Smile - Kudos to the Junior Cast!
Awkward Stage Productions brings us this musical written by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Ashman. It's about a teen Beauty Pageant with a fascinating twist. Rather than have it’s young cast play both the teenagers and the adults in some sort of age makeup, the older set is presented “Avenue Q” style as puppets, with the young performers fully visible in black. While occasionally awkward, in the hands of some of the performers true magic occurs.
Freed from pretending to be older, the puppeteer/actors produce some incredible performances, loaded with nuance, and a maturity that far belies their years.
(NOTE: There are two casts for this show. The JR cast ages approximately 14-19, and the SR cast 17-25. I saw the JR cast.)
Devon MacKinlay (Dale/Tony) and the charming Isabella Halladay (Brenda – the driven pageant organizer whose marriage to Big Bob the head judges seems threatened by her single-mindedness) are especially good with their puppets/performances.
Of the teenage contestants Maiah Fujino (Maria – the guacamole slinging/singing cook), Jessica Wong (Heidi/Joanne – last years winner) and Taylor Scott (Sandra Kay) are all worthy of mention, but this young cast acquitted themselves well, handling the odd mishap or dropped prop like pros!
Patrick Arnott’s chorographer Tommy (perhaps the sole adult not a puppet) is a cigarette-smoking, dancing wonder, essentially a glorious cameo, but perhaps the more enjoyed because of it. Morgan Roff (Little Bob) and Jonathan Hers (Freddy) are fun as horny teen boys looking to snap up some naked cash.
The costumes are generally quite good -with the glaring exception of the “Stars and Stripes” pageant outfits whose mesh tutu-like skirts end unfortunately just either side of the young ladies neither regions, offering us an uncomfortable making frame on teen “crotch-land”. (While I understand that in some ways this it what beauty pageants do - present us with young women as sexual commodities, I can’t help but think that even viewed as a sophisticated costume joke this one crosses the line, especially in a piece otherwise free of such charged statements. SMILE’s script aims for the charming/wistful not the fraught land of sexual politics.)
The minimalist set by Shizuka Kai (also Puppet Director), and projections by Corwin Ferguson (who with Cara Tench/Choreographer co-directs the piece nimbly) are excellent allowing the piece to zip along. Musical Direction by Andy Toth and a young three-piece band (Erika Gundersen, Beaner Mitchell & Jeremy Lawi) are superb with marvelous harmonies and deft playing. Vocals by almost the entire cast are generally very well sung (actors may fumble pitch occasionally, but there were no real weak performers in this bunch), and nice not too fussy choreography. Only Noah Feaver’s lighting fails (although it could have been missed/sloppy opening night cues), leaving huge dark spots, and overall is generally too dim.
Interestingly, whether by choice or accident Julie Di Spirito (Robin) spends most of the show like her character, cute but not interesting enough for real attention, her postcard songs sweet but mostly empty until her last song when a butterfly burst forth. Suddenly I’m wondering who is this young lady (Is this Julie? Robin?) And wow can she turn it on - showing us the growth that the script is a little weak on sketching in one wonderful song.
I was sure the real find however was Rachel Harrison (Doria – the pageant “junkie” who dreams of winning but never does), whose Disneyland is heartbreakingly beautifully sung and felt while we the audience are caught - torn between laughing and weeping at how small she dreams but how much it means to her. Her performance was one of real skill fully revealing the humour and pain without ever falling into caricature. Expect big things from this young lady.
The real revelation however was still in store for me. Franco Celli’s Big Bob seems initially written as a broad cliché – slogan spewing car dealer/ignored by driven wife, and could have remained so until Big Bob’s Song is heard. Celli can sing, beautifully, but he also manages to get beneath the skin of an aging man pining for his wife and what he believes in while reflecting on what he started out to do. After that I was breathless. Celli cannot be more than 19, and burdened/or freed with a puppet that looks a little like “Pop” from Sesame Street he brought tears to my eyes – in spite of being the best puppeteer of the bunch I watched Celli himself thereafter almost exclusively.
For the rest of the show Harrison and Celli were locked in a dead heat for winner of this pageant, and if Celli edges out Harrison for the win, I can’t help thinking Doria (Harrison) would take it with a trembling smile and go on...
See this show - you’ll feel like a winner! (SR cast - the gauntlet has been thrown down…)