| The 2004 edition of
Uptown Players' second annual theatrical fund-raiser, which
opened Thursday at the Trinity River Arts Center, is subtitled
Divas Strike Back! Last year, a group of male singers performed
tunes that were written for Broadway's leading ladies. This
year, the women get equal time - warbling numbers written
for men.
To complicate matters further, Coy Covington hosts the evening
in drag as a character he played in Uptown's Ruthless! last
year. B.J. Cleveland gets in the act, too, trading quip for
quip and downright dig for double- entendre. After intermission,
they switch sex roles. Mr. Covington wears the pants, Mr.
Cleveland dress after dress.
Many of Dallas' finest singing actors are onstage - though
not all are equally adept at the kind of cabaret singing most
of the show requires. The premise here is that the performers
get to do material they've always wanted to try, but never
had the chance. We don't always want what's best for us.
Much of the best singing, paradoxically, comes from the two
medleys drawn from Uptown shows that end the first act. The
company did three of 2003's best musicals, and the excerpts
here bring back a lot of the joy. Observe, though, that Skie
Ocasio sounds much better in the number he did in Uptown's
Kiss of the Spider Woman than in the songs he picked for himself.
A lot of the evening's fun comes from wildly improbable ideas.
Linda Leonard does a Charlie Chaplin imitation while singing
Chicago's "Mr. Cellophane." Amy Stevenson makes
a joke out of the old Ray Bolger specialty "Once in Love
With Amy" - peddling autographed pictures of herself.
Perhaps the most fun of these is David Plunkett's take on
"Benedicite" from Nunsense. That's the one where
a sister reveals that she wakes up every morning to pray -
by dancing in her toeshoes. The surprise is even more delightful
when the ballet dancer is a monk, instead.
In a battle of the sexes, you have to pick a winner. This
time the guys have it, for laughs and for harmony. Mr. Cleveland
repeatedly brings down the house with his drag imitations
of real Broadway divas, and you haven't lived till you've
heard him vamping through "When You're Good to Mama."
Musical honors go to William Blake for his dynamite rendition
of "Home" from The Wiz - and for every other note
that comes from his lips
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