The final show of Scott Siegel’s 5th Annual Summer Broadway Festival was All Singin’ All Dancin’, an eclectic revue featuring fine Broadway performers and choreography by two rising young artists, Lorin Latarro and Mark Stuart.

Although the show rambled a bit, Mr. Siegel’s heart was in the right place, as was his good-natured MC-ing and light-hearted commentary. He shepherded a wonderful cast which included such Broadway notables as Carolee Carmello, Lillias White, Valarie Pettiford and Eddie Korbich (pictured). Korbuch, and the delightful tenor Ron Bohmer, were life-saving last-minute substitutes for incapacitated cast members.

Mr. Siegel’s concentration on the dance part of the show was unfortunate since both young choreographers have a lot to learn. Are they untalented?  No. But each goes for easy, audience-pleasing, superficial flash. Both have trouble creating steps that enhance songs and equal difficulty building characters. Their contributions, although passable, weren’t up to the level of the singing (or should it be singin’?).  Mr. Stuart goes for explicit, wriggling sexuality, his men tossing the women about in sumptuously complicated—and crowd-pleasing—lifts and twirls.  Ms. Latarro is more balletic with cutesy little jumps and old-fashioned classical arms framing her movements. Each had moments, though.

Ms. Latarro’s staging of John Bucchino’s “Unexpressed,” sung by the affecting David Larsen and Jennifer Savelli, caught the tentative, unrequited love between the two characters who never quite touched.  It was a little gem.  As was Mr. Stuart’s work for Jonathan Larson’s “Will I?” from Rent. Here he used lifts as metaphors for “uplifting,” the substance of that emotional anthem which was sung by the younger cast members Anthony Wayne, Darius de Haas, Ms. Pettiford and Josh Franklin, joined by the full cast of agile dancers.

The singing was terrific from beginning to end, starting with Mr. Bohmer’s ringing “Without a Song” (Youmans/Rose/Eliscu) and the show’s Act I finale, “We’ll Take a Glass Together” from Grand Hotel, in which he joined his strong tenor to that of Eddie Korbich, both catching the camaraderie of that song. Carolee Carmello displayed total commitment to the drama and comedy of each of her songs:  “Someone Else’s Story” (Chess), “You Can Always Count on Me” (City of Angels) and the gripping “As Long As He Needs Me” (Oliver!). The elegant Lillias White was delicious in the saucy “Ain’t Got No”/“I Got Life” (Hair) and the Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh rarity “I Walk a Little Faster.”  Lithe Julia Murney, with her sweet pixie cut, belied her size, belting out “My Baby Just Cares for Me” from Whoopee! and “Le Jazz Hot” from Victor/Victoria. Darius de Haas was particularly moving in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “I Have Dreamed,” which he sang with ardor, never overdoing.

The offstage music direction by Ross Patterson turned a small ensemble into a rich-sounding orchestra with many colors and timbres.

Although All Singin’ All Dancin’ wasn’t the best organized of Scott Siegel’s many productions, there was great satisfaction in the high quality of the singers and dancers.

Joel Benjamin
Cabaret Scenes
July 25, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org