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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > April > 12 > Entry
Review: ‘City of Angels’
The musical “City of Angels” requires detective skills from everyone, from director to cast to audience. The story within a story structure of the 1989 musical comedy makes the piece a puzzle to produce and understand. For the most part, the current production at St. Edward’s Mary Moody Northen ’s, directed by Michael McKelvey and running at the Mary Moody Theatre until April 18, pieces the jigsaw pieces together with a balance of clarity and intrigue.
“City of Angels,” with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and book by Larry Gelbart, tells the story of book author come screenwriter Stine (Jamie Goodwin) as he fights the amorality of money-loving Hollywood while transforming his latest novel into a noir film.
The confusing, but also fascinating aspect of the musical is its simultaneous telling of Stine’s story alongside that of his character Detective Stone (David M. Long) and the crimes Stones investigates — a simultaneity that includes Stine and his shallow producer (Jacob Trussell) rewriting Stone’s story as the musical develops. As Goodwin types on a platform above the main action, then throws pages away in disgust, Long robotically walks backward then replays scenes with new dialogue.
Perhaps the most telling inclusion of the rewriting tensions unfolds around the story of Munzo (Jon Wayne Martin), the Latino cop who, in the first telling of Stone’s story, is angered by Stone’s ability to avoid prosecution for murder because he is white. Buddy the producer insists the racial tensions don’t make a compelling movie, and he forces Stine to write a romantic triangle instead.
Until the bit too confusing last scene, McKelvey’s direction and Leilah Stewart’s multi-level scene design keep the multiple stories quite clear, but suitably intertwined. The separation of the action into levels makes the musical’s climax, Stone and Stine’s duet “I’m Nothing Without You” belted from centerstage most powerful—hilariously staged to toy with a musical love song to display the men’s narcissism.
While the bulk of the cast’s women become almost blurry — a swirl of long legs and lingerie — Sarah Burkhalter, doubling as Stine and Stone’s love interests Gabby and Bobbi, and Kimberley Gates, as Stone’s Girl Friday and Stine’s mistress, pull the spotlight back toward the show’s women. As Munoz, Martin had the other strong performance Friday, bringing a rich, but clear voice to the performance as he sang “All You Have to do is Wait.”
‘City of Angels’ continues 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday at Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward’s University, 3001 S. Congress Ave. 448-8484. $15-$20.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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