You can take the show off Broadway, but you can't take the Broadway glitz out of the show. Of course, when that show is a revue of musical theater show tunes spanning the last 10 years of Broadway's successes, there is very little to take out.
Presented in collaboration with Shea's Performing Arts Center, the Rochester-based Downstairs Cabaret Theatre (DCT) has anthologized a new class of standards in a cabaret act that succeeds in bringing the most current Broadway hits to Buffalo, but on a much smaller scale.
"Lullaby of Broadway," playing at the Smith Theatre until Nov. 3, is a two and a half-hour romp that begins with familiar songs from shows like "Les Miserables," "Chicago," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Rent," and ends with Broadway's newest smashes, "The Producers," "Mamma Mia!," "Urinetown" and "Hairspray."
While the four performers, dressed in swanky cocktail party attire, are for the most part competent in presentation, they unfortunately lack a crucial element of live performance: adequate voices. That might be a slight overstatement, but it is clear when Robert Harris sings the opening line of the evening in "Wilkommen" why they are in a revue and not the real thing.
Fortunately for them, the audience appeared to enjoy most of the evening with a carefree attitude and alcoholic beverages provided by the friendly servers.
Aubrey Ludington and Jocelyn Adams, who gave more capable performances than Harris or Jay Falzone, the fourth singer who also conceived and directed the show, were sultry in their performances of "All That Jazz" and "Class," two show-stopping numbers from the darkly comic "Chicago."
In a duet featuring Harris as the "Phantom of the Opera" and Ludington as Grizabella, the dying elderly cat from "Cats," two equally sappy tearjerkers intertwine like fur in a hairball. It did not help that Ludington's feline impersonation sounded more like a bad Ethel Merman impression.
Ending out the first act with selections from "Rent," "Seasons of Love" sounded more balanced in tonal harmony, while the emotional "No Day But Today" left an undesired taste of failure in the mouth.
When an evening that begins on such a low note has to resuscitate itself after intermission, it can lead to tragic conclusions. It was fortunate, then, that the less-than-fabulous foursome bounced back in the second act with a well-oiled machine of incredible performances.
The 2002 Tony Award winner for Best Musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (misspelled in the program), kicked off the second set with Adams proving her acting chops are as promising as her sweet voice. The best performance of the evening was easily her "Gimme, Gimme," an empowering ballad from the show. Other songs from recent hits "The Producers" and "Aida" were well acted, and provided howling comic relief.
Falzone's modest head nods of appreciation and dedications to the audience made the evening as kitschy as "Just Jack," Jack McFarland's ego-driven, one-man show on "Will and Grace." He is an extraordinary talent, though, and unlike "Just Jack," his potential for a one-man show is high.
While the evening might be full of over-the-top theatrical clich?(c)s and improper dramatic licensing, there is little one can really complain about. The voices do sound under-rehearsed, but the lack of attention paid to minor details is made up by supreme showmanship.
Falzone has complied an eager cast of Broadway hopefuls with a well-timed script of interluding dialogue and a creatively decorated stage, and has taken his show on the road.
