
DATE: Thursday, June 5, 1997                TAG: 9706050745
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Theater review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

STAGED ``RAIN'' IS WATERED DOWN

TRY TO FORGET Debbie, Gene and Donald.

Go ahead! Just try.

You'll get little help from the rather pedestrian musical imitation of ``Singin' in the Rain'' at Chrysler Hall through Sunday. Directed and choreographed by John O. Dietrich, this is Rhode Island's Theatre-By-The-Sea production that debuted last summer and has been touring since.

This little production's blessing and curse is the adaptation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green's fine screenplay and the ingratiating songs of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. The source, the 1952 MGM musical, is such a cherished memory to so many millions of moviegoers that the task of transforming it to the stage is a daunting and, as it turns out, foolhardy enterprise.

Dietrich's choreography is less pretentious than Twyla Thwarp's was for the ill-fated 1985 Broadway version. It includes some pleasant tap routines, particularly the second act ``Broadway Melody,'' but it doesn't have the principals to sell it.

In a national poll of film critics, the source movie, directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, was voted the best musical of all time a few years ago. Adapting it is a lofty ambition. This young cast is far from qualified, although we can't help but pull for them every step of the way.

The setting is the early days of talking pictures in Hollywood. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are glamorous stars of silent movies but she, as it turns out, has the voice of a shrieking harridan. He falls in love with a talented ingenue, Kathy Selden, whose pleasant voice is used to dub Ms. Lamont's and save ``The Dueling Cavalier,'' the movie within the play. In the end, of course, the duplicity is discovered and true love wins out.

Keith Mahoney, who has the Gene Kelly role of Don Lockwood, is a singer, not a dancer. In fact, he seems barely to have mastered the basic fundamentals of tap. The fact that the film-within-the-play doesn't seem to feature him suggests that there has been some recasting since this production was originally mounted. Scott Jacobs, who is assigned the sidekick role, is better in the dance category but his big moment, the ``Make 'Em Laugh'' number, is marred by not enough stage business to support it.

The director, in general, has not filled his stage; he leaves too much empty space. A spotlight operator who can't always find the principals was no help.

An actress named Debbie Damp has a lovely voice as the ingenue (originally played by former Virginia housewife Debbie Reynolds). She is the most palatable of the trio, and even has some stage presence. (Can that be her real name? Or is she touring incognito to protect her future career, which deserves to be more promising?)

The songs, of course, are irresistible. They include ``You Stepped Out of a Dream,'' ``Good Morning,'' ``All I Do Is Dream of You,'' ``You Were Meant for Me,'' ``Fit as a Fiddle,'' the comic delight ``Moses Supposes,'' ``Would You?'' and, of course, the title song. If you can read these titles without humming along, it can only mean that you've totally surrendered to the caterwauling of present day. They are great tunes. Most of them were not written specifically for the original film, but were conveniently borrowed. The stage version contains an unfortunate addition for screechy Lina Lamont, called ``What's Wrong With Me?'' It is meant to be comedic.

And, yes, it DOES rain on the stage of Chrysler Hall. It's more a shower than a downpour, but it's there. In the history of movie musicals, no single scene is as well remembered as Gene Kelly's song-and-dance to this title song. To Mahoney's credit, he has an exuberance here that almost makes up for his lack of dance talent. The familiar choreography has been maintained, from the lamp post climb to the snoopy cop.

Kerri Jill Garbis plays the high-pitched shrew Lina Lamont, a star on the way out. The fact that Garbis has toured as Eva Peron in ``Evita'' suggests that she can carry a tune, on other nights. But she does, after all, have one of the more famous comedic lines in movie history: ``If I've been able to breeng a little magic into your hum-drum lives, den it ain't been all in vain fer nuthin.'''

Perhaps not all, but almost, Lina.

When all is said and done, the only thing you'll remember about this version is the rain. That's not the way it should be. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

CAROL ROSEGG

Theatre-By-The-Sea members in a scene from the musical ``Singin' in

the Rain.''

Grapbic

THEATER REVIEW

``Singin' in the Rain'' Where: Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

When: Tonight and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.;

Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.

Who: Directed and choreographed by John O. Dietrich

Tickets: $27 to $45. Charge by phone at 671-8100