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Sometimes (to quote a catchy song from Barnum) "bigger isn't better."
Masquerade Theatre's current revival of Lucky Stiff in its downtown digs at Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall hasn't half the appeal the show conveyed in the company's 2003 staging at its former tiny, makeshift space on North Shepherd.
Even though Phillip Duggins is again directing (this time sharing the credit with Luther Chakurian), and even though most of the leads are reprising roles from the previous production, virtually everything about the rendition feels strained this time around.
Perhaps it's the result of playing everything bigger and broader to fit a larger venue. Or maybe it's just that in trying to re-create something that seemed fresh and funny before, the spontaneity has been lost.
Premiered off-Broadway in 1988, Lucky Stiff's main claim to fame is that it introduced a bright new words-and-music team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who would confirm their promise with subsequent works such as Once on This Island and their magnificent, Tony-winning score for Ragtime.
Lucky Stiff's better songs, such as the charming ballad Times Like This and the clever nightclub pastiche Speaking French, remain the show's best justification.
Yet this time, the patchy nature of the show's writing is far more apparent. The premise is still a source of novelty and appeal. Mousy shoe salesman Harry inherits a fortune from an uncle he never knew — but to receive it, he must first take the deceased relative (taxidermically preserved and propped up in a wheelchair) on a week-long vacation to Monte Carlo.
Inevitably, complications abound. If Harry does not fulfill all the stipulations of the uncle's intinerary, the money will "go to the dogs" — literally, a dog shelter that was the uncle's favorite charity. So Annabel Glick, the shelter's representative, is trailing Harry, hoping to catch him in a lapse so she can claim the loot for those canines in need. A brassy gangster's moll and her dopey brother (with a contract on his life) are also involved in the complex maneuvers for the fortune.
The potential is there, but Lucky Stiff tries too hard for its laughs. Even the score shows its unevenness. In this early effort, Ahrens and Flaherty make mistakes they would not make in their later work. They musicalize several scenes that would have been better left to dialogue (as in the landlady's announcement that Harry has received a telegram), causing the show to dawdle when it should advance. While Something Funny's Going On meets the team's standard technique of an opening ensemble that introduces all the show's elements, isn't this a case of telling the audience something the show should let them discover?
Masquerade's customary virtue of solid singing, especially from the leads, buoys the show. Yet other habitual traits of the company are more vexing than usual, including overly broad performances (especially in small roles) and rough spots in production — such as the often-unflattering costumes and the awkward staging of a train number.
Brad Scarborough, the newcomer among the leads, makes a likable Harry — though the meek-and-mild act eventually grows tiresome.
Allison Sumrall, back as Annabel, sings nicely, but her characterization this time lets the abrasiveness outweigh the winsomeness. The usually reliable Rebekah Dahl, though clarion-voiced as ever, is too far over the top as the brash moll.
That leaves it to Russell Freeman, back in the titular part, to steal the show simply by sitting there and keeping quiet. Talk about underplaying!
Though its better songs made it a promising effort from beginners, the uneven Lucky Stiff now seems to represent a level of work Ahrens and Flaherty quickly outgrew — not only in the mighty Ragtime, but their recent chamber musicals such as A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose and The Glorious Ones.
I almost suspect that in its effortful, scattershot wackiness, the show represents a level of material Masquerade may have outgrown as well.
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