COURTESY MANOA VALLEY THEATRE
Manoa Valley Theatre's production of "Copacabana" was extended a week before it even opened last Wednesday.
Star saves the
show for MVT
"Copacabana": Presented by Manoa Valley Theatre. Continues at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through April 4. Tickets are $30 for shows through March 28; $35 thereafter. Discounts available for youths, seniors and military. Call 988-6131.Elitei Tatafu Jr., starring as Tony/Stephen in Manoa Valley Theatre's "Copacabana," is one of the most dynamic male leads of the season.
The characters are clichés, the songs rarely memorable and there are problems with casting and costumes, but Tatafu does such a stellar job that most people in search of feel-good escapist fare likely will overlook the problems in director/choreographer John Rampage's staging of this fluffy musical melodrama.
Tatafu establishes himself as a triple-threat singer/dancer/actor with his first number and goes on to show that he can shift from straight acting to comedy or melodrama with equal skill. "This Can't Be Real," his big romantic number with Zenia Zambrano in Act II, proves that he's a fine leading man as well.
The show is a story-within-a-story that reworks and expands the dark and cryptic tale Barry Manilow first told in his million-seller hit, "Copacabana (At the Copa)," in 1978. The reworked story begins in the present with Stephen, a young songwriter, recalling the days when "music and passion were always the fashion" and then imagining himself falling in love with a naive showgirl named Lola.
But Lola catches the eye of a sinister Cuban nightclub owner/gangster named Rico. Beatings, kidnapping and rape ensue, although only one bit of carefully choreographed brutality and a bloodless killing occur on stage.
Nicole Marie Sullivan (Conchita Alvarez) gives a winning, over-the-top portrayal of a fading but feisty stereotypical Cuban spitfire. Sullivan gets Act II off to a spirited start with "Havana/Caramba" and shows depth as an actor thereafter.
Suzanne Green (Gladys Murphy) owns the stage during her big number, "Copa Girl," and plays the cliché role of the ex-showgirl-turned-wisecracking cigarette girl nicely throughout.
Scott Moura (Sam Silver) delivers a fine comic performance as the blustery owner of the Copacabana nightclub whose tough talk conceals a caring soul, and who finds courage he never thought he had when he helps Tony take on Rico's Cuban gangsters
Jared Lee Duldulao is hilarious in a bit part as an obliviously awful singer auditioning for a Broadway musical.
Zenia Zambrano is perfect for the comic role of the plucky heroine, Lola, who stumbles painfully through several auditions for Broadway shows before a chance meeting with Tony -- and his last-second rearrangement of her audition song -- results in her being hired to dance at the Copa.
Zambrano's delivery of Lola's audition song, "Man Wanted," is perfect, and her teamwork with Tatafu in the final version of the song is a comic highlight, though she is not visually believable as a statuesque 1940s Copacabana showgirl.
Several ensemble dancers also push the limits of credibility in that area, and the extremely conservative showgirl costumes -- reminiscent of what might have been found in a backstreet cabaret in some eastern European communist nation in the mid-1960s -- do nothing to help them. Showgirl costume designer Bill Doherty does some beautiful work with pheasant tail feathers and headpieces, but the outfits in several numbers -- "I Gotta Be Bad" in particular -- look more like aerobics gear than the lavish costumes one would see in a world-class showroom.
The fact that "I Gotta Be Bad," the dance number that brings Rico into the story, drags on far longer than it should be only emphasizes some of the production's problems.
Yes, several of the male dancers might also be described as "hefty," but they perform as a well-synchronized unit, and large, strong men are needed in several dance numbers.
As usual, however, the MVT tech crew does good work. Athena Espania (costume design) captures the look of post-war women's fashion. The male dancers are sharply attired throughout, and Espania adds a particular punch in Act II when Sam and Tony arrive in Havana. To say more would spoil a surprise.
Set designer Don Ranney's multilevel showroom makes musical director Mark Minasian's tight sextet part of the show. Greg Howell (hair and makeup) gives Moura a headstart on a great performance with the mother of all bad toupees.
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