REVIEW : ‘Dames at Sea’ a Tuneful Salute to ‘30s Film Musicals

For a minute there, with the searchlight sweeping the sky and patrons in 1930s yachting attire emerging from vintage cars with rumble seats, you would have thought that Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler were playing one of their ‘30s musicals inside the theater.

In a way, they were.

“Dames at Sea,” a buoyant spoof of Depression-era movie musicals, marks the 100th production for the Sierra Madre Playhouse which once, years ago, was indeed a movie house.

Actually, Powell and Keeler co-starred in a backstage movie musical called “Dames” (1934).

And the stage show “Dames at Sea,” which premiered in New York in 1968 and last played here 10 years ago (at the Pasadena Playhouse Balcony Theater), is a loving sendup of the ‘30s “hey-let’s-put-on-a-musical” genre.

For the two opening nights last weekend, in an event devoted to the late Ruby Keeler, theatergoers packed Sierra Madre Boulevard in a salute to the 14-year-old playhouse.

They watched naive characters named Ruby and Dick in white sailor suits snatch Broadway stardom from the jaws of defeat with the help of a convenient battleship docked in New York Harbor. That’s all you need to know about the plot.

More important, the production has a nice handle on that tightrope known as parody. Director Kathy Fitzpatrick (a playhouse veteran) nimbly negotiates a balancing act among her half-dozen actors, who all look exceptionally right for their roles--especially Maren Jacobsen, whose brassy, hands-on-hips sarcasm seems to curl right out of a Busby Berkeley movie musical.

The production’s arc does flatten and lose some of its trajectory in the second act. But it’s hard to quibble with a show that features the worried, love-smitten Ruby Keeler act- and look-alike Jennifer Storey’s fierce tap-dancing routines.

The George Haimsohn-Robin Miller-Jim Wise score and lyrics, with an assist from playhouse music consultant Edward Lojeski, remain hummable (“Broadway Baby,” “Good Times Are Here to Stay” and “Choo Choo Honeymoon” among them), under pianist Jackie O’Neill’s solid, live backstage accompaniment.

Vocally, Storey’s ballads, “The Sailor of My Dreams” and “Raining in My Heart,” are plaintive, and lanky Kevin Leggett’s “Singapore Sue,” a lampoon of Oriental movie characters, is deceptively difficult to pull off without looking silly. But Leggett pulls it off.

As the Dick Powell-inspired character, Kevin Van Kampen effects the picture of open-faced enthusiasm, a guy who can sit down and knock out Broadway tunes at a whim.

The bulky Jerry Marble ably doubles as a flustered stage manager and regal ship’s captain in his dress whites.

Of course, no such musical would be complete without, in this case, that viper Mona, the conniving, selfish prima donna (Joanne Taylor) who orders everybody around because it’s her money that’s financing the show.

Shon Le Blanc’s period costumes are flavorful, especially the trio of gleaming wedding dresses at the end.

A rain number featuring red umbrellas, choreographed by Lucy Nagle, is sublime, and Marcus De Luco’s lighting, although a little erratic on the night reviewed, bathes the show with the requisite fantasy.

The production’s only outright disappointment is the set design by Ron Kidd and Terrance Roseen. Set design has long been the Sierra Madre Playhouse’s singular weakness.

In this “Dames at Sea,” there’s a dumb prop of a ticker tape machine that opens the show and, dismayingly, in the second act on board the battleship, two huge panels, a boring beige color, are not even painted over with any artful design, nautical or otherwise. The image is a glaring eyesore until finally the panels open up to reveal mirrors for Storey’s solo tap number.

* “Dames at Sea”

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday matinees, March 14, 28 and April 4, 2:30 p.m. Ends April 10. $8-$9. (818) 335-4318. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.