Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 34

DETROIT FREE PRESSWEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21, 1983 7C Barbary Coast9 is a sweet lummox of a show (ti) Lawrence DcVine jLi theatei BARBARY COAST Fisher Theatre Gentleman Jim Corbetl Richard Muenz Blfl Mahonev Eddie Bracken Lee Donn Simione Joe Chuno Bubba Gong Bing Lu Lee Tom Milne Rlla LaRosa Susan Elizabeth Scott Peter Mbrgan-Pearson Bill Mullikin Cvnlhla Carter Palli Cohenour Lady Armslrong-Tavlor Patti McLeod Warren Whitney Gene Brundage Madam Zara Kave Ballard Officer Miorlly Coy Coyington Reggie Ira Denmark Dispatcher Ron Moriarily Carrie Nation Leslie Burgin Bartenders Mike McKee, Barry Ramsey Cabaret girlsKelly Clements, Robin Blythe, Tara Sitser, Mary Ann Hay, Lynmarle Inge, Vicki Goldstein. Chorus Betsy Baker, Corlnne Kason, Susan Zagulrrc, Keith Ballard, Clarke Bennett, Karls Christensen, Randy Val Cupp, Stuart Larson, Robert Lollln, A. Michael McKee, William Purdy, Barry Ramsey. A musical comedy In two acts, with book, music and lyrics by William Lion Penzner, presented by Barbary Productions Inc.

and Olympla Arenas and directed by James Hatcher; with production design by William Morris, choreography by Doug Rivera and Chea Colette, lighting by Martin Aronstein, original coslumes by Madeline Granelo, and musical direction by Richard Parrinello. At the Fisher Theatre, through Oct. performances at 8 p.m., malinees Wed. at 1 p.m., at 2 p.m. i JUTS 77v rT ft mm Ah, "Barbary Coast." Detroit's theater season is really off and running now! It will be a long time before anyone who has seen it forgets "Barbary Coast." This naively sweet lummox of a show is like a wartime Britain of musical comedy: You want to send it CARE packages or knit it woolly scarves.

The cast keeps grinning insanely, while turn-of-the-century San Francisco undergoes three-person Tong wars, an earthquake, fire and the show's songs. Several scenes seem to be missing or perhaps just misplaced. It is fired by its choreography, as at each big finish, chorus boys with trembling arms lift one or several girls off the floor. At one point, they lift Eddie Bracken off the floor. "Barbary Coast," which opened at the Fisher Theatre Tuesday evening after a week of previews, is the town's only fall mainstage activity so far.

It is an original musical comedy, about old-time prizefighter Gentleman Jim Corbett and his Nob Hill lady love, but its creaky plot seems intermittently confusing. (Whatever happened to that filthy Chinese white slaver's boatload of Oriental virgins, anyway?) But, if "Barbary Coast" is a theatrical lox, it's our theatrical lox. Let's have a little respect here. They are absolutely at sea in it, but two very attractive and talented performers are nonetheless present in "Barbary Coast." That would be Richard Muenz, a last-minute replacement as Corbett, and a charming light-opera soprano named Patti Cohenour as the society girl who loves him. Muenz and Cohenour have so much natural appeal that one is often content just to watch them rather than listen too carefully to their lyrics or their lines in this erratic piece by William Lion Penzner.

In the palpable awkwardness of director James Hatcher's staging, even the Muenz-Cohenour magic does ebb and flow. There is that thrilling moment, for instance, when in mid-song the two, lovers clutch each other in passionate embrace arid they are singing into each other's body mikes. The volume suddenly quadruples. 1 AROUND AND about in comic relief caper Eddie Bracken as a tricky Irish cabdriver and Kaye Ballard as the fortune teller upstairs over Gentleman Jim's nightclub. Bracken, the soul of ingratiating professionalism, may have been given one funny line in the show.

Or, again, he may not have. And what a trooper Kaye Ballard is, just forging ahead, staying within the context of her role, like the brave soul who keeps on waving as the lifeboat sinks straight down beneath her. Too much description cannot be good for "Barbary Coast," since the overall spirit of the piece is certainly wholesome and apparently well meant, Penzner wrote both script and songs in an old-fashioned style that inevitably is reminiscent of the several old Gay '90s San Francisco movies. His director seems at a loss in dealing with the Fisher's large stage, with many scenes played far upstage against the back wall, and left there. The good soldiers of the company have not been given much inspiration by this man; behind the unflagging smiles, one senses a yearning by the performers to know just where "Barbary Coast" is headed.

Consider, for example, the lament by the hand- some club manager (Donn Simione) for his lost tootsie, a cabaret dancer who's dropping him for "opera lessons" with a wealthy Nob Hill type. She leaves and he starts tap dancing! Why is this man tap dancing? Dollars to doughnuts, Simione does not know. Overall, "Barbary Coast" is a welter of gentle musical-comedy ambition, conflicting with maladroit staging and a book and score that are not very fresh. "Barbary Coast" is not evil or cheap, just clumsy and corny. And, occasionally, when we weary of Broadway slickness, we can exult at lyrics to live in the memory like these: "Though I could see through your mask, I drank from the flask, that made me your slave." Eddie Bracken, a tricky Irish cabdriver, and Kaye Ballard, the fortune teller, make the best of their roles in "Barbary Coast." gnu "FANCY PANTS" The Only True XXX Rated Go Go Club in Metro Detroit mm xxx UNINHIBITED LIVE SHOW Noon to 2 A.M.

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