Skylight Camps Up ‘Xanadu’

Director Doug Clemons, a veteran Skylight performer himself, knows what those well-miked pop voices he has shared the board with can accomplish, and what the broadest Broadway mannerisms, comedic instincts and acrobatic modulations can create in audience laughter. He is a cheerful master of that tongue-in-cheek sendup of musical comedy methods that has been one of the stock in trades of Skylight shows – mixed with more serious fare, of course, but what is wrong with having waggish fun with all the trappings of those stage maneuvers? Especially since Clemons flourishes in exploring our sense of camp.

All that is key to his jaunty 90 minute production of Xanadu, a slim fantastical story of what happens when the sisterly Greek muses of ancient times, led by blonde Clio disguised as Kira, descend on the hippie roller skating culture in 1980 California to work their wiles on one artistically clumsy (but handsome) native, Sonny Malone. Two of the sisters are scheming to have Kira fall in love and risk the wrath of Zeus, who booms his commands into an echo chamber much like the Wizard of Oz.

The 1980s movie was a famous flop because it took itself too seriously even as it spawned a runaway pop music album. In the intervening years, a jukebox Broadway musical has turned the movie plot into a more obvious (and slightly better) self-commenting parody of stage and film one-liners. The most familiar interpolated phrases earn the biggest if intermittent guffaws, even as the music has descended into a vaguely familiar pop overlay of Olivia Newton-John and the Electric Light Orchestra.

Only pop insiders may actually remember songs like “I’m Alive,” “Suddenly,” “Magic” and the still catchy “All Over the World.” But the sound is rooted in our memories and here it has a trio of keyboardist, guitarist and drummer to help music conductor and lead keyboardist David Bonofiglio fill in whatever the big voices and echo chambers miss. The company rollicks along, playing around with the music as needed. Neither the acting nor the tunes are very memorable.

But add in the flow of Jason Orlenko’s amusing Grecian costumes, choreographer Stephanie Staszak’s manic gyrations and an audience conditioned to the joking style, so that it even applauds when a disco globe is successfully hooked to a ceiling wire.

The production has some expert comic practitioners on hand — Skylight veterans Molly Rhode and Rhonda Rae Busch to enliven “Evil Woman.” It has a fabulous tap dancer and fluid movement comedian in D Eric Woolweber and such veterans of Skylight coordination as performers Samantha Sostarich and Rick Richter. Their ideas may not be fresh but they are accomplished.

A couple of newcomers fit into Clemons’ style — Kaitlin Feely, broadly funny as Kira with a thin but nice soprano voice and Mitchell Gray, struggling to find ways to humanize Sonny when not worrying about the big notes.

Every season the Skylight does some theater that should not be missed. Sometimes, as in Xanadu, the theater finds a way to push through a piece that is actually below its best, but sells itself by settling into a consistently clownish style.

Xanadu will be performed through Feb. 11 at the Broadway Theater Center. Purchase tickets here.

Xanadu Gallery

Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blogs here and here.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article included a reference to a “swing” member of the cast who did not perform that night.