Gregg Coffin’s
previous, much-admired musical developed at Geva was Convenience, a funny, touching drama with some memorable truths to
tell. His new musical, Five-Course Love — again a
compositional tour-de-force of clever writing and appealing music entirely
created by Coffin — is much lighter fare but even more entertaining — and
showy. Coffin creates book, music, and lyrics to show us five takes on love in
five differing styles.
           It’s a delicious confection. Posing
as a five-course meal, it all tastes like dessert. And from the perspective of
my sweet tooth, that’s a compliment.
           Here’s the menu. The real appetizer
is in Matt’s Car, which presents a
solo by a lonesome hill-William named Matt. But the appetizer course is Dean’s Old-Fashioned All-American Down-Home
Bar-B-Que Texas Eats, which is supposed to be honky-tonk but sounds like
shit-kickin’ to me. The soup course, Trattoria
Pericolo, is Italianate, ranging from near-Neopolitan to openly operatic.
Salad course is, of all things, German: Der
Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz. The katzenjammer boys get out of hand, and I’d
pun on the kunst, but this is a
family newspaper.
           Entree course is a show-stopping
conga, Los Hermanos Cantores, which I
can’t wait to describe below. And the dessert course is, to end the night, The Star-Lite Diner. Here too, there’s
some lovable cheating, because the real final treat follows it: Kitty’s Bus Stop/Matt’s Car ties the
repast together with the right sweet touch.
           Sound tasty? These food stops are
peopled with 15 memorable characters that come in dream roles for three actors.
Heather Ayers gets to play sexpot, maiden fair, predatory femme fatale, and
lovesick loser, looking good even when looking funny, and singing beautifully
in more different ways than you’d expect. John Bolton plays everything from
cute hick to Italian Goodfella to Hispanic hunk and dumb jock.
           And Jeff Gurner covers the same
ethnic spectrum while also shifting from comic sidekick to competing Latin
Lover to kindly oldguy, called, of course, Pops. Both men get a terrific vocal
workout in varying modes and ranges. Five-Course
Love is nothing if not a showcase, and these three more than live up to the
challenge.
           Emma Griffin’s savvy direction gets
constant quirky comedy from the singers’ movement, use of props, and gags that
always surprise, yet seem inevitably right for the music and the moment.
           Coffin doesn’t so much make fun of
stereotypes as show them off with affection. At Dean’s homey place, Coffin has
Dean (Gurner) set up Matt (Bolton) with Barbie (Ayers in sex-doll mode), only
to have Barbie sing “I Loved You When I Thought Your Name Was Ken.” In the
dangerous Trattoria the three conspiratorially sing “If Nicky Knew,” then
tremble to note that gangster “Nicky Knows.”
           G. W. Mercier’s consistently
arresting designs reach true comic heights in the two Mexican brothers’ leather
chests and glittering black patent leather pompadours and sideburns, to say
nothing of their glamorous colored-striped feather sleeves. But then, they are
competing for the love of Rosalinda, who is dazzling in a raspberry swirl
hairdo that looks like whipped frozen custard. The show is full of sight gags,
many of which tantalizingly reflect its food motif.
           And it’s only right that the
lovesick bobbysoxer from the dessert and the gawky lonesome driver from the
appetizer should work out some kind of tasty hitch at the end, served up like
an after-dinner mint.
           It’s hard to see the boundaries
between Griffin’s direction and Terry Berliner’s perfectly attuned, amusing
choreography. David Labman conducts a first rate band — Linda Boianova,
Benjamin James Gateno, and Kristen Shiner McGuire — who change hats throughout
the Five Courses. Mr. Coffin continues to look good wearing a number of hats at
once.
Five-Course
Love,by Gregg
Coffin, directed by Emma Griffin, plays at The
Nextstage at Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury Boulevard, Tuesdays through
Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 5 and 9:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m., through
July 11. $12.50 to $25. 232-4382,
www.gevatheatre.org.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2004.
