It’s Broadway musical comedy meets film noir in this Tony Award-winning show filled with mystery, murder suspects, hanky panky, hilariously cheesy one-liners, and lots of colorful characters. And it’s this year’s all-school musical at LaGuardia High School, a.k.a. “the Fame school,” which also happens to be the alma mater of the show’s composer, Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity).

The plot revolves around two parallel storylines – one of them the film noir script that has private detective Stone looking for a missing person after being hired by the missing person’s sexy but dubious mother in-law Alaura Kingsley. The other storyline is that of the screenwriter of the film noir script, Stine, whose artistry keeps getting knocked by a sleazy Hollywood producer named Buddy Fidler. Stine bases most of his characters on the real people around him, so the main characters play their “real-life” role and their alter ego in Stine’s script. The script scenes are performed in black and white, while the “real life” scenes are in Technicolor. Sound confusing? It really isn’t when you’re watching it. But it is a lot of fun.

As one might expect from LaGuardia High’s biggest production of the year, it’s a huge show with high production values and a talented cast. Liam Benzvi is screenwriter Stine whose real life is even more pathetic than the lives of the people in his script, though not quite as dangerous. Edward Tolve plays his fictional streetwise private detective Stone who has good instincts but a weakness for the beautiful women who keep trying to distract him from those instincts. Both actors have a good feel for their characters and end both acts strongly with their duet You’re Nothing Without Me in which they struggle with each other but also realize that their existences are intertwined.

Then there are all the women who love them (or want to use them). In the role of Oolie/Donna, the secretary to the Hollywood producer, talented actress Emily Skeggs plays the nice, fun, clever single girl next door who keeps choosing the wrong guy to be sweet on. Emily’s nuanced performance creates a poignant character who feels real and becomes the heart of the show. Her frustration builds to her terrific solo You Can Always Count On Me, which she sings as both Oolie and Donna after finding she’s slept with another guy who loves someone else. Josephine Spada is Stine’s wife and Stone’s former girlfriend, Gabby and Bobbi respectively. Josephine sings nightclub ballad With Every Breath I Take with a gorgeous period voice, kicks Stine out of her life with mixed emotions in It Needs Work, and delivers a great duet with Oolie as mirror images in What You Don’t Know About Women. Alaura is one of the women taking Stone for a ride, with Azealia Banks as a very sultry Alaura who clearly knows Stone has a weakness for women who show some leg, and the two of them combine for a fun, little game of double-entendre tennis. Her daughter-in-law Mallory is even more forward, showing up in Stone’s bed naked (well, wrapped in a sheet), with Amira Baigina turning on the playfully steamy charm in Lost and Found.

Billy Rayner nails the role of the male chauvinist, narcissistic, pompous schmuck – Hollywood producer Buddy Fidler with an office that has six portraits of himself hanging on the wall. His ego knows no bounds, and Billy Rayner still has slick egotism to spare as he tries to fast-talk people around like they are props. Sean Moonsammy plays America’s favorite balladeer Jimmy Powers with a terrific singing voice and vanity, which doesn’t sit very well with his Angel City 4 doo-wop backup singers (Robert Ariza, Leanne Brunn, Grace Kahl, Issa Ransom) as Jimmy mugs for the limelight. Davi Santos is good as Detective Munoz with a grudge against Stone from a previous murder investigation – a conflict that draws racism into the story, a social message that Stine wants but that Buddy Fidler doesn’t think fits into his successful Hollywood formula. Joseph Quinones and Tommy Bracco are a hoot as Mutt-and-Jeff thugs who rough Stone up when he takes on the case his better judgment told him not to take.

Performs December 7 - 15, 2007.

Rob Hopper
Executive Director
National Youth Theatre