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Review

It's fun not worth remembering

The Fabulous '50s, through May 8 in the Jaeb Theater at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. $28.50 plus service charge. 813 229-7827 or www.tbpac.org

By MARTY CLEAR
Published February 23, 2005

TAMPA - The cabaret shows at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Jaeb Theater have developed a recipe for commercial success that's so well-tested it's almost foolproof:

Assemble a group of excellent singers, all with charming stage personalities, collect two hours' worth of familiar songs and devise a silly premise to string them together.

Mix in a pinch of audience participation. Yield: a crowd-pleaser.

The current case in point is The Fabulous '50s, a fun but forgettable paean to the time when gloriously nascent rock 'n' roll shared the charts with such ditties as How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

The Fabulous '50s is actually two shows in one. The first act is a skit based on the hit music radio-turned-TV-show Your Hit Parade. After intermission, the same singers and actors return, this time doing impersonations of pop icons from the era.

The second half fares much better, largely because the premise - far-fetched as it is - takes a back seat to the music. The idea is that a small-town radio station is broadcasting from a high school dance at which Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Patsy Cline and Little Richard make inexplicable appearances.

It's a parade of impersonators, but all the performers and most of the songs are pretty good. Shelly Trocolli, a regular in Jaeb cabarets, reprises her role as Patsy Cline (she has taken the title role in Always . . . Patsy Cline at the Jaeb in the past and will do so again this year), and Mark Raumaker revisits Elvis, whom he portrayed in last year's Holiday Cabaret.

Unfortunately, writer/director Claude McNeal gives us a Wolfman Jack-inspired disc jockey who introduces, then acts and then sits during the songs and makes silly faces. It's hugely distracting and kind of embarrassing to watch actor Jerry Panatieri try to eke some dignity out of the performance. He does as well as can be expected, but there's no reason he can't leave during the songs, which is what any real DJ would do.

In the first act, many of the songs are seminovelties (Istanbul, The Happy Wanderer, Come on-a My House), and slapstick antics interfere. Again, poor Panatieri (this time as an imitation of Squiggy from TV's Laverne and Shirley) is required to be a constant and annoying presence.

The most thoroughly entertaining segment comes before the show starts: a series of hilarious commercials from the '50s that will bring back memories for baby boomers, the target audience for the show.

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:34:19]