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‘Tintypes’ delivers
old-fashioned funTintypes: Playing at the Hawaii Pacific University 8 p.m. Fridays through Sundays to Feb. 27. Tickets $5 to $12; with dinner buffet $20 to $25. Call 254-0853.
By John Berger THE Hawaii Pacific University theater program commemorates the start of the new century with "Tintypes," a celebration of the music and social issues of a century ago. Writers Mary Kyte, Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle have a definite pro-working class agenda, although this rarely detracts from the work's entertainment value.
Special to the Star-Bulletin"Tintypes" is essentially a series of musical numbers performed in segments that could be presented in almost any order. The songs celebrate the roots of 20th century white American pop music. Most were written between 1896 and 1906, but there's also one from 1876 and another from 1918. The talented five-person cast does well with just about all of them.
Character development is minimal but sufficient. Ryan Lympus is a Jewish immigrant. Paul Beck is the voice of American free enterprise; Beck portrays Theodore Roosevelt in many segments. The playwrights clearly don't like "Teddy."
Karen Valasek's primary role is that of a popular "French singer" of the period who was rumored to have been born in the American mid-West. Becky Maltby plays a foreign-born political agitator. Rose Marie Barbee! (yes, that's her name) represent the African-Americans of the era.
Except for the buffoonish portrayal of Roosevelt, the playwrights approach political and social issues with a light hand. The expression on Barbee!'s face as she watches the whites shuffle through "Shortnin' Bread" says all that needs be said about the disgraceful genres of "coon songs" and "black face" that once permeated American entertainment.
Barbee! counters with "Nobody," making a statement about the place of African-Americans a century ago. "Wayfaring Stranger" is another strong number for her.
It isn't all serious. The funniest non-musical segment comes in a salute to Vaudeville as a Jewish comic (Lympus) and his faux-Italian sideman (Beck) work a tough crowd. Lympus is particularly good in the stereotypical role.
Maltby and Valasek square off in another comic battle as an untalented diva (Valasek playing a second role) is upstaged by a pushy younger artist with a violin and a rollerskate.
Lympus adds expressive comic pantomime to several segments.
Beck and Maltby cap a segment on the oppression of the working class with a comic dance number in "What it Takes to Make Me Love You -- You've Got It."
"Tintypes" deals in passing with the Spanish-American war, the assassination of President McKinley, the completion of the Panama Canal and celebrates the technological marvels of the era as well.
Joyce Maltby and Brad Powell share director credits. Powell's choreography and a series of black-and-white images projected on a backdrop add to the old-time ambience.
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