Reviewing: Curtains

There are only three productions left for Springfield Little Theatre's hilarious musical-mystery. Here's why you should go this weekend.

This weekend is the final one for Curtains, which is one of those musicals you probably don't know a whole lot about, but would be sure not to miss if you did. The best way I've been able to describe it is The Producers-meets-Clue—and not the board game, but the hilarious '80s comedy starring Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd... pretty much every funny person the '80s had to offer.

Curtains is set backstage at a mid-budget Boston musical. The show—a retelling of Robin Hood, set in the Old West—isn't bad, most of the producers have real Broadway ambitions, but the lead actress is a stinker. Ostensibly, that's why she winds up dead at the end of the opening night performance. But whodunit? And why? That's what the characters, and the audience, get to spend the next two hours figuring out.

Everyone—from the understudy to the financier to the director to the chorus liners—has a motive. The deceased, Jessica Cranshaw (played all-too-briefly by Leigh Ann DePriest), probably deserved what she got. An energetic Boston homicide detective, Lt. Frank Cioffi (played by the imminently likable Jamie Bower) quarantines the cast inside the theater until the crime is solved. Of course he falls for the show's perky ingenue, Niki Harris (fresh-faced Cara Hampton in a wig that's straight from the wardrobe of Diane from Cheers). Bower's performance is over the top, but in a good way: We all knew that guy in high school who was way too exuberant about everything, but you liked him anyway? That's Lt. Cioffi. He was played by David Hyde Pierce in the original Broadway production, if that gives you any hints as to the neurosis of the character.

The cast is top-notch, led by SLT vet Leah Jenkins in the role of Georgia Hendricks, the show's songwriter who takes over the lead role following Cranshaw's demise. Jenkins's theater-filling voice is perfectly suited for the role, and if you didn't think an Arts Council executive could act bawdy, you'll change you mind after the Act I set-in-a-brothel closer, "Thataway!". Sandy Skoglund-Young plays Carmen Bernstein, who with a silver tongue and a commanding presence, balances her responsibility as a producer with that of a harsh mother (to chorus member Bambi Bernet, played by Stephanie Judkins) and mourning wife... well, not-so-mourning wife, actually. Other fine performances are turned in by Patrick Schuster (Christopher Belling, the show's mercurial director), Judkins, Josh Inmon (who plays leading man and Hendricks's would-be suitor Bobby Pepper), and many members of the background cast, who are constantly in motion and constantly making the most of their stage time.

High points come during the final rendition of "In the Same Boat," a song the cast works to perfect the entire show, as well as the Cioffi/Niki duet "Coffee Shop Nights." "He Did It", the Act 2 opener that features an ever-more-suspicious full cast, is also a memorable moment, and sets the tone for the twisty hour to follow. If you're sharp (or lucky) you'll be able to spot the endgame when it arrives, but the real fun is in getting bamboozled by all the red herrings along the way (don't worry... the Lieutenant is bamboozled, too).

If Curtains has a weak point, it's in the pacing. The script is so witty, and the action so fast paced, that many one-liners are no sooner out of the actors' mouths than the scene is over and the action has shifted elsewhere. Only an audience waiting for many of the zingers—or a production that slows down enough to play them off perfectly, thus stretching the show near the three-hour mark—will be able to take in all of the one-liners. It's a small complaint, but one that might help you enjoy the show even more if you remember to keep your ears open.

It should be noted that Curtains is pretty heavy in adult humor—if you aren't ready to explain to your kids why that man said the word "di*k", or why the lady in the red underwear was wiggling around on that cowboy, you probably shouldn't take the youngsters. That said, Curtains is pretty wholesome by today's entertainment standards, and is worth every penny (and then some) of your entertainment money.

Curtains plays tonight and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $15-$25. Click here to purchase tickets and for more information.

Matt Lemmon, digital director

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