
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040595
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KAREN L. DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHOWTIMERS' ORCHESTRA NOT UP TO PAR

In observance of its 40th anniversary season, Showtimers has resurrected its first musical, "The Boyfriend," which played to Roanoke audiences in the early 1960s. And if opening-night glitches are any indication, this particular production may have been better left to fond remembrances.

The 1920s musical spoof by Sandy Wilson is seriously marred by its amateur orchestra, which is too loud when it ought not to be, not loud enough when it needs to be, and annoyingly discordant when it should never be.

Overall, the musical numbers are performed too mechanically. In all fairness, however, two songs stand out from the rest. William O. Capps, who plays Lord Brockhurst, manages to express his aging gentlemen character quite humorously in "Never Too Late to Fall in Love." And Madame Dubonnet (Ellen Simpson) and Percival Browne (Gene Galvin) draw some early applause for their romantic banter in "You Don't Want To Play With Me Blues."

The romantic frolic begins in the drawing room of the Villa Caprice, Madame Dubonnet's Finishing School on the outskirts of Nice. The girls are giggling and chattering about the boyfriends who will accompany them to the upcoming ball. All but one, Polly Browne (played by Danielle McCall Bartlett), have dates. But the others don't know that, because Polly pretends to receive letters from a far-off beau who is coming to take her to the ball. In reality, she has no boyfriend because she fears men want her only for her father's millions.

When she meets a handsome messenger boy, Tony (played by Matthew Burleson), Polly predictably feigns to be Madame Dubonnet's secretary. And just as predictably, she and Tony fall in love. But Tony is harboring a few deceptions of his own.

Wilson borrows the basic idea for his finale from Shakespeare's pastoral romance, "As You Like It." So, if you're familiar with that story, you know how "The Boyfriend" ends. And even if you don't know that story, the ending is pretty predictable, if you consider how "love always triumphs."

Bartlett and Simpson lend their notably good voices to the production and make their characters the most endearing. Rounding out the cast are Barbara Thwaites, Tamara Brainerd, Amanda Brugh, Valerie Brugh, Sandra Robin Clements, Cheryl Mitchell, Tabb Keyser, Barbara Burnett, Ricky Mason, Ed Cord, David Beidler, George Dallas Jordan III and Kevin Brower.

"The Boyfriend," directed by Ann Sylvest and choreographed by Joan Downing, plays at Showtimers Studio, 1431 McVitty Road S.W., through Sunday and May 10-13. Thursday through Saturday performances begin at 8 p.m. Sunday matinees open at 3 p.m. Tickets are $8 Thursdays and Sundays and $9 Fridays and Saturdays.

by CNB