City of Angels: A Musical Send-up of Film Noir

 

Photo: Mark S. Howard.

City of Angels, currently playing at Boston’s Lyric Stage explores the limits of meta-. This musical is meta-theatrical, meta-cinematic, and meta-literary. Its intricate tale takes place in two worlds, the real and the “reel” or movieland during the 1940s. There are plots and subplots galore which, along with flashbacks, can confuse. The tone is intended to be parodic.

Stine (Phil Tayler), a detective story writer, is in the throes of adapting one of his novels as a film noir to be directed and produced by the egocentric, implacable, and manipulative Buddy Fidler (J. T. Turner). Stine struggles with the script, which is enacted before the audience as he writes. When he makes a change, the film’s actors, all of whom are dressed in black and white, begin the scene again. Stine’s constant rewrites are the result of his inability to please Fidler. Stine wants to express his social conscience; Fidler demands a hit.

Stone (Ed Hoopman) is the tough private eye of Stine’s opus and his alter ego. While Tayler plays Stine as something of a nerd, Hoopman is attractive and vibrant. All the other actors perform two characters. Although one is “realistic” and the other filmic, both of the characters share similarities. As for example: Leigh Barrett plays Stone’s hard-bitten secretary as if she had wandered out of The Maltese Falcoln and, as Buddy Fidler’s ironic girl Friday falls in love with Stine. Samantha Richert, Fidler’s sexy wife is also Alaura Kingsley, the “femme fatale” of the film noir.

The performances are uneven as is the energy. Hoopman and Barrett are the standouts. Jennifer Ellis is convincing as the spouse of the unfaithful Stine and Stone’s ex-wife. Her lovely soprano voice radiates longing in “With Every Breath I Take.” Turner’s Fidler could be improved by making him even slimier and more over the top. Act one does not come to life until the penultimate number, “All Ya Have To Do Is Wait,” sung and danced by Tony Castellanos, Brandon Milardo, Patrick Varner, and Andrew Tung. It closes with a terrific duet, “You’re Nothing Without Me,” in which Stine and Stone take each other on. The second act suffers from a similar intermittent intensity, again reaching a high peak in the final number as the whole ensemble joyfully belts “I’m Nothing Without You.”

Kudos to Matt Whilton for his two-level set that brings elegance and the illusion of space to the Lyric’s small stage. Elisabetta Polito’s costumes are attractive and functional, if not always representative of the 1940s.

City of Angels runs through May 2, 2015 at the Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon Street, Boston.

Book by Larry Gelbart.

Music by Cy Coleman.

Lyrics by David Zippel

Directed by Spiro Veloudos

Music Director ………………….Catherine Stornetta.

Choreography/musical staging… Rachel Bertone.

Set Designer …………………… Matt Whiton. Costume Designer ……………. Elisabetta Polito.

Lighting Designer …………….. John Malinowski.

Sound Designer ……………….. David Wilson.

Cast

Elise Arsenault, Leigh Barrett, Tony Castellanos, Jen Ellis, Ed Hoopman, Sarah Kornfield, Meghan LaFlam, Michael Levesque, Margarita Marinzez, Brandon Milardo, Davron Monroe, Samantha, Richert, Damon Singletary, Phil Tayler, Andrew Tung, J.T. Turner, Patrick Varner