Theatre in Review: Play It Cool (Theatre Row) All hail Sally Mayes, one of our most distinctive musical theatre stars. Both a Broadway and a jazz baby, she can deliver a ballad straight, no chaser, breaking your heart in the process, and she can bend notes with the best of them, throwing in some lighter-than-air scatting that leaves you in a state of elation. She calls on these skills in Play It Cool, cast as Mary, the butch proprietor of a gay nightclub in Los Angeles, circa 1953. These are dark days for those who are, in one of the show's brighter euphemisms, "talented." Men can be arrested for dancing with each other, as can women for not wearing at least three items of female clothing. Mary's Hideaway, which is protected through a system of police payoffs, comes equipped with a red light that announces when a raid is imminent, and Mary keeps a baseball bat at the ready, in case any thugs happen to be lurking outside her door. At the moment, Mary, a brilliant jazz singer who mysteriously refuses to perform, is busy launching the career of her new love, a blonde bombshell named Lena Starling. Lena, who dreams of a contract from MGM, loves Mary, but is stifled by her controlling ways; adding to the tension between them is Lena's awareness that Mary is the superior singer. The run-up to Lena's scheduled debut at the Hideaway is complicated by the appearances of Henry, Mary's ex-brother-in-law, an on-the-take cop; Eddie, a predatory gay producer from MGM; and Will, a wide-eyed young lad from Spartanburg, South Carolina, who thinks it's high time they all stood up for themselves. It's promising material, but Play It Cool is both underdramatized and overmusicalized. It's not much more than a situation, but the songwriters -- music by Phillip Swann plus five others, and lyrics by Mark Winkler -- have a song for every occasion. Too many of them are pastiche period songs, which make for pleasant listening but do little to fill out the perfunctory book by Martin Casella and Larry Dean Harris. Everything that happens feels motivated by the librettists, not the characters. As a result, what should be a steamy, wisecracking melodrama set to a jazz beat never quite pays off. Still, if Play It Cool never really heats up, it's frequently enjoyable, thanks to the leading lady, her on-stage companions, and a handful of lively tunes. Mayes is peerless, as always, holding the stage with her natural authority, getting the most out of her few snappy lines, and singing to beat the band. She's particularly good in a trio of Act II numbers that explicate the nature of jazz, adding bluesy depths to each melody and indulging in some heavenly scatting. If her big eleven o'clock number doesn't really work, it's not the lady's fault; she has provided us with plenty to love already. The supporting cast includes a couple of extremely interesting young faces. Robyn Hurder, dressed in slinky satin gowns and outfitted with platinum hair reminiscent of Jayne Mansfield, makes something real and compelling out of Lena, who is both on the make and legitimately in love with Mary. She scores while delivering the sultry ballad "Whatever It Takes," as well as with "Baby's on Third," a sexy, baseball-themed specialty number. Michael Buchanan is equally effective as Will, the corn-fed farm boy who takes to jazz with alacrity; he also brings real heat to his scenes with Michael F. McGuirk, as the sexually confused Henry. The latter has to contend with some dopey narration written in a fake Raymond Chandler mode -- the director, Sharon Rosen, who otherwise runs a right ship, is little help here -- but he also does a solid job with the show's finest ballad, "How Do I Go Home Tonight?" ,b>Chris Hoch does his best with the one-dimensional Eddie, who tries to tie the characters up in various show-biz-friendly deceptions. Thomas A. Walsh's rambling setting, with its sepia photo backdrop, effectively captures the sub rosa quality of life at Mary's; Deb Sullivan's skillful lighting adds depth to the setting, and also creates an effectively bluesy atmosphere. Therese Bruck's costumes - especially those knockout outfits for Lena - have a strong period feel. The sound design, by Carl Casella and Peter Fitzgerald, however, is unfortunate. The real problem, I suspect, is that Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre, with its wide and shallow configuration and hard walls, is not designed for this kind of amplification; as a result, the overly loud voices appear to come not from the actors, but from the loudspeakers at left and right. Play It Cool isn't much of a musical; the action dawdles and too many songs don't help to tell the story. But it's an agreeable time-passer, a chance to check up on a couple of promising talents and spend two hours with Sally Mayes. You could do much, much worse.--David Barbour ![](/std_images/blank.gif)
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