Prince George's Little Theatre Presents Cole Porter's YOU NEVER KNOW, Now thru 5/18

Prince George's Little Theatre's production of the Cole Porter musical "You Never Know" will be at the Bowie Playhouse at White Marsh Park, tonight, May 3-18. The five Friday and Saturday evening performances are May 3, 4, 10, 11, and 17 at 8 p.m. The three matinee performances are Sundays May 5 and 12 and Saturday, May 18 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20, with discount tickets available at $15 for seniors and those 18 and under. For more information, call 301-937-7458.

Set in the heady days of 1929 (when the stock market was still roaring) in the elegant Ritz Hotel penthouse apartment shared by Baron Rommer (Ken Kemp) and his young valet Gaston (Michael Iacone), "You Never Know" is Cole Porter's take on the classic French farce. The womanizing Baron is smitten by Madam Baltin (Nora Biddle), although he already has a mistress who is a star at the Folies Bergere (Ida, played by Angela Sullivan). The charming and attractive Maria, who is Mme. Baltin's maid, also turns the heads of both the Baron and Gaston. The cast is rounded out by the jealous Herr Baltin (Jim Adams). There are unexpected plot twists, deliberate and mistaken confusions of identity, disguises, lies, and the all-important slamming of doors as characters rush into and out of rooms to amuse the audience. But, unlike the typical farce, this play also has over a dozen songs that display the catchy melodies and clever lyrics for which Porter is so famous.

"You Never Know" was written by Porter in 1937 as a small cast one-set musical for a European production. However, when the Shubert Brothers brought the play to Broadway in 1938, they were afraid of the risk of a musical without a chorus and big production numbers. When Porter had a serious riding accident that limited his participation in the show's production schedule, the producers seized the opportunity to discard the notion of a chamber musical and turn the show into a typical 1930's big musical, which ran for only 78 performances. In the 1980's, Paul Lazarus revived the show in a production that went back to the original manuscript of the book and the original intention of the authors. Since then, there have been a number of American professional productions, including one in 1991 that played at the Pasadena Playhouse to great acclaim. However, most of the audiences will find this production to be that rare thing - a musical they have never seen by one of American's greatest composers.

Roy Hammond, the director of "You Never Know," is one of the Baltimore-Washington area's busiest directors, but this will be his first production at the Bowie Playhouse. Doing one of his favorite shows in a venue that offers the professional technical possibilities of The Playhouse is a director's dream, according to Hammond. Choreographer Rikki Howie says that the high energy show includes popular dances from the 1920's such as the Charleston, the shag, the mambo, and the waltz along with Broadway and vaudeville style hoofing. "You name it, we do it," she says, calling it "Dancing with the Stars" community theater style. Joe Biddle, the music director, has also pulled out all the stops and will be directing a live orchestra larger than the cast on stage.

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