Dan's Papers - June 29, 2007 - review: my way at the gateway playhouse

Over the fourteen years that I have been a regular attendee at all of the Gateway Playhouse productions, one constant factor has been the quality of the productions and the performers. Often we have driven home saying to each other, "Why aren't these actors on Broadway?" because the quality of their talent has been so outstanding.

Now, if you are going to stage a tribute to the one and only Frank Sinatra, arguably the greatest singer ever, then a prerequisite has to be that the singers, while not trying to emulate or imitate the master, must have a sufficiently commanding stage presence and singing voice to be able to deliver the tribute in an adequate manner. Also, a tribute really should include some reference to the many ups and downs of his career, other than a few of his aphorisms, especially when his life was such a tumultuous one both on and off the stage. After all, even if the audience is going to be mainly comprised of "golden oldies," there are bound to be those who really do not know about the vicissitudes of his career and what he had to deal with going from the heart throb of the western world to being almost totally out of favor. His career extended to the big screen, as he was a pretty good actor and then there were years of maturity when he really came into his own and was universally acknowledged for his greatness and star quality

Performers are human beings and do their best to entertain us, and the musical theater is one of the most difficult and precarious of all professions. Just look at how quickly The Pirate Queen has foundered despite coming from the talented creators of Les Mis and Miss Saigon. This week in London, the epic and very expensive musical version of Lord of the Rings has received such a savage review that it will probably very soon disappear in a cloud of smoke never to be seen again, and always in these events, performers' lives and careers take a beating. But, you have to be objective, and with regret I have to say that this Gateway show is just not up to their high standards. We have come to expect Broadway quality shows and they almost always deliver.

The set is delightfully designed and makes you feel like you're in the periphery of a luxurious nightclub high above the city streets. The three-piece band, with music director Frank Spitznagel on piano, Catherine O'Malley on bass and percussionist Pete DeSalvo really come through with style and life. They play some great music and their solo spot opening the second half was the highlight of the evening. That is about all that can be said, positively, about the show. After all, how difficult is it to sing some of the greatest standards ever written - songs such as "Strangers in the Night," "New York New York," "Fly Me to the Moon" and of course the title song, "My Way?" For four singers to have the chance to lean on Frank's laurels and sing his songs to an audience already half under his spell and probably singing most of them under their breath as the show evolves, should be the opportunity that artists' dreams are made of. Maybe they thought it was all too easy, but the result of the first half was absolute ennui, with no drive, no enthusiasm, no musicality - nothing.

The second half was marginally better, but even with this improvement and the fact that when the artists sang together the close harmony was good, they did not manage to salvage the show.

Hopefully, with their next production of Showgirls, the show that recently was made into an Oscar nominated film and which opens at the Patchogue Theatre on July 21, Gateway will once again get over this blip and get back on their normal track.