PHOTOS
Alicia Grega-Pikul
Before collaborators Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music) wowed audiences and critics with Once on This Island, Ragtime and Seussical the Musical, they wrote a funny little farce called Lucky Stiff. Based on Michael Butterworth's novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, this collaboration has never earned the praise of the team's later successes. Yet while unripe in context, Lucky Stiff is still so much smarter and quirkier than the musicals conventionally staged in the 570 that the audience assembled Sunday at The University of Scranton Players production was tickled.
Once they wiggled their foot into the musical's bumbling premise, they were off running and laughing, all the way to curtain call.
The hero of sorts is Harry Witherspoon (Michael Flynn) - a bored-beyond-belief British shoe salesman. Just as he laments his lame existence, he receives a telegram that his uncle Tony, an Atlantic City casino manager, has died and left him $6 million, as long as he carries out the bizarre terms of the will - mainly, one last hurrah in Monte Carlo. Harry reluctantly agrees to wheel his uncle's taxidermied corpse around the Riviera only to find himself stalked by a spy from his uncle's favorite charity. If he fails to meet any one of Tony's hedonist demands, the preposterously prim Annabel Glick (Mandy Doria) will report him and the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn will inherit the $6 million instead.
Also after the money is Tony's endearingly crazy and very Jersey mistress, Rita LaPorta (Eileen Patterson). She just so happens to be married to the owner of the casino and responsible for embezzling $6 million in diamonds from him. Before Rita and Tony could run away with the money, she caught him with another woman and accidentally shot him - she's blind without her glasses. Then, pressured by her husband, she panics and blames it all on her optometrist brother Vinnie (Justin Kizer), who she then forces to accompany her to Monte Carlo to recover the diamonds from Mr. Witherspoon. Got that?
Don't worry - it's not the plot that's worth paying attention to, but rather the surprisingly smart lyrics of a steady stream of melodies presented well by this collegiate cast of 11 on Rich Larsen's sensational set. Solid pieces wheel in and out under an enormous roulette wheel arch with a snap and are bathed in stunning light, such as one effect simulating the reflection off ocean waves. In part because the orchestra is sequestered deep back-stage, some of the more subtle nuances of the score are muffled, but it is nice to hear a cast perform without the aid of microphones.
Flynn fares remarkably well as the beleaguered Witherspoon. His Austin Powers accent is delightful, his comedic timing well-honed, and you can't help but root for him. Doria is too sweetly well-intentioned to irk us and wipes up the stage with our sympathy during the surprising canine love song "Times Like This." She and Flynn face-off with sparks whether competing ("Dog Versus You") or falling in love ("Nice"). Patterson's pipes are impressive and her massacre of the French language is as amusing as her shameless, Tommy gun-wielding demands. While not as polished as some of his co-stars, Jason Mannion's over-the-top antics as a toothy lounge singer, a random nun, and an old Texan, in particular, win the lion's share of laughs. Samantha Morales deservingly steals the spotlight as Dominque DuMoncao in the bumpalicious "Speaking French" even if her character serves little purpose outside the number.
The production is not faultless. During "Good to Be Alive," Harry is supposed to be on a train, but the clues aren't clear. A scene at the top of act two finds the whole cast frantically search for Tony's body - and while it aspires to be a full-on chase scene slapstick hilarity, it doesn't quite pull it off.
Still, Lucky Stiff is a welcome invitation to kick off your shoes, loosen up and liberate your inner joie de vivre.