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Stellar cast saves revue

Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 15, 2007 at midnight

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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the musical revue is the cheapest form of theater.

No big, moving sets, or complicated characterizations, or pesky big orchestras with new scores to learn. And no marketing challenge as there is in selling a bunch of songs no one has ever heard. Comedy is hard; musical revues are easy.

So it was a bit disappointing this spring when Denver Center Attractions opened The Taffetas, a self-consciously nostalgic musical revue of mostly pale, innocent 1950s girl-group songs.

The show continues to suffer from its limitations, but director Ray Roderick and a stellar local cast elevate it to a handful of truly fine musical moments and a surprising amount of personality.

The show's premise sets four sisters from Munice, Ind., giving the New York performance of their lives, a TV show that could boost them to Ed Sullivan. They run through a number of pastel songs by the Cardigans, Cordettes and Cadillacs, and pastel costumes from Jane L. Nelson-Rud, all backed by a three-piece band led by Lee Stametz.

From this mountain of meringue emerge a few delightful edges, though, particularly as these four women find characterizations in their roles. Reyna Von Vett, gone from Denver stages for far too long, plays bossy, proper older sister Kaye, unleashing a voice of clarity and resonance on a surprisingly lusty Where the Boys Are.

Juliana Black is the most '50s girl of the bunch, from her open face to her sincere singing on such songs as the folksy Three Bells. Elizabeth Welch provides the show's accidental sexpot, engaged in a kind of sibling rivalry with Melinda Dickson-Smart, the quartet's dizzy blonde.

Roderick allows one mercenary move, though, that might have been more acceptable in the 1950s, when TV shows were sponsored by corporations, than today, when our expectations of art are being continually eroded. A Philco-style TV monitor breaks up the songs with commercials from the past, which are continued onstage, along with a few from the present. As you wonder at one girl's love of Coors beer and a full commercial for United Airlines, take a look at your program: Apparently a $40 ticket wasn't enough to keep Denver Center from selling its stage time.