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| January 10 & 11,
2003 |
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| CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
Photographs by George
Wada
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A night of Broadway songs with
a TWIST – featuring some of Uptown Players' past DIVAS.
Performers: B.J. Cleveland; Nye Cooper; Scott A. Eckert;
Donald Fowler; Jay Jackson; Jeff Kinman; Chris Laymance; Doug
Miller; Mark Mullino; and Dennis Yslas.
Host: Denise Lee. |
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| Tom Sime, The Dallas Morning News
(Excerpt) |
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Uptown Players gives all the good
songs to men, for a change: Big-shouldered 'divas'.
Women get to play Falstaff and Lear now and
then – not to mention Peter Pan – but when does a man get
to play Auntie Mame? Not often enough; or at least that's
the premise of Broadway Our Way, Uptown Players' revue of
Broadway songs written for female characters but performed
here by a nearly all-male cast.
"The women get all the best songs, and the
best clothes," asserts cast member B.J. Cleveland. "Tonight,
it is our turn." The operative concept here is the male diva
(Divo?). As host Denise Lee puts it, "There are eight other
divas backstage, and they're all wearing pants". Tuxedos,
to be exact, though the stuffy formal wear doesn't stop anyone
from camping it up, or Dennis Yslas from pulling off an impressive
cartwheel/splits combo. Some ideas that sound fraught with
peril prove to be highlights.
That includes "Hey, Big Spender" from Sweet
Charity, an ensemble song – written for a gaggle of hookers
– that proves well-suited to male voices. The number also
shows off Andi Allen's inspired choreography, here an affectionate
parody of Bob Fosse's. Director James Paul Lemons fosters
an atmosphere of easygoing charm. |
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