 Reviews
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Cole Porter hit makes for a fun
and lively show
By SUSAN L. RIFE, Sarasota Herlad-Tribune
Kick up your heels with classic 'Can-Can' at Golden Apple
By Eric Delp, Bradenton Herald
Can-Can, at the Golden Apple.
By Marie J. Kilker, AISLE SAY Florida
Cole Porter hit makes for a fun and lively
By SUSAN L. RIFE, Sarasota Herlad-Tribune
The titular dance of Cole Porter's monster 1953 hit is the real star of "Can-Can," as French dance-hall girls (and boys) of 1890s Gay Paree kick up their heels, whoop and yodel through the cafes of the Montmartre district.
The cast at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre appears to be thoroughly enjoying itself in this fun, if uneven, production. Directed by Roberta MacDonald and choreographed by Dewayne Barrett, the show is lively as all get-out.
KT Curran is Pistache, the proprietress of a tawdry dance cafe. Pistache flouts the laws against such outrageous dancing, which lands her troupe of sexy girls, and then herself, in front of a strait-laced judge, Aristide, on obscenity charges. Pistache quickly seduces the judge, who quickly falls for the coolly elegant businesswoman.
The show is chockful of familiar Porter tunes, such as "C'est Magnifique," "I Love Paris," "Allez-Vous-En" and "It's All Right With Me." Curran and co-star Roy Johns as Aristide meet the vocal challenges with richness and clarity.
Johns is the picture of pomposity as Aristide, although his portrayal seems more American than French.
Curran takes the show by the throat from her first step onto the stage. Tall, slender and immaculately turned out, she stands in sharp contrast to the rumpled girls who are "laundresses" in Bal du Paradis during the day and wild dancers by night. She slinks all over the role, showing the marshmallow center under the hard shell of the Parisian businesswoman, and shows wonderful emotional range from tender to brash.
A subplot involves one of the dancers, Claudine (Kari Constantine), and her useless sculptor lover Boris (Tom Bengston) who does not mind using Claudine to curry a little favor with art critic Jussac (John Russo, in a fine performance). Bengston pretty much steals every scene he is in, with a performance oversized in both song and dance.
Dee Richards' costume designs are spectacular, from Pistache's elegant form-fitting gowns to the dance hall girls' traditional red, pink and black ruffled underskirts and panties; green leaves and red feathers barely conceal the naughty bits in "The Garden of Eden Ballet." John Visser's musical direction is seamless throughout the show.
Kick up your heels with classic 'Can-Can' at Golden Apple
By Eric Delp, Bradenton Herald
The Golden Apple Dinner Theatre reaches all the way back to 1953 for its latest production. "Can-Can," directed by Golden Apple mainstay Roberta McDonald, is a musical by renowned songsmith Cole Porter.
Set in Paris in 1893, the show is the story of a dancehall madam whose business comes under legal fire because of its risque entertainment.
Despite the title (and marketing), the show doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the familiar and provocative dance, which is a shame, since the dancing is by far the best part of this production. It's actually mostly about an equally familiar but far less provocative love story, complete with every bland and formulaic plot point conceivable. Star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of some insurmountable barrier? Check. A man or woman who cannot love, but then almost immediately falls in love? Check. One or both do(es) something heartless and unforgiveable, so that the two are angry with one another for a good portion of the show until at last they forgive each other and everything is OK? Check.
"Can-Can" is about a judge named Aristide (Roy Johns), who thinks of himself as principled but is actually just a jerk. He's so concerned with the letter of the law that he has no compassion for the actual people that the laws affect. As a new judge, he makes it his mission to rid Paris of the dreaded can-can dance, which is technically illegal, though it is apparently quite popular and his fellow judges seem to dismiss it as a trifle. Aristide falls in love with Pistache (KT Curran), the woman he intends to prosecute, gets disbarred, starts a can-can cafe of his own, and finally appears before his former colleagues to defend the can-can.
The show is called "Can-Can," I suppose, because the dancing is by far the most exciting part. There's a very impressive can-can number in each act, but there's also a fabulous dance/fight in Act Two and a quasi-ballet/interpretive dance near the end of the first act. The women, and especially Kari Constantine, are excellent dancers, and Dewayne Barrett did an outstanding job with the choreography.
In fact, I thought the quasi-ballet performance was the best part of the show. Claudine (Kari Constantine), Pistache's main dancer, plays Eve, interacting with all the animals in bliss before being tempted by the snake. By excising the bland lyrics and forgetting the banal love story for a moment, it became a lot more interesting. Suddenly there's a reason to watch, something you can't get just by listening to the soundtrack, and you're actively engaged with the show, trying to interpret the abstract visual story being presented instead of passively accepting trite declarations of love.
Can-Can, at the Golden Apple.
By Marie J. Kilker, AISLE SAY Florida
With its “magnifique” musical numbers and Paris setting, 1893, Can-Can stays fresh at Golden Apple as at its Broadway debut over fifty years ago. Credit also goes to Roberta MacDonald wisely directing it as the two-periods play it is. She’s chosen perfect leads. KT Curran glamorizes Pistache, whose Montmartre café features “laundresses”-by-day kicking up by night with high flying skirts in a low down dance. As new judge Aristide, Roy Johns is out to determine first-hand the morality of the can-can and if its illegality is warranted. Despite their instant mutual attraction, the conflict inherent in their separate “businesses” severely strains their getting together. A parallel dilemma involves lead dancer Claudine (fetching Kari Constantine), in love with silly sculptor Boris (broadly comic Tom Bengston). He uses her to try to get favorable reviews from John Russo’s starchy critic Jussac. That the outcomes are never in doubt doesn’t detract from the fun ways—notably a hilarious “show” of Boris’ sculptures—of reaching them.
Simple scenery allows for many quick changes of setting, but costumes are spectacular. Not only as a designer but a one-woman costume shop, Dee Richards turns out slick, elegant gowns for Pistache as well as unusual dark lace dresses with fuschia, yellow, white ruffled underskirts and panties for the dancers—and a variety of practical or pretty clothes in between. Samantha Barrett, Garie Jean Williams, Kelly Sardinas, Sarah Farnam join Kari Constantine as the prettiest and most precise performers high-stepping for choreographer DeWayne Barrett in recent times. John Visser provides musical direction that, with the exception of a few tinny bridges, lets Cole Porter’s score weave its spell. Curran sustains that with “I Love Paris” as well as “Allez-Vous En” and Johns gives out “I Am in Love” with such sentimental strength that he raises a wonder why this love song isn’t a more popular standard. The show’s most visually memorable moments may accrue to Charles McKenzie’s slithering out of the tree in The Garden of Eden Ballet and then down, across, away.
Time: 2 hrs., 30 mins. including a 15 min. intermission.
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