STAGE REVIEWS : ‘BROADWAY’

Rancho Santiago College has dug up a 1926 gangster drama called “Broadway,” but despite some determined efforts at resuscitation, the cliched material refuses to come to life as anything other than a period curiosity.

Even an old saw was at one time a new saw, and the program notes take care to explain that this Phillip Dunning-George Abbott drama broke ground when it made its debut 60 years ago, offering a revealing look at the seamy underworld of speak-easies, bootlegging and crime syndicates that evolved as byproducts of Prohibition. Today, however, that same material is DOA, the victim of one too many 1930s gangster movies.

These characters--or their near relations--regularly surface on late-night television, and it turns out they are just as black and white on stage as they are wedged between used-car dealer commercials. There are smarmy mob kingpins; a hard-boiled cop; chorus line floozies with hearts of gold; a nightclub owner named Nick (yes, he’s Greek); a cynical chanteuse who has seen it all, honey; a wide-eyed, tap-dancing ingenue, Billie, as naive as they come, and earnest young Roy, her dancing partner.

Director Robert Golden Leigh has overlaid the stereotyped situations with well-observed atmospheric detail, and his cast plays the cliched characters with absolute conviction, but nothing can rescue this production from the omnipresent predictability of the story. There are simply no surprises in the two hours and 40 minutes it takes to tell this tale. What works best in this revival are the small moments--the inventive entrances and exits that Leigh and choreographer Glynna Goff have created for the dancers; some comically exasperating business with the pay phone; the continual quick costume changes that give a genuine glimpse of life backstage, and the careful collection of accents that add welcome color to these familiar characters. (Credit dialect coach Deena Burke for the latter.)

The task of bringing these one-dimensional characters to life is carried out with varying degrees of success. Curtis Rhodes and Colleen Dunn are nicely matched as the romantically inclined naive young tap dancers, and their sincerity saves their portrayals from campiness. Offering solid support are Denise Randol and Cori Carter Watson as tough-tender chorus girls, Phil Lisa as the comic relief mob flunky, Felix Orosco as the scar-faced mob boss bent on protecting his turf, and Steve Grodt as the tough-talking detective nosing around downwind from a fresh murder.

“Broadway” will play through Sunday in Phillips Hall, Rancho Santiago College, West 17th and North Bristol streets, Santa Ana. For information, call (714) 667-3163.