Minus the original dazzle, ‘Redhead’ loses its luster

The theater world is governed by its own process of natural selection, which decrees that some shows -- regardless of their significance -- will die out if they can’t endure certain harsh but basic realities.

Among those thinned from the herd was the musical “Redhead,” for reasons that are all too obvious, despite a game attempt by the Musical Theatre Guild to resuscitate it.

A long-gestating idea of sister-brother writers Dorothy and Herbert Fields, the show finally headed to the stage in 1959 after Gwen Verdon agreed to headline in it. Among Verdon’s conditions was that her boyfriend, Bob Fosse, be hired to direct as well as choreograph.

As soon as the show opened, the convoluted script -- written with further input from Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw -- was identified as the show’s Achilles’ heel. Yet Verdon’s performance became one of those legendary “wow” moments in theater history, while Fosse’s razzle-dazzle achievement helped propel Broadway into the age of the hybrid director-choreographer.

To see “Redhead” without their contributions is to miss what made the show noteworthy. So the Musical Theatre Guild’s semi-staged concert presentation, this past Monday in Glendale and scheduled again for Monday in Long Beach, was, perhaps, hamstrung from the start.

A romance clumsily built atop a murder mystery, “Redhead” tells the story of unmarried, drooping-on-the-vine Essie Whimple (the Verdon role, played here by Jane Lanier), who works in a Madame Tussaud’s-like gallery in early 1900s England. When she designs an exhibit that depicts a sensational recent murder, she earns the disdain of Tom Baxter (Sam Zeller), an American strongman whose variety act employed the deceased female victim. Essie, however, is smitten.

Albert Hague’s music, which approximates sounds heard in turn-of-the-century British music halls, rarely seduces the ears, but Dorothy Fields’ lyrics often tickle the ribs, as when Essie laments the bareness of her ring finger, singing: “You’d think someone quarantined it, / It’s a sort of no-man’s land.”

Essie’s attempt to attract Tom’s notice also grabs the killer’s attention, and the deepening peril throws a shadow across an otherwise comic escapade involving dotty aunts, enterprising prostitutes and a Keystone Kops-style chase scene.

The actors carried scripts at Monday’s performance, which emerged from a brief rehearsal period feeling hesitant and awkward. Still, there was enjoyment to be found in director Michele Spears’ comic-macabre sensibilities (the waxworks setting lends itself to sight gags involving fake, dismembered body parts) and choreographer Steven Nielsen’s Fosse-like experiments.

A born bumbler, Essie is also improbably graceful. Lanier found just the right balance in such numbers as “ ‘Erbie Fitch’s Dilemma,” a tongue-twisting patter song that gave way to a novelty dance performed with a Charlie Chaplin-esque sidestep.

Zeller lent Tom an endearing goofiness, while Kevin McMahon, in a sidekick role, delivered easygoing sensitivity and humor.

Ed Martel led the onstage seven-player band through a reduction of Philip J. Lang and Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations.

*

‘Redhead’

Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Cal State Long Beach

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday

Price: $25

Info: (562) 856-1999, Ext. 4

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes