Stage and Jazz : A ‘World’ Full of Rewards at Henry Fonda Theatre

Fans of the snappy, all-singing, all-dancing musical revue that zeros in on a pair of Broadway collaborators have double rewards waiting for them as long as “The World Goes ‘Round” at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.

Overtly, this smart and refreshing little show zooms in on the richness and variety of the music and lyrics of Broadway stalwarts John Kander and Fred Ebb, respectively. Invertly, it owes at least as much of its success to the lesser-known but up-and-coming collaborating team of director Scott Ellis and choreographer Susan Stroman (who won the Tony this year for her work on “Crazy for You”). It is Ellis’ sense of pace and structure and Stroman’s fresh ideas about how to move bodies on a stage that make this “World” such a lively place to be.

Ellis and Stroman, who conceived this “World” off-Broadway in 1991 with librettist David Thompson, also knew who should be in it--not necessarily by individuals but by types: Performers who would bring their own diversity to bear on the diversity in the music. The spiffy cast at the Fonda includes Joel Blum, Shelley Dickinson, Marin Mazzie, John Ruess and Karen Ziemba.

Blum and Mazzie were in the off-Broadway company and Ziemba (who received accolades this year for her roles in Broadway revivals of “Most Happy Fella” and “110 in the Shade”) is an original cast member. All of which doesn’t seem to make a bit of difference. All five have contagious, symbiotic fun, together, in small groups or alone.

Among them they deliver 31 songs that, liberated from the curse of patter, reflect the breadth and versatility of the under-heralded Kander and Ebb repertory.

The score for Martin Scorcese’s film “New York, New York” provides the title song and the closing number. But the majority of the songs are out of the musical theater canon--from the ultra well-known “Cabaret” to the best-forgotten “Woman of the Year” (although Blum’s intense rendition of “Sometimes a Day Goes By” belies the threadbare book of the show that spawned it). In between we have ballads from “Zorba” and “Chicago”; the less familiar “The Act,” “The Rink,” “Liza With a Z”; the brand-new “Kiss of the Spider Woman”; and the older “Flora, the Red Menace,” “The Happy Time” and “70 Girls, 70.”

It’s an engaging, often ironic stew that also includes some funny special material: the high-calorie “Sara Lee,” written for Kaye Ballard, and “Pain,” that pseudo-lament for a dancer’s bruised muscles that the composer and lyricist contributed to Chita Rivera’s signature piece, “Chita.”

Ultimately, the show’s wit and sophistication lie as much in the shape Ellis and Stroman have given it as in the sequence and selection of the songs. In mood and flavor, the revue recalls such specialty pieces as the Richard Maltby Jr.-David Shire “Closer Than Ever” and “Starting Here, Starting Now.” But the difference is that the collage in this case is the work not of the composer and lyricist, but of a director and choreographer who come to honor the material as devoted strangers.

Dickinson’s solo rendition of “The World Goes ‘Round” launches the event in a deceptively slow crescendo that builds to a potent climax. The show flies from the opening moment, with no gaps in the flow and no punches pulled. Ellis and Stroman move gradually but securely, presenting the first half in a lilting, understated fashion that hardly prepares us for the rich surprises of the second.

There, Ellis, Stroman, musical director David Loud and orchestrator David Krane get down to the brass tacks of reframing the material in such a way that its strengths and/or its familiarity are scrubbed, primped and rejuvenated.

Consider how they flip-flop the humor of “Marry Me” (from “The Rink” and sweetly sung by Blum) into the grand Stroman-induced tap routines of “Quiet Thing” (a terrific rendition by Ziemba from “Flora, the Red Menace”). Consider too the harmonic convergence of three splendid solos: Mazzie singing “Isn’t This Better?” from the film “Funny Lady,” Dickinson belting “Maybe This Time” from the movie version of “Cabaret,” and Ruess pouring his soul into “We Can Make It” (“The Rink”).

Gary Stocker may have scored a first by making the sound design at the Fonda really work. The production is also enhanced by Phil Monat’s dancing lights and Bill Hoffman’s frame set: jagged pages from a dictionary focusing on words that are key to creativity.

By the time we get to the climactic choreography and orchestrations of “Money, Money” and “Cabaret” (harmonizing by all five performers that comes close to Barber Shop Quartet, or in this case, Quintet) there is nothing left of the past except words and music that have rarely seemed so new.

* ‘ ‘The World Goes ‘Round,” Henry Fonda Theatre, 6127 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $28-$42; (213) 480-3232. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes. Joel Blum, Shelley Dickinson, Marin Mazzie, John Ruess, Karen Ziemba: Ensemble

Musical revue based on the music of John Kander and lyrics of Fred Ebb. Producers Gary McAvay, Aldo Scrofani, R. Tyler Gatchell Jr., Peter Neufeld, in association with Pace Theatrical Group, James M. Nederlander, Rosekram Productions, Inc. Conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, David Thompson. Director Ellis. Choreographer Stroman. Set Bill Hoffman. Lights Phil Monat. Costumes Lindsay W. Davis. Sound Gary Stocker. Musical director/vocal, dance arrangements David Loud. Orchestrations David Krane. Production supervisor Michael A. Clarke. Stage manager Valerie Lau-Kee. Assistant stage manager Bobby Smith.