24 — Wednesday, May 1, 1991 — North Shore News

HEWS photo Tale vi

HAMMING IT up as Herringbone, 2 washed up vaudevilie man, is versatiie actor Morris Panych who plays an exhausting roster of 10 characters in the Vancouver Playhouse’s production of Herr- ingbone, the Musical. Ken MacDonald's striking set looms luridly in the background.

Herringbone dances cut vaudeville’s pathos

show, a tribute to the bygone days of the travelling

| erringbone, the Musical, is a nightmarish vaudeville

thespian — but with an undercurrent of angst.

In the production, which is itself a burlesque of vaudeville, actor Morris Panych displays a truly vaudevillian versatility in his por- trayal of 10 characters. Like a ven- triloquist-impressionist possessed, his body contorts into exaggerated caricature postures, his voice switching from a high-pitched drawling Momma, to the pom- posity of the uppity dancing teacher Masley, then back to pip- squeak George, his character's eight-year-old-self.

The main character, Herr- ingbone, is a has-been vaudeville man who recounts in song and dance a “head-shakin’ year” in his childhood. As a boy in the Depression, he set out with his parents for the footlights of Hollywood to make a buck bring. ing ‘‘culture’”’ to hard times.

Fortune strikes when George becomes possessed by the spirit of a 37-year-old tap dancing midget who rakes its the bucks for the family. Disaster strikes, however, when the insistent spirit kills George’s dance teacher and ref- uses to vacate George's body.

he first act bubbles merrily, and Panych delivers what in the Depression would have been a good nickel’s worth of grimacing, toe-tapping and silly gags. With simplicity and theatrical ingenuity George’s quirky rise to tap-danc- ing glory unfolds.

Playwright Tom Cone pulls some

Barbara Black THEATRE REVIEW

kernels of ideas out of the mixed bag — but they never explode into full-blown, developed ideas. The first act is steeped in the naivete of the American dream with some patriotic Christianity tossed in. (George's ‘Why i am proud to

be American” speech is a scream.)

But, while the second act con- trasts the seediness of show biz with the squeaky-clean American dream, the social content gives way to a highly persona! one. And dark it is.

The second half, added later to what was originally a one-act play, squeaked and wobbled like a wonky wheel, unsure of its desti- nation. In the recount of the moral rape of George, the low burlesque becomes a hindrance to the dramatic content.

Here, the razzmatazz music is mostly to blame, although even Panych’s miracu- lous transformations were acquir-

ing a B-rate Dr. Jekyll quality. The numbers “A Mother’ and ‘Ten Years’ seemed especially onerous.

In the second act, Herringbone’s multiple portrayals take on a psychotic, sinister quality as, im- mersed in recounting his story, he sinks into the quagmire of his confused identity, dragging the audience with him.

it culminates in his crying out “This is me!’ ina mement of pa- thos when the fun and games fade and the audience is agape.

One almost expects the in- famous off-stage hook will mer- cifully appear and sweep poor Herringbone away.

But this grittiness, this meanness, is undercut by a kitschy score which could learn something from the likes of nasty musical master Kert Weill, (The musicians are good, though.)

Ken MacDonald’s wonderfully huge set is a whimsica! replica of Herringbone’s face, complete with moving eyes and mouth. It manages to convey an amusement park superticiality while at the same time reinforcing the actor's obsession with his stage identity.

This Playhouse production of Herringhcre, the Musical, suc- cessfully recreates the atmosphere of a secand-rate vaudeville act — but the c? sasy, comedic vehicle for what is «sentially a tragic story edged dangerously ciose to the pathetic.

But Panych certainly knew his element and unabashedly milked the (rather reluctant) audience for all it was worth.

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