Night Clubs Reviews

Aug 23, 2003 - "Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration" settles in at Reno's Eldorado Hotel Casino

By Jack Neal

No one wants to rain on the parade of the Eldorado's "Broadway! The Star Spangled Celebration," but for a show that holds so much promise for showbiz magic and pizzazz "Broadway's" rather tepid payoff is more overcast than sunny.

Designed to be played in alternation and with mostly the same cast with producer David King's "Spirit of the Dance," which opens at the Eldorado Wednesday (8/27/2003), "Broadway" carries with it many of the tarnish marks from its more famous sibling. Slickness is the order of the day for a King show, King also produces "Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration," and slickness is what director Quintin Young delivers without batting an eye. Young has lots of help. King, Young and choreographer Brian Rogers, it seems, have rarely seen a slick song-and-dance cliche they don't love and use.

That's not to imply there isn't much about "Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration" to enjoy. There is. The dance cast is talented, exuberant and attractive, if somewhat underrehearsed. (The show was reviewed 8/21/2003, a week after it opened.) The singing cast of four - Kate Galston, Zita Frith, Chris Harley, Steve Serlin - is equally talented, exuberant and attractive, if somewhat drained of song selling in favor of self-serving vocal self selling. But that's more ot a conceptual problem of the show than anything amiss with its singers.

Carol Channing admits that her "Hello Dolly" number was a smash success on opening night because she was selling Dolly Levi. And that the number had much less impact on night two because she became so smitten with her ecstatic New York reviews that she played the scene celebrating Carol Channing's stardom rather than selling Dolly's character. It was a mistake the star promised never to repeat.

It's a mistake this production show makes repeatedly. Selling songs and great production numbers from great shows is what this Broadway celebration is meant to be about. The big moments in the history of the Great White Way come from wonderful songs, exciting choreography and the magical presences of superlative stars surging together to produce riveting, unforgettable theater. King, young and Rogers have settled for the superficial and have missed the magic. Almost without exception, the meaning of words and the caressing of phrases have given way to the dazzle of vocal pyrotechnics.

Of the four singers, Harley fares best and has a presence and a Broadway show style that makes his "Close Every Door" from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" the show's best singing moment. Close behind is Serlin's outrageous turn - leather garters, snagged mesh hose, et all - shredding his way around the stage belting "Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Show."

Galston sings up a storm with "Over the Rainbow" - an impressive vocal tour de force - but never gets to the heart of a song that's all about heart. Likewise, Frith gives her all on "Don't Rain on My Parade," but her all is all power with little attention to the song's dramatic possibilities.

With vignettes from fourteen Broadway shows including "42nd Street," "Cabaret," "Chicago" (an amazingly dull vignette for such a hot show), "Les Miserables," and "A Chorus Line," it's head scratching why shows like "Chess" and "Copacabana" are included while quality shows such as "My Fair Lady," "Oklahoma," "Crazy for You" and "The Producers" are nowhere to be seen.

"Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration" is hardly star spangled - there's no flag waving - but it does satisfy the public's thirst for something other than Hollywood blockbusters and their car crashes and explosions. That it doesn't live up to its potential, with the exception of Peter Kramer's radiant lighting designs, is almost beside the point. Much too loud synthesized and canned orchestral music, teaming up with much too loud sound levels on the vocals was electrifying enough for a standing ovation from the capacity crowd the night I saw the show.

Who says you can't fool Mother Nature?

"Broadway! The Star-Spangled Celebration" plays in alternation with "Spirit of the Dance," when "Spirit" opens August 27, 2003. The productions will play nightly except Mondays with some matinees through November 30th. The Eldorado Hotel Casino Showroom is located at West Fourth and North Virginia Streets, Reno. Nevada. For information call 775-786-5700 or 800-648-5966.