Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 177

v-rr- THEATER lillAHalM- -v- -J t'fi if ri Innocence And Simplicity ONCE ON THIS BUND Book and lyrics by Lym Ahrens Music by Stephen Flaherty Directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele Design by Loy Arcenas Costume design by Judy Dearing Lighting design by Alen Lee Hughes At the Booth Theater lowed to overwhelm the resolutely whimsical musical which blithely plays out Ti Mephistophelean pact with the Demon of Death (Eric Riley) to spare life in favor of her own As in the Orpheus half of Graciela unduly-maligned Daniele and writer Lynn Ahrens frame the show as the fancies of a little girl in this case a tale acted out by peasants for a youngster (Afi McClen-doq) who has been frightened by a thunderstorm Daniele keeps the performers moving to the tropics-flavored rhythms of Stephen non-stop score cuddly music alternately soporific and soothing calculated to wrap up the audience in its warm mother-earth breasts After a half hour or so want to suck your thumb That is if you drift off to dreamland Daniele and her authors mark much too much time with weakly conceived numbers that push hip-swaying to the breaking point Daniele keeps everything contained: she seems so intent on maintaining flow and intimacy that she never allows her short choreographic ideas to expand and take off Even when La Chanze gets a big twisty solo dance in the Becond half it stops short of lifting you from your seat And orchestra tor Michael Starobin blands out the rhythmic potential of the music with tinkly Wonder Bread arrangements After a time your toes lock down on the floor waiting aching to tap Suddenly at midpoint the show kicks in The performers hop onto the stage making like birds and frogs and trees followed by a brassy Mother of the Earth (Kecia Lewis-Evans) La Chanze whose airy presence has kept A scene from the musical on This now at the Booth Theater By Jan Stuart STAFF WRITER VERYTHING ABOUT on This is petite and pretty: its fairytale story aqueous-tinted sets music box melodies its dances artistic ambitions and most transflx-ingiy a young woman with the petite and pretty name La Chanze Until this musical eventually takes flight about midway through you can keep your eyes glued on this enchanting performer not work believe me She is blessed with a diminutive grace that recalls Melba Moore in and the pop-eyed gamine sparkle of Leslie Caron and Audrey Hep-bum in the And got this big hallelqjah smile that works a kind of reverse-Medusa effect: stare into it and your Btony grown-up cynicism softens to a mushy innocence Innocence is what this show is about on This tells the post-Napoleonic tale of a young peasant named Ti Moune (La Chanze) who falls hopelessly in love with Daniel (Jerry Dixon) the mulatto son of a rich Frenchman and one of his servants Hopeless since Daniel and Ti Moune reside on opposite Bides of the tracks separating rich from poor on their little French Antilles island This darker theme of dw divisions is never al New Yorkers will undoubtedly take on this to their vast and underrated hearts Lopsided and wimped-out though it may be its simplicity arrives like a refreshing tropical breeze to blow away the stale spectacles of Andrew Lloyd Webber And its message of healing is sorely desired as our crime-ravaged city rallies together After all the subtext of this long-ago with its strata of very rich and very poor its hope of love and caring defeating death is really the island of Manhattan in 1990 When the little Antilles girl cowers from thunder and lightning she could just as well be ducking bullets on this reflects our times through rose-and-aquamarine-colored glasses II this afloat until now looks thrilled to see her she beams that exultant grin and struts along while earth mother assures her that Will a great song mirthful and alive and Lewis-Evans gives it a funny growly spin The reBt of the evening flies along as if everything before was just a warmup The women are particularly captivating Aside from La Chanze and Kecia Lewis-Evans there is an ebullient singer named Andrea Frierson whose sharp features remind you a bit of downtown actress Black-Eyed Susan Frierson gives a simple ballad called Human a nice tender caress And a porcelain beauty named Nikki Rene glows with dignity as Ti sympathetic rival Than A Slick-as-Ever Revue CLOSED THAN EVEN Musical ravue by Richard Maltby Jr and David Shire musical direction and staging by Jeff Hoffman with Tan Browne Mfchele Cohen Don Frame Lisa Frantzen Dave GiudzbisM and Jeff Hoffman Set by Fred Sprauer Igfiting by Al Davis costumes by Karen Addey At Arena Players Main Stage Theater 296 Rte 109 Famiingdale Thursdays through Sundays through Oct 28 sings a wistful song called of the Good in which a 44-year-old man laments never seizing a wild moment of ecstasy even though about a life of dose family ties and contentment This is followed not much later by sung by Lisa Frantzen sort of a female version of but not as good partly because it has its 49-year-old heroine passing through all the signposts of the past few decades from divorce to feminism as though an emblematic figure instead of a specific quirky person The abstract title alone is a giveaway And then March of sung by the company which also includes Don Frame about aging baby boomers who various adult responsibilities Hoffman an able pianist occasionally sings along and in one number guitarist-bassist Dave Grudzinski (in this NEWSOAY FRIDAY OCTOBER 19 1900 Tim Brown Michelle Cohen Lisa Frantzen and Don Frame By Aileen Jacobson 8TAVT WRITER AND --111 make poor subjects for songs even if intended metaphorically The songs of Richard Maltby Jr and David Shire often sound like catalogs of modem woes abstract meditations doors opened and unopened the patterns of life devoid of new insuhts Too many of these glib songs dot "Closer Than which had a long run Off-Broadway where it won an Outer Circle Drama Critics Award a slickly packaged revue from the team that produced the musical and it has a few very witty numbers particularly those that develop precise characters and situations The whole thing goes down easily It just gets a little boring now and then At Arena Players Main Stage Jeff Hoffman gives this show which started as a cabaret vehicle stitched together from old and new Maltby-Shire songs a Bleek presentation Its four bright-eyed singers whose From left on case on bass during a song with lots of puns and double entendres) even gets in on the act Cohen again is the singer of this funny silly song Costumer Karen Ackley dresses the cast in pleasing jewel-like hues Designer Fred abstract set nicely lit by Al Davis features black notes on a white background a couple of essential doors and a few props is fine for this simply staged show Though always agreeable to see talented performers strut their stuff mine enjoyable when the material is more consistently interesting II voices blend well (all too well sometimes giving a slippery patina to songs that could use some roughing up instead) adopt a cocky showbiz air out to sell their songs but some of these pieces are no bargain Among the better works is a comic monologue called delivered with bravura by Michelle Cohen who acts as well as sings the part of a mousy office worker with a scorching secret life sit here at my desk and no one she Bings twenty minutes ago I was not wearing Tim Browne a talented singer with a touching style.