STAGE REVIEW : ‘PARTNERS’--LAWYERS ON TRIAL

It’s about time the lawyers got it.

Not since Moliere has anyone really done a number on them. Now Jamie and Monte Montgomery have tried, and to a large extent succeeded, in coming up with a palatable, Frank Capra-esque musical spoof of the legal profession. But they are not home free. Their show, “Partners,” at the Matrix, needs stronger music, more rehearsal and a better cast--at least in part. One of the more perplexing things about it is how much it underuses the talent it’s got (such as the terrific Hinton Battle) and then blithely settles for less in really crucial roles.

Still, something’s afoot.

At that upwardly mobile firm of Davidson, Dechter, Downing and Stein change is in the air. Founder Davidson (Drew R. Handley) is retiring and young Donald S. Berger (Ralph Bruneau) is being made full partner to replace him. This will help Stein (Paul Eiding), Dechter (Don Perry) and Downing (Joseph Cardinale), who wouldn’t want a little thing like work to get in the way of their golf games, brunches and lunches. Nor would they want their secretaries to have to do deal with much more than the mail and their manicures. Good secretaries are hard to keep.

There are a few complications, of course (what’s a story without them?). Melody McClain (Susan Kohler), a young member of the firm, was recently let go: Too liberal. That she happens to be engaged to the up-and-coming Berger seems to present no problem-- until she takes on the Parallax Corporation for a small group of tenants that this mega-million-dollar development company is attempting to evict.

Berger is the guy who’s putting the development deal together, and when Melody sues Parallax, guess who else she has to sue? Can love survive a lawsuit? Can Berger, Downing, Dechter and Stein survive their work habits, secretaries, golf games, brunches and lunches? More critical: Can they survive the ultra-conservative yuppie twit, Lawrence St. Lawrence (Kenny Rhodes), who’s the only person left on whom to dump this job, and a meddling mail boy played by actor/dancer Battle, lately of “Tap Dance Kid”?

That “Partners” survives this production is a testament to its strengths. These lie chiefly in the book and lyrics, less so in the music (played well enough on what sound like twin keyboards by the composer and Rick Feuer). The Montgomerys (Jamie did the lyrics, Monte the book and music) are self-confessed neophytes at this theater game, which may account for the rather beguiling ingenuousness that pervades the piece. It may not rock any boats, but does provide light entertainment at the minor expense of attorneys--the only kind attorneys entertain.

More practiced creators might have gone for the jugular. They also might have spotted the easily spottable problems in the production. First among them is casting. Battle’s mail-boy character is quasi-expendable, yet here is a major talent invested in strictly peripheral comedy. It is to Battle’s credit that he gives it his all, but this “all” is but a mini-fraction of what Battle has in him. His one chance to shine as a dancer, a number called “White Men,” is not bad, but falls far short of his potential. (Janet Roston did the basic choreography and the smallish stage may be partly responsible for its limitations.)

Too many performers in this show are also actors who can’t sing (they sometimes have trouble acting) and one suspects they know exactly who they are. On the mark, however, are Bruneau as the playfully fond and engaging Berger, and Rhodes as his conservative opposite, Lawrence St. Lawrence (“She was anti-nuke, anti-poverty, anti-pollution,” he says of McClain, in one of the show’s best repartees. “I mean she was cute and everything, but she had this negative outlook”). Rhodes also has one of the show’s best songs, “I Missed the Sixties,” all about growing up filthy rich in America.

A love duet between Kohler and Bruneau called “Room to Grow” puts a very deft finger on the difficult balance of power in modern relationships. Kohler, however, never fully grasps her character and thereby loses a lot of the empathy an audience is eager to give. Candi Milo, Cecilia Garcia and Allyson Rice do well as the three secretaries, while Bunny Summers and Alex Palermo have fun as about-to-be-evicted tenants. Handley as Davidson has some of the best speeches in the show, but is at a loss as to how to effectively deliver them.

Director Greg Holford (and producer Steven Reich) should have been more alert to the needless discrepancies in casting, because there is a show here that deserves a more evenhanded production. Certainly, the second act unravels cleverly and the set, costumes and lighting by Josee Lemonnier, Judy Kass and Chris Taylor, respectively, are top-notch. With additional confidence, some refining and recasting, “Partners” could make a strong case for its own survival.

Performances at 7657 Melrose Ave. Runs Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., until March 29 (213-852-1445).