A Rocky Mountain Sigh

The time couldn’t be better for a revival of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” James Cameron’s “Titanic”--in which Kathy Bates plays the feisty Colorado millionairess--has been the No.-1 movie at the box office for nine weeks now, and it just tied for a record 14 Academy Award nominations. The public’s interest in learning more about one of the Titanic’s more colorful passengers could hardly be higher.

Problem is, the musical that Meredith Willson and Richard Morris wrote about Molly isn’t particularly good. It presents a historically dubious picture of her, and it devotes barely a minute and a half to her Titanic adventure.

Fullerton Civic Light Opera has revived the 1960 musical with two glorious singers in the leads: Susan Dohan and “Les Miserables” veteran Richard Kinsey. Yet this lumbering production merely compounds the problems inherent in the material, and the vessel takes on water long before the late-in-Act-2 encounter with an iceberg that dumps its heroine into the freezing North Atlantic.

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Willson wrote the music and lyrics for “Molly Brown” after his enormous success with “The Music Man,” and, appropriate to Brown’s turn-of-the-century life span, he gave the show a similarly old-fashioned American sound. Yet though he came up with a handful of sweet little tunes, he managed nothing as engaging or as memorable as in “Music Man.”

Morris’ book--riddled with jump-cuts that skip over important transitions in Brown’s life--poses far bigger problems. It was drubbed by critics, and the original Broadway production held on for 532 performances largely due to Tammy Grimes’ star-making performance as Molly.

Similarly, Dohan is the most appealing aspect of the Fullerton production. Though she’s a tiny little slip of a gal, she conveys Molly’s outsize personality through can-do enthusiasm and a voice as big as the Rockies.

She’s especially good in the early scenes, as a tomboy who enjoys roughhousing with her brothers in Hannibal, Mo., and as a young woman who sets off for Colorado to seek her fortune. In the rollicking dance numbers and in her first wrestling match of an encounter with her future husband, “Leadville” Johnny Brown, she’s as floppy and cuddly as a Raggedy Ann doll. Her biggest boo-boo is to cling to this gamin quality in later scenes, as the script calls for the older Molly to become increasingly hard-nosed and bitter.

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Musically, Kinsey is Dohan’s match. His lush bass-baritone--which must have served him well as Javert in various productions of “Les Miserables”--enriches a pair of the score’s best songs: Johnny’s tributes to nature in “Colorado, My Home” and the “Leadville Johnny Brown” soliloquy. Physically, though, he’s a stiff. He plants his fists on his hips, drops his jaw--and just stands there singing.

Chris De Soto, a towering grizzly of a man, is at once gruff and Father Christmas-y kind as the saloon owner who hires Molly when she arrives in the mining town of Leadville, Colo. One of the non-Equity performers in this mixed community / professional cast, he holds his own with the pros.

Sha Newman’s choreography, executed by a crack troupe of dancers, lends razzle-dazzle--particularly a saloon dance that’s part hoedown, part Folies-Bergere teaser.

But as of the Saturday of opening weekend, the production remained riddled with technical glitches, including fitful amplification and fumbled sound cues.

Worse, director Jan Duncan seems to run out of ideas by the time the newly rich Molly--shunned by Denver society--wanders off to Europe in hopes of a better reception. The second act drags and drags--except for the too-brief sequence in which the script abruptly dunks Molly in the Atlantic and just as abruptly pulls her out again.

* “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” Cal State Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; matinees 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28 and March 1; 7 p.m. this Sunday only. Ends March 1. $14-$33. (714) 879-1732. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.

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“The Unsinkable Molly Brown,”

Susan Dohan: Molly Brown

Richard Kinsey: “Leadville” Johnny Brown

Chris De Soto: Christmas Morgan

Lisa Hale: Mrs. McGlone

Roger Blais: Prince DeLong

Sarah Reed: Princess DeLong

Rory Johnston: Shamus Tobin

A Fullerton Civic Light Opera production. Music and lyrics by Meredith Willson, book by Richard Morris. Directed by Jan Duncan. Choreographed by Sha Newman. Musical director: Lee Kreter. Lights: Donna Ruzika. Stage manager: Donna R. Parsons.