A certain reverence is called for when adapting an admired film into a stage musical. No such respect is required, however, when the original movie is cheesiness personified, like, say, 1980’s pop-rock mortal-and-muse love story, Xanadu.
So five years ago, playwright Douglas Carter Beane, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and lots of comic attitude ― snap! ― transformed the Olivia Newton-John/Gene Kelly roller skating songfest into a stage show. Having it both ways, the show made knowing fun of its preposterous source material while reveling in its hit-laden score.
Although the show was short-lived on Broadway, it has acquired a cult status almost as fervent as that surrounding the movie. So theater companies such as West Boca’s Slow Burn that specialize in offbeat musicals have been reviving Xanadu with audience-pleasing success. Slow Burn tends towards shows of more substance — like Kiss of the Spider Woman or Assassins — but it is reassuring to know that director-choreographer Patrick Fitzwater and his company are also comfortable trafficking in sheer silliness.
The intermission-less, 95-minute show is nothing if not slight, but its unpretentious, self-mocking tone all but defies an audience not to like it. As the god Zeus concedes with a wink, predicting the future — or the present — of musicals, “They’ll just take some stinkeroo movie or some songwriter’s catalogue, throw it onstage and call it a show.”
Even as it dips into that slippery slope, Slow Burn continues to impress with its ability to pull off musicals that should be beyond its physical and talent pool resources.
Like the movie, Xanadu the stage show concerns a Venice, Calif., street artist named Sonny Malone, who conjures up and falls in love with a genuine Greek demi-god muse, Clio. Cursed into loving him back by a couple of her envious muse sisters, Clio — disguised in period leg warmers, roller skates and an on-and-off Aussie accent — inspires Sonny to open a roller disco called — what else? — Xanadu.
Scenic designer Ian T. Almeida should have done more with the transformation of a seedy, long-idle L.A. theater into Xanadu, but a giant mirrored ball does wonders for setting a disco mood. So do the songs by Jeff Lynne of the British Electric Light Orchestra and John Farrar, Newton-John’s composer of choice. Even if you slept through the 1980s, you have probably heard such songs as Whenever You’re Away From Me, Don’t Walk Away, Have You Never Been Mellow and the title tune somewhere along the way.
As Clio, Slow Burn’s go-to leading lady Lindsey Forgey (Blood Brothers, Urinetown) again displays a natural comic flair, adapting to her wind-swept Aussie alter ego Kira, mangling the accent and negotiating the set’s treacherous ramps on her roller skates. Rick Pena is aptly ditsy as her love interest Sonny and Larry Buzzeo finesses his way as Danny, the Gene Kelly role in the movie, the free spirit-turned-real-estate-magnate who was transfixed by Clio in his youth.
The chorus of muses comes in all shapes, sizes and genders, led by a Beyonce-ish Renata Eastlick and comically cynical Mary Gundlach, who belts out a wicked take on Evil Woman. Slow Burn knows how to showcase non-Equity local talent well and these performers flock to, and keep returning to, the company’s shows.
Fortunately, Slow Burn has not decided to lighten its entire menu — as next season’s selections of Sweeney Todd and Side Show attests — but for a summer’s breather from such edgy stuff, Xanadu will do.
XANADU, Slow Burn Theatre Co., West Boca Community High School, 12811 West Glades Rd., Boca Raton. Through Sunday. Tickets: $35. Call: (866) 811-4111.