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The Tony Award-winning musical theater duo of Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music), creators of Ragtime, Seussical the Musical and, on April 19, the world premiere of their commedia dell'arte The Glorious Ones, had to start someplace. Even though this musical, based on Michael Butterworth's goofy murder mystery The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, is laden with future promises to be fulfilled, we're left with a show that's not very good. It's a quirky cartoon farce, too silly to be much fun, but not loopy enough to be truly distinctive. To get his uncle's $6 million estate, sweet, naive Harry (Brad Scarborough, who sings heavenly) must cart the corpse around the Riviera, giving Uncle Tony one last fling. Harry is dogged by Annabel (Allison Sumrall, who sings and mugs heavenly), who works for an animal shelter that's next in line to inherit if Harry screws up. They, in turn, are tailed by Rita, Tony's "New Joysey" moll, who wants the hot diamonds that...oh, never mind, it's not worth it. To their grand credit, the pros at Masquerade Theatre play this dumbbell material like it were some classic golden oldie from Rodgers and Hart. (Not to be missed is Michael Ross's pickled-in-oil Emcee.) Ahrens's wise but bitter lyrics are indeed infused with the cold sincerity of Lorentz Hart or Dorothy Fields, but only in the wistful ballad "Times Like This" do the musical gods nod their approval. The rest of the numbers just take up time — and space — as does the show.
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