming up with cute gimmicks rather than going through this journey with his actor.  So if you're a fan of these Webber songs and would like to hear them sung beautifully, then by all means, catch this show.  Otherwise ...

"Tell Me On A Sunday" plays at Arts West through May 23^rd.  For tickets or information, contact the Arts West Box Office at 206-938-0339 or visit them online at www.artswest.org.