‘Disaster!’ (Not really!)
7 / 10
It is the caliber of these parodists that keeps the silliness afloat as Tony's earthquake-racked gambling vessel takes on ever more water. Butler, a star of Broadway's tongue-in-cheek 'Hairspray' and 'Xanadu,' and Pascal, the original Roger in 'Rent,' approach their stock roles with a winning élan. As dyed-in-the-mink Shirley (modeled on Shelley Winters's performance in the peerless 1972 upside-down cruise ship flick 'The Poseidon Adventure') Prince gets to show off a gift for physical comedy that becomes more formidable with the worsening of Shirley's terminal illness - a condition apparently native to the Borscht Belt. And Bart, the Carmen Ghia of Broadway's 'The Producers,' provides the vital services here of a shameless, polished clown. Best of all, though, is Simard's Sister Mary, a guitar-toting scold who cries 'shame' at her shipmates' vices while harboring a secret yearning to shout 'Blackjack!'
