‘High Button Shoes’ Still Provides Delight

In 1947, Broadway was taken by surprise when a show with little advance heat developed into the season’s big hit musical.

A retro comedy set in 1913, “High Button Shoes” had the heart of a vaudeville routine and the fleetness of a Keystone Kops movie. It tickled audiences to no end.

Time and changing tastes can be cruel, though, and today the show is all but forgotten. The only encounter that present-day theatergoers are likely to have had with it is through “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” which revived a Mack Sennett-style routine that Robbins choreographed for the show.

Happily, the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura decided it was time we saw more of “High Button Shoes.” Through Sunday, it is presenting a semi-staged concert version that sets toes tapping and sides splitting with laughter.

Of the original creators, only director George Abbott was well established on Broadway before the show opened. The production’s success helped root the reputations of the rest of the team. Robbins won his first Tony Award, and composer Jule Styne, working here with Sammy Cahn, ended up swapping a career in film for one in theater.

The Rubicon presentation is directed by Bonnie Hellman and choreographed in period style by Cindy Robinson. Jason Graae and Susan Egan head the cast.

Because this concert staging received very limited rehearsal (just 23 hours), the actors carry scripts and wear off-the-rack costumes. The band is limited to two piano players and a percussionist. Yet the material comes roaring back to life. Graae’s penchant for old-style comic excess is perfect for a role created by Phil Silvers. Playing a con man so notorious that he needs to return to his small hometown to lie low for a while, Graae pitches his broad, vaudeville-style laugh lines with abrupt change-ups in speed and attitude. A one-man Sennett comedy, he’s hysterical whether he’s faking his way through a Russian dance or running, limbs at right angles, from the police.

Egan layers a 21st century knowingness onto her pure-as-the-driven-snow ingenue, to humorous effect. And as a wholesome couple taken in by the con man’s schemes, Cynthia Ferrer and Doug Carfrae sing and dance winsomely through two of the score’s best-remembered songs, the ragtime polka “Papa, Won’t You Dance With Me?” and the soft-shoe “I Still Get Jealous.”

Originally about 13 minutes long, the Sennett-style chase--involving bathing beauties, bumbling cops, con men and a bag of cash--is abbreviated to highlights narrated by character dancer and choreographer Robinson, who steps into each sequence to illustrate what she’s describing.

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“High Button Shoes,” Rubicon Theatre Company at the Laurel, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Wednesday and Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $23-$38. (805) 667-2900. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.