‘Dames at Sea’ Treads Tepid Water

More than a few recent revivals of “42nd Street” have rumbled through town, so viewers of Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse’s revival of the George Hainsohn/Robin Miller/Jim Wise musical spoof, “Dames at Sea,” may be suffering from a bad case of deja vu.

As in, haven’t we been here before, and in a much better way?

Well, yes. The warhorse that is “42nd Street,” about how Broadway newcomer Peggy Sawyer steps in and saves producer Julian Marsh’s show when jealous veteran Dorothy Brock breaks her ankle, is the sine qua non of backstage musicals. In 1968, book and lyric writers Hainsohn and Miller and composer Wise returned to this Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler vehicle and made a loving mockery of it. How, in the midst of the country tearing itself apart, could you take anything with “Dames” in the title seriously?

This whole perspective, though, is weirdly lost in Larry Watts’ tepid production, which barely has the sense of spoof and lacks the skill to make this nonsense dazzle.

Here, Yvonne Browning is the arrogant Mona Kent, Mindy Cowan is Ruby off the bus from Utah, and James Emery is the beleaguered Hennesey, who’s hoping that his new sailors-in-love show, “Dames at Sea,” breaks his string of 10 flops.

Of course, Mona immediately despises fresh-faced Ruby (Cowan uncannily resembles Bernadette Peters, who played Mona in the off-Broadway premiere). Of course, Ruby falls for Dick (Mark J. Phillips), who happens to be both a sailor and a songwriter intent on saving Hennesey’s show. And, of course, Mona wants Dick for her own.

Part of the joke of this spoof is that Dick’s tryout number, “Singapore Sue,” is awful, a purple-passioned piece that Hainsohn and Miller used as a sly stab at 1930s-era show-business racism. The joke is taken to extreme in Act II, when Hennesey’s theater is torn down and the show must go on--aboard a battleship in New York Harbor. These are hacks, fools even, but lovable ones.

Watts--who seems to have overextended himself as director, choreographer, set designer and (with Tom Phillips) costume designer--plays Dick’s sidekick, Lucky. He has little feel for the larger or smaller jokes in “Dames at Sea,” instead giving it a tone that is less spoof and more tribute.

Yet even as a tribute, the staging trips over itself. Browning falls seriously short as both singer and dancer, never convinces as a star and is regularly out-sung and upstaged by the strong-throated Adriana Sanchez as Joan. Phillips runs out of gas soon after his big number, “Broadway Baby.”

In an ironic case of art imitating art, the whole show soon falls on the shoulders--and tapping feet--of the bubbly, piquant Cowan. It isn’t fair, because this is a company show; Cowan’s a trouper, though, and taps her way to the end with the show’s one touch of spunky fun.

* “Dames at Sea,” Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 661 Hamilton Ave. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 6. (949) 650-5269. $12.50-$18. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

“Dames at Sea,”

Mindy Cowan: Ruby

Yvonne Browning: Mona Kent

Mark J. Phillips: Dick

James Emery: Hennesey/Captain

Adriana Sanchez: Joan

Larry Watts: Lucky

A Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse production. Books and lyrics: George Hainsohn and Robin Miller. Music: Jim Wise. Direction, choreography, and set: Larry Watts. Lights: Robert Murphy. Costumes: Watts and Tom Phillips.