Review-Curtains (6.12.07)

Curtains (Tuesday, 6.12.07, 7 p.m.)
Al Hirschfeld Theatre, New York, NY

By: Rupert Holmes (book), John Kander (music), Fred Ebb (lyrics), Scott Ellis (direction), Rob Ashford (choreography), William David Brohn (orhestrations)

Starring: David Hyde Pierce (Lieutenant Frank Cioffi), Debra Monk (Carmen Bernstein), Karen Zeimba (Georgia Hendricks), Jason Danieley (Aaron Fox), Jill Paice (Nikki Harris), Edward Hibbert (Christopher Belling), John Bolton (Daryl Grady), Michael X. Martin (Johnny Harmon), Michael McCormick (Oscar Shapiro), Noah Racey (Bobby Pepper), Ernie Sabella (Sidney Bernstein), Megan Sikora (Bambi Bernet)

Fresh off his Tony win for best actor in a musical, David Hyde Pierce was greeted with warm applause in his first entrance in the show Curtains. As Detective Cioffi, a policeman in charge of investigating a homicide but also unable to disguise his love for the theatre, Pierce is engaging, warm and humorous. He delivers a delightful performance, to be sure, and banks on his likeability. It is not a tour-de-force by any means, and I left the theatre yearning for the kind of performance delivered by Raul Esparza in the groundbreaking production of Company. But it was a good, solid performance by an actor who has now amply demonstrated that he belongs as much on the musical theatre stage as he did on television.

In fact, Pierce’s performance is like the show Curtains – likeable, generally solid, and not without its merits, but not the knock-em-out-of-the-park kind of thing. Curtains is an old-fashioned musical with an old-fashioned premise. It boasts a tuneful score, some fun ensemble dance numbers, and an innocuous romance. Oh, and there are even a couple of really talented actors stuck in the middle of things, including Debra Monk and Karen Ziemba.

But at the end of the day, I couldn't help feeling that with all this talent involved, the sum of these parts shouldn't have been a little more.

The biggest drawback and limitation here is the premise of the show. Why creators insist on telling stories that are focused in the theatre themselves is beyond me. There have been so many shows about shows -- from Gypsy and Noises Off! to A Chorus Line and The Drowsy Chaperone. This kind of story has been done countless times before, and is a gimick that, frankly, takes away from the strength of any possible storyline. The show-within-a-show concept is tired.

That said, within that premise, Rubert Holmes’ book zips along nicely, and is facilitated by the tuneful if unmemorable score by Kander and Ebb. The score at least provides some nice vocal moments by Ziemba, Danieley and, of course, Monk. Rob Ashford’s choreography is, frankly, a little boring, but it is fun to watch Karen Ziemba dance her way through the numbers. Noah Racey is completely underutilized, although it’s not clear to me he really has what it takes to lead the show.

I suppose it is the expectation that dooms the enterprise, but I just felt like with these names involved, this show should have amounted to more. I shouldn't let that detract from the fact that there is a lot of humor and levity in the show, and the performances are fun. But for something that is so generically classical, is it too much to ask for a little bit more?