Golden – For the past seven years, having the word “Loud” in the title of any show at the Heritage Square Music Hall has all but guaranteed a long-running hit. More than 135,000 people took in T.J. Mullin’s silly series of musical revues centering on a brother and sister playing out their rock ‘n’ roll dreams.
The new “Summer Lovin”‘ may not be an immediate member of the “Loud” family, but it is a not-too-distant cousin. The premise has changed, but the reason we have gathered here in the state’s most convivial dinner theater remains the same: to enjoy a venerable ensemble alternately spoof and immortalize dozens of pop standards.
The Music Hall, which turned 17 Wednesday, made its name by offering ribald melodramas followed by a short musical revue that proved these slapstick comedians to be among the most talented singers and dancers in town.
The “Loud” franchise expanded the concept into entire evenings of pop hits from the 1950s-’80s. But after six installments it was time to retire the teens, if not the genre that has served them – and their audiences – so well.
Enter Annie Dwyer, the Music Hall’s queen of gams and ham, a fearless vixen who has not met a bald spot she hasn’t licked. Dwyer and co-writer Mullin concocted a way to expand the repertoire from vaudeville to Ricky Martin.
The story opens in a historic theater where a company is rehearsing for “Grease,” (the 50-something Mullin is devastated to learn he is three decades too long in the leather to play Zucco). But when word comes that the theater is to become a cinema, their show is canceled, so Mullin & Co. set out to explore every nook of the old palace. The celebrity photos and forgotten costumes they discover, along with a cleverly bottomless prop trunk, inspire them to perform numbers and celebrity impersonations from just about every pop-culture era.
The antics begin with Mullin and Alex Crawford resurrecting the 1920 Ziegfeld Follies bit “Mister Gallagher & Mister Shean.” Soon you are treated to everything from country to folk to torch songs to showtunes.
The specious thread is that each song is inspired by a show or concert performance once held here, which justifies impersonations of Alan Sherman (“Camp Grenada”), Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, kd lang, John Sebastian and even the Partridge Family (Crawford’s Johnny Cash is worth the price of admission). Most are quite funny, but as usual the ensemble catches you off-guard with some truly thrilling musical moments, such as Mullin, Renato Lunnon and Rory Pierce harmonizing CSN’s “Helplessly Hoping,” and a group rendition of “Love is a Many Splendored Thing.”
Also as usual, audience members are often called upon, and one little girl brought down the house in joining Dwyer and Johnette Toye on a raucous “Redneck Woman,” the Gretchen Wilson country hit that apparently everyone in the room but me knew by heart.
The variety is great, but the team spends too much effort and exposition trying to make sure each song “works.” For example, how to justify a terrific rendition of “Time Warp”? The first film to be shown at the new cinema will be “The Rocky Horror Show,” but when it won’t thread properly in an old projector, the cast takes over.
The premise is a mighty stretch, but this is an audience that will concede anything in exchange for a Bud Light, so the cast best not overthink things and just get on with it.
Equal to the vocal, dancing and comic skills on display is the pure musical talent. Band members N. Randall Johnson and Eric Weinstein (alternating with Jeff Foerster) are often joined by actors, notably Crawford on drums. In all, seven play 13 different instruments.
It may not be “Loud,” but it’s proudly in the same tradition.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“Summer Lovin”‘
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MUSICAL REVUE|Heritage Square Music Hall, 18301 W. Colfax Ave., Golden|Created by T.J. Mullin and Annie Dwyer|Directed by Dwyer|Starring Mullin, Dwyer, N. Randall Johnson, Rory Pierce, Alex Crawford, Johnette Toye and Renato Lunnon|THROUGH SEPT. 11|7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (dinner 90 minutes prior)|2 hours, 20 minutes|$21-$23.50 (show only), $29-$34 (with dinner)|303-279-7800
