Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505150026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sure, a lot of them are here, like "If They Could See Me Now" from "Sweet Charity" and "The Music and the Mirror" from "A Chorus Line," among others.
What makes "Inside the Music" different - and interesting - is its playful, self-analytical perspective on a life in the theater. You've heard of armchair psychology? Think "studio-barre" psychology, and you're almost there.
"Inside the Music" opened last night at Mill Mountain Theatre.
When it works, it's simultaneously fun and compelling, giving full, human dimensionality to those superhumans who dance, sing, write and choreograph themselves up the theater food chain.
When it doesn't work, it's a little disjointed and convoluted in its narrative progress. Songs run into each other like cars in a traffic pile-up, as if someone feared audiences would be disappointed if there weren't enough singing and dancing.
With the irresistible, Tony award-winning Donna McKechnie starring, no one need have worried.
The structure is loose, but it goes something like this: McKechnie talks a little about her upbringing and family background, escaping into the movies with her grandmother and running off to join a dance company. It's a mixture of fact and fiction and musical numbers, some of which work better than others.
Together, the song "Astaire" and a story about having dinner with Fred Astaire evoke the essence of the famous dancer so completely that it's impossible NOT to imagine him as he stands in his doorway saying goodbye, striking the famous Astaire pose.
Even better is "Everybody Says Don't," about McKechnie's (fictitious? composite?) love affair with an actor who brings her to Spain on location and demands "just 5 percent" of her personality. When one of the gypsy film crew at the wrap party is looking for a dance partner, and McKechnie turns to catch his eye - ignoring the dirty looks of her boyfriend - it's a moment of personal triumph, one that many who have compromised their "selves" for a partner can share.
"Inside the Music" is ased on a concept of McKechnie and Christopher Chadman (inspired by McKechnie's cabaret act) and adapted by Christopher Durang. Peter Webb directs and musical direction is by Bryan Louiselle.
The play's first act offers satisfying insight into what was expected of women in the '50s. It's a little jarring in an enterprise that is meant to celebrate the act of entertaining, but one grows accustomed to it.
The second act is slightly more breathless, jam-packed with music and dancing, and less focused.
Most perplexing is the abrupt ending. A show that is a musical resume of Donna McKechnie's life in the theater (sort of) really requires a much more definite conclusion, a much bigger finale.
But on balance, "Inside the Music" is to a musical lover what a box of Godivas is to a chocolate lover: pure pleasure, with some surprises in the middle.
At Mill Mountain Theatre through May 28. Tickets $14-$18. 342-5740.
by CNB