No Way to Treat a Lady
The Colony Theatre presently hosts the West Coast Premiere of Douglas J. Cohen’s traditional musical, No Way to Treat a Lady, based on William Goldman’s wickedly funny original novel, published in the late 60s. His darkly funny novel became a bizarre movie starring Rod Steiger as the troubled son of a “Mommie Dearest” kind of celebrity mother.
Cohen’s version began its journey to Los Angeles in the early 80s with an off-Broadway production. A major reworking had a New York production in the mid-90s and only now, the comedy has reached the Coast. For his musical Cohen went, not to the movie, but back to the original material. Leave it to Goldman (known for his wise-cracking Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) to create a comedy out of the career of a psychotic serial killer with a penchant for dress-up.
In the Colony’s incarnation, the book highlights the romance of the pursuing Detective “Mo” Brummell (Kevin Symons) with Sarah Stone (Erica Piccininni), an art gallery owner, juxtaposed against the colorful career of Christopher, the disturbed killer (the clever Jack Noseworthy). Heather Lee pulls the yeoman’s duty in this small
cast as Christopher’s numerous victims, with numerous detours into the persona of Brummell’s shrewish mother, Sadie. She and Sarah have perhaps the funniest scene in the show, when Brummell brings his girl home to meet his mother and the two commiserate that they have “So Much in Common.”
Despite the macabre plot, the present production is curiously unremarkable. The performances are uniformly competent, and Noseworthy exercises noteworthy versatility in the tour de force role of Christopher, but their performances are hampered by a setting (designed by Sibyl Wickersheimer) composed of a curiously wrought set of narrow levels that prevents the ill-advised dance routines (by Jane Lanier) from reaching their zenith. The music is fine, but lacks that one hum able number that clinches an audience’s accolades.
Other production elements –- costumes by Paloma Young, wigs and hair by Joni Rudesill, lighting by Jeremy Pivnick, properties by MacAndME, and the four-part music ensemble, directed by Dean Mora –- are uniformly professional.
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Theater: Colony Theatre, 555 North Third St., Burbank.
Web Site: http://www.colonytheatre.org/
Tickets: (818) 558-7000 ext. 15
Dates: Through May 17, 2009