THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602020036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
``THE MOST Happy Fella'' was a curiosity when it first played on Broadway in 1956. That it remains so today is perhaps as much a testament to the lack of inventiveness on Broadway as it is to this work itself.
Here is a musical drama that approaches the fury and weight of opera while attempting to retain the song-and-dance gusto of traditional Broadway.
For six years, after he wrote ``Guys and Dolls,'' composer-librettist Frank Loesser labored to adapt the aging (1924) Pulitzer Prize-winning play ``They Knew What They Wanted'' by Sidney Howard to the Broadway stage. The result is a curious hybrid of show tunes and arias that attempts to tell its story in song and recitation but still stay within the popular idiom of the Broadway show.
Commonwealth Musical Stage, in a headlong dash to perform most of the Broadway musical repertoire, is to be congratulated for going a bit afield in undertaking this venture.
Suffice it to say that the company gives the work its due. There are fine voices here (the two leads, Peak Kwinarian and Rebecca Spencer), comic timing (especially from Mary Ann Rayment), serviceable sets (representing California's Napa Valley), and a charismatic matinee idol (Mark Kettles).
It is all it could be, and yet audiences are still likely to squirm at the melodramatic style. Composer-lyricist Loesser attempted to get everything into the brew, including pathos. It sometimes suffers from a refusal to relax and let anything happen simply.
The plot is a simple one. Tony, a lonely and aging Napa Valley vineyard owner, proposes by mail to a San Francisco waitress. But he sends her a photograph of Joe, his handsome hired hand. She arrives, is initially repulsed at the deception but goes through with the marriage to Tony.
But Joe is still around. Melodrama develops and the proceedings vary from Puccini to Tin Pan Alley. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``The Most Happy Fella,'' the musical by Frank Loesser
Who: Presented by Commonwealth Musical Stage, directed by Jeff
Meredith, featuring Peak Kwinarian, Rebecca Spencer, Mark Kettles
and Mary Ann Rayment
Where: Virginia Beach Pavilion
When: Today at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets: From $15 to $30, $7.50 for students
More Info: 340-5446
by CNB