Fizzy 'No, No, Nanette' is worth saying yes to
DENNIS -- Frothy as an ocean wave, ''No, No, Nanette" makes for perfect summer refreshment -- especially the fizzy production now on view at the Cape Playhouse.
Everything about this staging delights, from the bold deco-ish sets to the snazzy '20s outfits, and above all the highly talented, Broadway-caliber cast. If the 1925 musical lacks for knockout songs (''I Want to Be Happy" and ''Tea for Two" are pretty much it), the performers lend plenty of panache, and the dance numbers -- choreographed by a veteran Rockette -- are truly dazzling.
The plot is cornily simplistic: Gawky ingenue Nanette (Garrett Long) yearns to kick loose a bit before settling down with earnest Tom Trainor (Zachary Halley), a fledgling lawyer who works for her guardian, prosperous Bible publisher Jimmy Smith (Fred Willard, whose genial face will be familiar from such Christopher Guest films as ''Waiting for Guffman" and ''Best in Show").
Mr. Smith has a few problems brewing: namely, three other dependents of a decidedly shadier cast, young women whose ''artistic" careers he has been funding, out of purely paternalistic beneficence. Of course, were his generosity to be publicized, the impact on his business, not to mention his marriage (Dorothy Stanley plays his frugal but worldly-wise wife), would be disastrous.
Helping Smith to hush up the potential scandal is smoothie attorney Billy Early (George Dvorsky), whose spouse, Lucille (Rebecca Luker) has liberal views on flirtation -- she herself gadded about premaritally, as she reveals in the opening song, ''Too Many Rings around Rosie" -- but isn't prepared to handle a real transgression. The farce comes to a boil when, unbeknownst to one another, all concerned -- including doxies -- descend on the Smiths' Atlantic City cottage.
Luker alone lends gravitas to the mostly silly proceedings -- maybe a trifle too much, given that she plays the ''heavy." Her naturally dramatic voice has a dark timbre, and it sometimes seems as if she might be more at home in a more substantial musical -- Broadway's ''Nine," perhaps, in which she portrayed the movie star, Claudia. As her consort, Dvorsky (whose credits include the title role in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel") is a leading man straight from central casting: handsome, accomplished, and versatile. Willard isn't called upon to do much singing (a good thing, from the sound of it), but he's twinkly and befuddled -- not much of a stretch, but a good fit. Stanley, playing a matron who likes to hoof it with the young folks, is quite a dancer, and a strong singer to boot.
The real revelation is Long as Nanette. Endowed with a Shirley Temple-wattage sparkle and pouty mouth to match, she can rocket from all-elbows homely to cheerleader-peppy in a nanosecond, and the sincerity she lends lines like ''The kids down here are nifty -- hot diggity!" intensifies the fun. Another standout is Christina Norrup as Flora Latham, one of Smith's protegees, whose chosen art form is shimmying her substantial frontal assets. With her Miss Piggy bobble and helium giggle, she's a walking cliche who nevertheless invariably tickles.
The same could be said of this entire production, and the corps of ''neato" kids who give it their all.
