STAGE REVIEW : ‘Queen of Stardust’ Minus the Magic

Strange doings at Long Beach Civic Light Opera. Or redoings.

A musical called “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” opened at the Terrace Theatre under CLO auspices Saturday with Tyne Daly and Charles Durning. It’s not, strictly speaking, a remake of the 1978 Michael Bennett Broadway musical “Ballroom.” There is, alas, no more Michael Bennett. What had once been simply “Ballroom,” a piece of dance magic that flopped on Broadway for want of a good book, has now reverted to being “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom,” the title of the 1975 teleplay by Jerome Kass on which “Ballroom” was based.

That title is the tip-off.

What has been wrought in Long Beach is much closer to the teleplay than to the Broadway show. It has Durning, who co-starred on TV with Maureen Stapleton. It has choreographer Marge Champion, who had mapped out the dances for the television version. It has a new book by Susan Dworkin. And it has four new songs by Billy Goldenberg (music) and Alan and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics), who did the score for both TV and Broadway and, in addition, have reinstated two songs from the original television drama.

Clearly, those in control are the survivors to whom this material belongs, and they have opted to return to the warmth and easy comfort of the teleplay, abandoning the smoke and mirrors that had earned Bennett and Bob Avian a Tony for the choreography in “Ballroom.”

Could they be right? It was, after all, the gulf between the small human story and the spectacular abstraction of the dance in Bennett’s version that couldn’t be reconciled. But they have made a swan into a duck. Despite a classy, tender performance by Daly as widowed Bea Asher who finds friendship and love at the Stardust Ballroom, this musical waddles where it should float.

This is not a comment on Champion’s choreography, which is as smooth as silk, even when the dancers are not. Champion knows how to turn emotion into movement and value humor as an adjunct to the dance. Her work is entirely right for this interpretation.

The problems lie with that interpretation. What this new, retooled musical has done is regress into an old-fashioned linear book musical designed to tug at the heartstrings. And it might have worked if the material--new, old and reinstated--were more compelling than it is, if director Glenn Casale had found ways of distilling some magic from the performances and if casting choices had been more judicious.

The elliptical “Who Gave You Permission?” and daughter Diane’s song, “Female and Thirtysome-thing” (nicely performed by Eileen Barnett), are welcome additions to a weak score, but the holdover numbers, such as “Somebody Did Alright for Herself” and the melancholy “Fifty Percent,” the show’s one real beauty, are still the best.

The new opening number, “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” is labored and as prosaic as the thought expressed. The same applies to “This Lady’s Coffee” or “Seems Like Yesterday” or “Suddenly There’s You,” songs that never rise above greeting card doggerel and characterize a prime difficulty with the show: an arbitrary insistence on the romantic that remains an overlay, never an organic component. The result is that we’re not deeply moved, if we are moved at all.

Durning is a fine actor who’s not much of a singer, and even though he’s only minimally called on to sing, there’s little fire between his postman and the widow Bea. Claiborne Cary is a good pal and a good belter as Bea’s friend Angie, but so much of Dworkin’s dialogue is stilted and artificial that even such pros as Carol Arthur (Shirley) can’t overcome its smarminess.

D Martyn Bookwalter has designed a spacious ballroom that looks more like the Harmonia Gardens of “Hello, Dolly!” than the Stardust Ballroom--predictable in the context of this production, which is bent on being Bronx quaint.

All in all, Daly’s presence is all there is to recommend this revamping. And Michael Bennett’s achievement remains unchallenged.

‘Queen of the Stardust Ballroom’

Tyne Daly: Bea Asher

Charles Durning: Al O’Hara

Eileen Barnett: Diane

S. Marc Jordan: Jack

Jean Kauffman: Helen

Claiborne Cary: Angie

Carol Arthur: Shirley

Frank Kopyc: Steve

Myriam Nelson: Faye

Robert Fitch: Trini

Dancers: Ballroom Regulars

Producer Barry Brown. Music Billy Goldenberg. Book Susan Dworkin, based on the Jerome Kass teleplay, “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.” Lyrics Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Director Glenn Casale. Choreographer Marge Champion. Sets D Martyn Bookwalter. Lights Tom Ruzika. Costumes Noel Taylor. Hair and make-up Elena M. Breckenridge. Musical director John McDaniel. Orchestrations Jonathan Tunick. New orchestrations Richard Bronskill. Sound Jonathan Deans. Production manager Donald Hill. Production stage manager John M. Galo.