A very, very pink hair salon is the setting for this tribute to lyricist Dorothy Fields (pictured), who wrote some of the most timeless lyrics with many of Broadway and Hollywood’s finest composers. The show covered the range of her career from 1928 through 1973 and featured 34 songs sung by five actresses – Rosemary Ashe, Helen Hobson, Leanne Jones, Jane Milligan and Shona White.

In his style, director and co-devisor Tim McArthur chose to segue the songs together with little or no narrative, and in this instance, not much of an emotional arc that I could see.

This wasn't a pleasant review to write.  Believe me, I’d much rather say nice things, but here goes.  Sadly, the evening was a mishmash.  The show felt under-rehearsed – actresses not sure of their spots when dancing together, never in sync, and even the harmonies, which musical director and co-devisor Sarah Travis wrote with interesting and unusual tonalities, never really jelled in any of the songs.  However, my biggest problem was that the performers didn’t seem to trust Fields’s lyrics – forcing most performances, rather than letting the lyrics speak for themselves.  I don’t know if this was an acting or a directorial choice, but, either way, it didn’t work, and paid no tribute to the lyricist at all.  The lovely-voiced Shona White was the biggest offender on this front, and her performance of “This Is It” was almost caricature, and her odd phrasing of “Pages in a Book” left me quizzical.  My last negative comment: lyricists often write with rhymes, and songs make no sense whatsoever if you don’t stick to those rhymes.  The company needs to look at “A Fine Romance” and either stick to British or American pronunciation of the words, so that Fields’s lyrics rhyme as she intended them to.  Using both just doesn’t work.

Whew! OK, now some nice comments.  Leanne Jones let the songs speak for themselves – her opening section of “Baby, Dream Your Dream” was lovely, but “Lovely to Look At” was her best song of the night.   Helen Hobson’s very moving “April Fooled Me” proves that simplicity works better than forcing a song.  Jane Milligan’s best song was “He’s Good for Me,” again, because she let the lyrics tell the story, and Travis’s arrangement worked, a treat.  A nicely comic “A Lady Needs a Change” was Rosemary Ashe’s best song.  Hats off to Travis for her terrific funky, rap arrangement “Doin’ the New Low-Down,” my favorite song of the night.  It not only took a 1920s song and added a contemporary feel, but also had some terrific comedy from Ashe, who looked like the person at a party who thinks she’s really grooving, when she’s anything but!

The Sunny Side of the Street continues at Jermyn Street Theatre through July 7^th.

Harold Sanditen
Cabaret Scenes
June 22, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org