Review: BULLETS OVER BROADWAY at Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside Shoots 'Em Dead

The convoluted story involves David Shayne (Michael Williams), a reasonably young playwright in 1928, who has been trying for ten years to get his plays produced on Broadway, delaying his marriage to his long-suffering girlfriend, Ellen (Hannah Rose DeFlumeri). Eventually, he and his producer (Rick Grossman) make a deal with a mobster named Nick Valenti (Michael Corvino). Valenti agrees to finance the production if David, who is directing the play, agrees to cast Valenti's coarse and vapid girlfriend, Olive Neal (Jemma Jane), who cannot act. The upside is that her hitman bodyguard, Cheech (Jeff Brooks), keeps feeding David rewrites that drastically improve the story. The trouble starts when Cheech grows increasingly upset about how Olive's "talents" are ruining what he has come to view as his script. Meanwhile, the leading man, Warner (Bradley Allan Zarr), endangers life and limb by canoodling with Olive, and endangers the play by gaining avoirdupois at such an alarming rate that, by opening night, he is likely to resemble former President Taft. David adds to the production's troubles when he falls in love with his boozing leading lady, Helen (Emma Stratton), who has a history of failed marriages to theatrical geniuses.

Woody Allen's book has more than a few holes, not counting those inflicted by Nick's hit squad. (By the way, the show features one groaner after another). Even a zany story should hang together, lest audience members get distracted trying to figure it out. For example, early in the show, Allen introduces David's best friend, Sheldon Flender (Conor McGiffin), but mostly forgets about him till Sheldon becomes important for something that happens off-stage. Allen should have shown more interactions between the two, to ensure that the audience remembers Sheldon when he finally becomes important to the plot.

In a comedic musical such as this one, Allen should probably have paired daffy actress Eden (Rachel Bahler) with one of the other misfits as part of a happy ending. Instead, Eden seems superfluous; she generates laughs but does not advance the story. More damning, Allen inserted some mean-spirited events into Act II, making a completely happy ending impossible. I found the transition from good-natured humor to dark humor jarring, and would have preferred the goofiness to continue unabated.

Although I found the gangster humor and the visual and verbal sex humor unobjectionable, one joke about raping a roasted turkey seemed inappropriate. I also objected to stage business where a gangster kicks a stuffed dog; the stuffed dog is meant to be real in the story. Despite the flaws in Allen's book, however, and the stuffed dog routine (which may be director Jeff Whiting's insertion), most of Allen's book is hilarious. Allen and Glen Kelly, who adapted the lyrics from 1920's songs, also did an excellent job fitting the songs into the story. The irony is inescapable when Cheech sings "Up a Lazy River" every time he dumps a body into the Gowanus Canal, and when David sings "I'm Sitting on Top of the World," as the chaos around him skyrockets.

The dancing is extraordinary. The female ensemble is top-notch, but the equally fantastic male dancers are especially notable - audiences rarely see men dressed as gangsters singing and hoofing, Gene Kelly style. The juxtaposition of mobsters and this style of dancing is itself funny.

The acting and singing are also terrific. There are so many well-performed, clever numbers that it is hard to know where to begin describing them. David and Ellen have two memorable songs together, "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me," which features a contapuntal duet, and "I've Found a New Baby," in which Ellen finally develops a backbone. David and Helen also have two great numbers, "There's a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway," and "I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle." It is a shame that the part of Nick Valenti requires little singing - as an opera singer, Michael Corvino brings what Olive would call "class" to the tough Valenti.

Special kudos go to the performers who play Warner, Cheech, and Olive. Bradley Allan Zarr, Jeff Brooks, and Jemma Jane, respectively, make the most of their meaty roles, stealing almost every scene in which they appear. Mr. Zarr plays Warner as a pretentious, womanizing wimp, who minces around the stage as if he were an overweight C3PO. Mr. Brooks turns in an equally hilarious, over-the-top performance as Cheech, an assassin who is Warner's opposite - a Brooklyn-accented macho man who fears nothing and who embodies a combination of Al Capone, Frankenstein, and Shakespeare. Ms. Jane, who is a gifted dancer, convincingly portrays Olive as a sexy, talentless, ruthless innocent, who has the morals of a viper, the brains of an olive, and the guts - or the idiocy - to boss her crime boss boyfriend around. Somehow, Ms. Jane manages to keep her character's foghorn soprano speaking voice amusing throughout the show.

The show's technical aspects are also superb. The "car" in which Cheech drives his victims to the Gowanus Canal has working headlights and the stylized look of an old roadster. Another of scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West's top-notch sets is the interior of the train in which the company rides to New York. Effectively a two-sided, open box on wheels, the piece is turned around each time the focus shifts to another set of characters. The production uses the clever technique employed in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to show the characters onstage: The actors turn their backs to the real audience while performing for fake audience members; in this case, the theater seats are projected on the back wall.

The beautiful costumes, by six-time Tony winner William Ivey Long, and the top-notch wig and hair design Bernie Ardia both evoke the era and help tell the story. The female ensemble members' costumes telegraph what the middle class of the 1920's probably believed, specifically that every dancer was a tart. In constrast, the haughty Helen wears aristocratic gowns and hair suitable to a dignified, cultured woman. Helen has been married multiple times and has several behavioral problems, including drinking and nymphomania, but her costumes and hair suit the upper-crust persona that Helen has chosen.

A person seated nearby had one nit to pick - anachronistic props, such as the champagne flutes, which only towards the end of the 20th century replaced wide-mouthed champagne glasses. However, in a musical in which gangsters dance in a male chorus while singing "There'll be some changes made," the wrong champagne glasses require little additional suspension of disbelief.

Conversely, there is one area that I believe should not have been so realistic: The cast is almost entirely white, as the 1920's characters other than the Cotton Club dancers would have been. The disparity between the show's performers and today's universe of singers and dancers makes me wonder if the producers and director placed historically accurate appearance ahead of other casting criteria. Members of the stage and screen communities are, of course, currently discussing similar issues.

Broadway World's interview with Jemma Jane, who plays Olive, is available at http://goo.gl/HRwC9C . BULLETS OVER BROADWAY's other stops are available on its Web site at http://www.bulletsoverbroadwayontour.com/ .

The Fox Performing Arts Center's other Broadway presentations this season are THE PRODUCERS (February 14, 2016); FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING (March 12, 2016); and JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (April 10, 2016). Tickets are available at 951-779-9804 and at www.riversidelive.com. For Broadway World's interview with the actor playing Max Bialystock in THE PRODUCERS, go to http://goo.gl/Cdw6NH .