Review - Drat! The Cat!: Steal With Style

While Ira Levin will forever be remembered as the novelist who made the phrases "Rosemary's Baby" and "Stepford Wives" indelible entries into American pop culture, devotees of musical theatre fondly regard him as the bookwriter/lyricist for one of Broadway's more intriguing flops, 1965's Drat! The Cat!

With music by Milton Schafer, who had previously nabbed a Tony nomination for Bravo, Giovanni, the score of Drat! has certainly earned its fans, thanks to a waxing With original stars Leslie Ann Warren and Elliot Gould that was taken off a bootleg recording, and later on an excellent studio recording of the score by Fynsworth Alley. And while the show is by no means an underappreciated classic (some awkward song placements and numbers that really pale compared With the score's better moments), a more daring producer might have tried building an audience after its mixed opening night reviews. Instead, Drat! The Cat! shut down after eight performances.

But Suzanne Adams is one producer who thrives on Broadway musicals that open to mixed (or worse) reviews. Her Opening Doors Theatre Company, of which she also serves as artistic director, has a Bistro Award-winning rep for quality productions of shows more beloved by musical theatre fanatics than by their first night critics. Squeezing a cast of ten (plus a piano and music director Ted Kociolek) onto the tiny Duplex cabaret stage and whittling the book in order to fit the piece into their 90-minute time slot, they offer a charming production full of good humor, fine voices and more fun than you might expect from such a quick-closer.

Set in 1890s Manhattan, the plot concerns police officer Bob Purefoy (Mark Emerson), the bumbling son of an ace detective, who is put in charge of finding a mysterious cat burgler who's been sneaking off With high society's biggest baubles. He falls head over heels for Alice Van Guilder (Emily Jenda), the pretty young debutante who offers to assist him, unaware that she is, of course, the criminal he's tracking.

Emerson's adorably comical naiveté is matched With strong musical theatre vocals. His rendering of the score's hit song, "She Touched Me," filled With the innocent thrill of love's first tingle, is an irresistibly joyous moment. ("She Touched Me," by the way, is most likely the only instance ever when a Broadway star's wife - Barbra Streisand - helped promote his upcoming musical by recording a single of a song he would introduce in the show.) Jenda's dry reactions to her patsy's exuberance perfectly draw out the book's Wittier moments and her vivacious sexiness in defending her criminal ways With the score's best entry, the strutting tango, "Wild and Reckless," sizzles With comical heat.

The supporting ensemble, most of whom double-up on roles, all contribute greatly to the fun, including Debra Thais Evans and Richard Rice Alan as Alice's haughty parents, Nick Reynolds and Edward Juvier as inept officers, Gladiss Gressley as Bob's heavily-accented Irish mother, Danny Blaylock as his dying father who won't go Without belting out an exit song, and Bridget Harvey and Jillian Prefach, both of whom are funny and attractively-voiced in their variety of small roles.

Though director Jeremy Gold Kronenberg and choreographer Christine Schwalenberg pull off the tricky task of making ten people look comfortable and fluid on a small stage With only one entrance/exit (at one point five couples are waltzing and singing together), my holiday wish for Opening Doors, whose value in New York's theatre scene grows more notable With each production, is a larger playing space and enough time to do full-length revivals.

Photos by Ruth Sovronsky: Top: Mark Emerson and Emily Jenda; Bottom: (above) Gladiss Gressley, Danny Blaylock, Jillian Prefach, Richard Rice Alan and Debra Thais Evans (below) Bridget Harvey, Nick Reynolds and Edward Juvier.

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Sure, in America the guilty have just as much a right to a fair trial as the innocent. But when someone you believe is guilty doesn't get one, is that a wrong you can be all that enthused about righting? That's one of the discussion points that might be mulled over by leftist radicals downing shots of vodka after taking in Amy Herzog's After The Revolution. Unfortunately, this tantalizing moral dilemma is regulated to a throwaway point in a play that teases us With its political content while contenting itself With being a rather formulaic family drama. It's a good one, for sure; well-written (despite an unsatisfying ending) With absorbing conflicts and director Carolyn Cantor's excellent cast is always engaging, but every so often the play reminds us of an interesting direction the author decided not to take.

Set in 1999, the story concerns young law school graduate Emma Joseph (Katharine Powell), who is carrying on the family's left-wing tradition by heading a foundation devoted to seeking justice for convicts who may not have received fair trials. Her current high-profile case is Mumia Abu-Jamal, who, in real life, is currently incarcerated on Death Row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Emma's foundation is named for her blacklisted grandfather, Joe Joseph, who she regards as a hero who valiantly refused to name names for Senator McCarthy. But when it's discovered that a soon-to-be-released book contains evidence that Joe lied under oath and in fact supplied American military secrets to our Soviet allies (That his actions may have had some connection With the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg is another morsel introduced but left unexplored.) and that she seems to be the only one in the family who was unaware of this secret, Emma panics at the thought of losing face With her funders and is furious With her father for allowing her to build her foundation based on lies.

Peter Friedman does a terrific job as Emma's Marxist father, Ben; torn by his pride in his daughter's efforts to continue the family tradition of activism and by the fear that she wouldn't understand his father's actions out of the context of what the country was like in the first half of the 20th Century. And while Powell's portrayal of Emma's disillusion growing into and understanding for the need to make compromises and accept imperfections is well done, the play evolves into a series of scenes between Emma and more interesting supporting characters.

There's Elliot Villar as her shock-absorbing boyfriend, the latest in a line of Latinos that Emma seems to exclusively date, Mare Winningham as her soft-spoken stepmother who had to learn about fitting in With the family the hard way, Mark Blum lightening up the proceedings as her wry uncle and Meredith Holzman as her formerly trouble-making sister who has gotten her life in order and is enjoying her sudden status as the good daughter.

Two of the New York stage's seasoned favorites are wonderfully memorable in their brief appearances. David Margulies twinkles With charm as Emma's major funder, whose support, he insists, is in no way influenced by his attraction to her grandmother, Vera. As played by Lois Smith, Vera is a stern and defensive Witness to the American Communist movement that thrived in Greenwich Village.

Set designer Clint Ramos and lighting designer Ben Stanton devise a clever way of depicting the play's numerous interior locations by providing a unit set, backed by a wall-full of framed items, books and assorted mementos, that looks like a spacious living room when fully lit, but reflects different personalities when only select portions are highlighted.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Lois Smith and Katharine Powell; Bottom: Mark Blum and Peter Friedman.

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