“1940’s Radio Hour”
depicts a live radio production at Christmas time in 1942. It celebrates the music and the culture of
the time against the backdrop of WW II.
The script leaves lots of room for ad lib which is where much of the
character development takes place. State
Of The Arts Productions current Columbus rendering dishes out a bit too much ad
lib with little payoff as actors seem to be doing their own thing much of the time,
becoming caricatures and often distracting from the central focus of the radio
show and the music.
My previous experiences with this show had it
as a brisk two-act production that unfolded in less than two hours with the
intermission. SOARTSPRO elects to do it
as a one-act in the spirit of the one-hour radio program. The ad-libs at the beginning, the extensive
build-up prior to going on the air, coupled with the slow pacing, and
the anti-climatic farewells among the cast and crew after the show goes off the
air, stretches this to a tedious two hours.
James Blackmon directs and plays the key role of Johnny, which might be
part of the problem. Things like relationship development, pacing, blocking and
ensemble seem to have gotten lost. Blackmon’s characterization as the lead
singer is sparse and uneven.
Part of the success for this play lies in
how well the songs are rendered.
Blackmon, Cassie Gress (Ginger), Clara Livingston (Connie), Brian Gray
(Neal), David Rausch (B.J.), Syretta
Bates (Geneva), Bobby Peaks (Biff) Lauren Bandman (Ann) can all sing well
enough, but they are often overpowered by the band. The poor sound mix doesn't help.
The beauty of a piece like this is that it
can be very effective when the staging is simplified. This production has too much furniture and
too many people wandering around doing their own side-bits, drawing focus away
from the action of the radio broadcast.
The program lists several costumers who all
got it wrong when it came to the uniform for the soldier who is dressed as a
1990’s-era enlisted man when he is supposed to be an officer in the army of the
1940’s. How hard could it be to come up
with khaki pants and long-sleeved khaki shirt with a couple lieutenant bars? This is just one indication of the sloppy,
slip-shod way this show seems to have been thrown together.
For years, I have been longing for someone to bring this
sweet script back to the Columbus stage, but I was hoping for something
better than this. I have seen family
back yard shows with stronger production values.
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