“Swing!” isn’t from the traditional musical theater school of boy meets girl, boy sings about girl, boy gets girl and then loses girl — but then gets her back.
“Swing!” is boy sings with girl, boy dances with girl, boy sings and dances with girl. And that’s about it.
With its negligible storyline, the musical isn’t the kind of theater that will emotionally move you. The show’s main objectives are to make you feel the beat, stupefy you with gravity-defying aerials and throw you into a love affair with the big-band music that was ubiquitous in nightclubs throughout the ’40s.
That said, “Swing!” is more difficult than most musicals in many ways. Its score isn’t terribly demanding, but the show requires a certain expert proficiency from the dancers in the cast. And in a small cast like the one performing “Swing!” at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse through March 1, everyone is a dancer.
Mind you, not everyone in the cast has to be the triple threat actor-singer-dancer, but it sure does help — and it’s glaringly obvious in a show like “Swing!” when somebody’s lacking in the dance department. These aren’t introductory dance moves. They are the things of legend, the inspiration behind some of the greatest music ever written, the physical manifestation of an era’s youth in revolt.
And you have to feel that when you’re rocking the jitterbug, the Charleston, the Lindy hop. And while some of the players in Candlelight’s production no doubt understood the dance, some of them didn’t.
And that confusion served as a metaphor for the production as a whole. Some actors charged the stage with a determined sense of place as others randomly showed up, seemingly clueless of their own whereabouts. Some dancers carried their character from scene to scene while others dismissed the slap in the face or the shy glance that came before.
Where was the show’s cohesive identity, its direction? It surely wasn’t too concerned with setting the scene for the audience. A staircase led to a generic stage door, sure, but it was still never apparent why these actor types were inclined to turn the backstage area into a fiery juke joint.
For example, this is how the stage is set at the beginning of the first act: Kids wander backstage and interrupt a guy playing his guitar. He’s soon joined by a band, and the kids feel their beat and are inclined to sing and dance.
The scene would have been more believable if they dressed the band in better, more era-specific clothing — and switched the drummer with the guitarist, who was concentrating on his sheet music so much that his prominent on-stage presence was more of a distraction than anything else. (To its credit, the band handled the songs capably.)
The premise may be ridiculous, but the singers handled the material with the needed style and attitude, even when the songs were cumbersome, as in the awkward “Throw That Girl Around.”
The show’s two lead singers, Kenny Moten and Reyna Von Vett, are professionals who handle the vocal heavy lifting with ease. The first act’s “Bli-Blip” is an obvious highlight, a tremendously difficult song with sassy, scat-oriented harmonies from Moten and Von Vett.
Moten was solid in “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy,” but he was delightfully upstaged by jazz trumpeter Rob Reynolds, who pulled double duty as the band’s lead horn player and an active member of the company. Von Vett’s torchy “Blues in the Night” in Act 2 was strong and sassy, showing off her voice’s sheer, unrestrained power. And the duet between Reynold’s trumpet and Michelle Sergeeff’s lush alto — the crazy-great “Cry Me a River” — was one of the evening’s most loving, enjoyable moments.
The dancing wasn’t as consistent. It was best in small groups, and it was impossible not to watch Adrianne Hampton glide across the stage or Margaret Skokan indulge in her soulful, fluid swing style. Both ladies were so comfortable, they set the bar high for their castmates without upstaging them.
But the first act closes with a restrained “In the Mood,” featuring clever choreography, but not the big moves the song deserves. Some of the short dance vignettes, meant to flesh out the smaller characters’ side stories (including “Harlem Nocturne”) looked unpolished. And as varied as the dancers’ skill levels were, rarely did anybody wow the audience with moves that left their jaws hanging open.
And that’s not acceptable with this show. The most lasting image of “Swing!” — the one that adorns the CD cover of the original Broadway cast recording — is that of a suspenders-and-tie man slinging a woman in a dress over his shoulder. Big moves, big smiles, big aerials.
This production has a number of solid aerial combinations, but few are of the awe-inducing variety. On top of that, most of the dance combinations are basic and a bit repetitive, something you’d be lucky to see at wedding.
The simple, nondescript set served its purpose, and the costumes were hit-or-miss. The red bandanas employed for the Western swing number “Boogie-Woogie Country” were misused in odd ways. (Pirate? Rockabilly princess? Bandit?) But some of the short dresses and high-waist pants were gorgeous and helped solidify the show’s era.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
“Swing!” ** (out of four stars)
Dance. Local production at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown. Original concept by Paul Kelly. Original direction and choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Directed by Nick Turner. Choreographed by Scott Wright. Through Mar. 1. 1 hour, 45 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays- Fridays; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (with dinner served an hour before curtain). $36-$54. or 970-744-3747.
