Theater in Review

By Times staff, correspondents

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2000

The Music Man, Show Palace Dinner Theatre, Hudson -- If you go see Meredith Willson's famous musical at the Show Palace expecting to see a replica of the revival now taking Broadway by storm, you may be disappointed. There are no turntables, whiz-bangs or marching legions on parade at the Palace. What you get at the Hudson venue are good voices, memorable character actors, cute kids, picturesque scenery, and another look at Willson's charming story. And enthusiasm. Lots of enthusiasm. -- BARBARA FREDRICKSEN

Proposals, American Stage, St. Petersburg -- Neil Simon's latest play is different from his more famous works in several ways: It's the first to be set outdoors, at a resort in the Poconos in the 1950s, and the first time Simon has written in a major African-American character, Clemma Diggins, a housekeeper who narrates the play, although she has been dead for three years. Clemma observes the comings and goings of the family that employed her as it spends a long summer weekend dealing with the aftermath of a divorce. The acting in American Stage's production is solid and in one case brilliant (Michael O. Smith as the patriarch of his falling-apart family). But when jokes are based on funny spellings of names, mispronounced words, and preposterously old-hat Mafia guys, the theory is unavoidable that this play would never see the light of a stage if the words "Neil Simon" weren't on the title page. -- PETER SMITH

The World of Jacques Brel, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa -- In a well-crafted piece of theater, Brel's songs are presented by the Center Theater Company of Tampa Bay like the one-act plays they are, from the chaotic terror of Carousel to the gut-churning loss felt in If You Go Away (probably Brel's best-known song). Director Claude McNeal and the dazzling cast (Quentin Darrington,Rome Harbinson, Colleen McDonnell and Kissy Simmons-Vaughn) give us a full plate, and we can only thank them. -- PETER SMITH