Putting Fun Into ‘Follies’

It’s refreshing to see a piece of musical theater today that doesn’t try to make you think. Half a century ago, musicals used to be solely entertainment, lots of songs, lots of girls and lots of laughs. In paying tribute to the unforgettable Will Rogers in “The Will Rogers Follies,” composer Cy Coleman and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolf Green, for the most part, have re-created one of those old-fashioned musicals.

The biography, built around the idea that Florenz Ziegfeld is creating the show as it evolves, opens with a grin and keeps smiling almost to the end, when it gets a little preachy. Rogers’ famous radio talk to Depression-riddled America is a bit maudlin, and despite the light treatment in Peter Stone’s book, things get kind of sad in the last moments, concerning Rogers’ fatal air crash with Wiley Post in Alaska.

Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s current production keeps the good times rolling throughout most of the evening, the chorines slyly winking at the audience, and the dancers energetically hopping about to the lively conducting of musical director Todd Helm. But the production’s biggest advantage is the performance of Wayne Bryan as Rogers.

This is not a tall, slender Rogers as often seen in the early productions of the musical. Bryan is a little dumpy around the middle, and his grin is almost as crooked as Rogers’ was. On top of that, his singing voice often seems to resemble Rogers’ gravelly tones, and his infectious humor is also remarkably close to the original. Bryan has played the role many times, first at the Music Theatre of Wichita, Kan., and his ease and comfort in Rogers’ shoes is obvious.

When Bryan is on stage, he seems to infect other cast members with his energy. Tracy Lore gives a standard reading of the role of Betty Blake, Rogers’ wife, but sparkles when she’s onstage with Bryan. He has the same effect on the kids who play the Rogerses’ children. Dane Morris, Graham Miller, Erin Eskew and Quintan Craig (he’s only 5 years old) are solidly professional as the moppets who never grow older because, as Rogers’ explains, Ziegfeld is too cheap to hire another bunch of kids.

Stephen Reynolds who, like Rogers, is from Oklahoma, plays Rogers’ father, Clem, who wants Will to work the land but is proud as a peacock when his son achieves fame, and his blustery overplaying is not only effective but is another of those comic staples from the musicals of yesteryear.

Another reminder of the past, the scantily clad chorine who parades across the stage to announce high points in the action, is gorgeously re-created by Raeleen Juliano as Ziegfeld’s Favorite, who slyly keeps reminding Mrs. Rogers that she is her understudy, and winning over the audience with her delicious sense of fun.

SHOW TIMES

“The Will Rogers Follies,” Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; also this Sunday, 7 p.m. and March 3, 2 p.m. Through March 4. $16 to $38. (714) 879-1732. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.