Review: Curtains

The curtain rises: a corny western musical with a talentless star performs its finale on its opening night; the said star is murdered during the curtain call; chaos ensues backstage between the performers, writers, and producers regarding the future of the doomed show; in walks Detective Cioffi of the Boston Police (David Hyde Pierce) to solve this case. And so begins the Broadway hit, "Curtains."

Despite the melancholic chain of events just described, the show is a comedy. It is at once a murder mystery and a melange of different love stories: Detective Cioffi, infatuated with show business, finds himself abandoning his investigative duties to offer constructive criticism of the show. He juggles these endeavors with the wooing of a love interest. These pursuits are matched in intensity with stories of maternal love, unrequited love, old lovers, and new beginnings.

The show-within-a-show plot allowed for varied and contrasting whole-cast scenes. Those taking place in backstage Boston were good with their tasteful costuming and traditional choreography; those taking place in the 'Western' were phenomenal. Raunchy was acceptable, given the plot: coy barmaids, obscene and suggestive gestures, lewd clothing characterized the ensembles. But beyond that was the choreography: a full stage of performers doing flips and turns and acrobatics, losing sight of which way is up and which way is down. In terms of singing, the talent abounded, each solo eliciting, "what a voice!" whispers from the audience members.

The show's only fault is that it is a Broadway musical, and thus must succumb to certain cliched characteristics (as my friend helped me to identify): In the tradition of Broadway shows, its comedy translates into banal jokes and forced lines - even the laughs by the audience appear scripted. True to Broadway predecessors, the prerequisite characters are all there: a brusque 'matron' (played by Debra Monk), an overly-theatrical (read: irritating) innocent love interest, and a floosy blond.

In sum, the story is intriguing, the scenes are excellent, and the 'Broadway' is tolerable.