Play’s the thing
Stage Door’s ‘No Way to Treat a Lady’ is a fun romp.
The two male characters in “NoWay to Treat a Lady,” the newly opened musical at Stage Door Theatre inMargate, have mommy issues.
NewYork police detectiveMorris “Mo” Brummel (Dustin Cunningham) is of a certain age, but he still lives with his mother, Flora (Kimberly Abrams), in her tidyManhattan apartment, where she proceeds to tell him daily howmuch she prefers her other son, Franklin, a successful doctor. Basically, in control-freak Flora’s view, Morris specializes in failing to meet her expectations.
Christopher “Kit” Gill (JamesHansen), however, has itworse. His late mother, Alexandra (Abrams again), was a great theatrical star. Her son, as she keeps reminding him from beyond the grave, is not. Whether this is torment-by-specter or simply the result of years of disdain, Kit casts himself in his greatest role to date: serial killer. If he can’t achieve fame by trodding the boards, by God, he’ll do it by strangling a series of older women and getting his crimes covered by the NewYork Times.
One can make a musical about almost anything, and in “NoWay to Treat a Lady,” composer-lyricist and book writerDouglas J. Cohen did.
Based on a novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter WilliamJ. Goldman, “NoWay to Treat a Lady” is set in the summer of 1970, as both the temperature and Kit’s body count soar.
Part of the fun for two of the show’s actors is that they get to showoff their versatility by slipping from one identity to the next. Hansen’s Kit is a psycho and a bad actor— not an easy combo— but in disguise Kit presents himself as an Irish priest, a Spanish dance instructor, a utilityworker, a gallery employee and others. His Kit is a kind of one-man Village People.
Abrams gets to play both of the nagging mothers and the various murder victims. Director Peter J. Loewy seems to have given her a key note—“go over the top”— for most of the gals, but many of the real, older ladies in the audience find it a hoot when Abrams hits the stratosphere.
Cohen’s score boasts solos, duets, trios and quartets, and Loewy has cast actors who sing itwell under Ben Bagby’s musical direction (the instrumental accompaniment is recorded). Arvanigian is especially beguiling as Sarah, a cleverwoman who goes against every bit ofMo’s advice yet wins his mother over, anyway.
The costumes, credited to Carousel Theatrical, are character-appropriate and, with a series of big wigs, give Abrams’ overbearing moms and varied victims different looks. Ardean Landhuis designed the lighting, and the set (says the program) is “based on an original design by SeanMcClelland,” though it resembles several sets stuck together rather than that designer’s admirable and cohesive work.
“NoWay to Treat a Lady” is small-scale musical fluff. But as the receptive Stage Door audience would attest, sometimes that’s exactly what you want from an afternoon or evening of theater.
“NoWay To Treat a Lady” runs throughMay 28 at the Stage Door Theatre, 8036 W. Sample Road, in Margate. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, and 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday. Tickets cost $38 and $42. To order, call 954-344-7765 or go to StageDoorTheatre.com.