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BORNSTEIN: A 'Show' for all us freaks

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 19, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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PHAMALY's production of Side Show features, from left, Nick Ortiz Trammell, Jenna Bainbridge, Regan Linton, Leonard E. Barrett Jr. and Mark W. Dissette.

Photo by Michael Ensminger

PHAMALY's production of Side Show features, from left, Nick Ortiz Trammell, Jenna Bainbridge, Regan Linton, Leonard E. Barrett Jr. and Mark W. Dissette.

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It's certainly not a glide through life to be disabled today. But in its production of Side Show - the company's second - the Physically Handicapped Actors & Musical Artists League (PHAMALY) highlights both how far the United States has come and how far it has to go.

The musical premiered on Broadway in 1997 and was first staged by PHAMALY soon after, a natural for a group that was created to cast disabled performers in musicals. It tells the fictionalized story of true-life vaudeville stars Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins who were featured in the notorious movie Freaks and ended up dying of the flu in a trailer.

At the time of their rise, Time magazine described them as "a pygopagus, a double-monster joined at the buttocks." So it's fair to say there's not much exaggeration going on in the opening song, Come Look at the Freaks. It's an unsettling number in which the cast, many of whom have visible physical abnormalities, don lizard skin, unusual makeup and exaggerated costumes. It's instantly clear: Even the freak-show freaks were normal offstage; the freak itself is a put- on.

Steve Wilson directs the production at the Buell with admirable restraint. Tina Anderson gives the set a light touch, merely suggesting cheap boardwalks and fairgrounds, while Linda Morken's costumes are a dazzling collection of variety and craftsmanship.

The show's dazzling center is occupied by Regan Linton and Jenna Bainbridge as Violet and Daisy Hilton. The two share an oversize wheelchair, operating it as one, with the exception of their battle over it in the comic Leave Me Alone. Linton plays the shy sister, dreaming of home and hearth but dragged along into Daisy's dream of celebrity. She's particularly funny in her dry asides. Bainbridge, only a high school junior, brings a gorgeous soprano and a shocking level of maturity to the role of the lustier, livelier sister.

The two women are selected from obscurity by a talent scout, Terry, and his protege, Buddy. Nick Ortiz-Trammell brings a sonorous singing voice and commanding presence to the role of Terry; Mark Dissette brings his usual onstage ease to Buddy but isn't vocally at the same level.

Vocally, though, everyone has to step back for Leonard E. Barrett Jr., who brings the show to a pinnacle as Jake, the sideshow freak who has become the girls' protector as he secretly pines over Violet. Barrett enters the show bounding across the stage in an Afro wig and a costume out of the Flintstones as the Cannibal King. After the opening number, he returns in a denim shirt and plain pants, a regular American guy who makes a living off others' expectations of his skin tone.

It becomes clear that disabled people aren't the only ones considered freaks here, and when Barrett brings an agonized passion to the end of You Should Be Loved, it's a breathless moment for the audience.

There are flaws in the production. The character of the freak-show boss has been doubled, played menacingly by Don Mauck and Stephen Hahn. They're fine separately, but when the two sing together, the lyrics are almost unintelligible. Other sung-through parts of the show are spoken here, which results in a cloying on- again, off-again rhyme scheme.

What's unforgettable, though, is the exquisite harmony and more pointed emotion of the Act One closer, Who Will Love Me As I Am? Sung first by Violet and Daisy, then joined by the entire ensemble, it's a gut-wrenching number. By its conclusion, both audience and performers are recalling when they, too, felt like freaks.

Side Show

* Grade: A-

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through June, Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex

* Cost: $28 to $30

* Information: 303-893-4100