All the performers seem to be enjoying themselves, none less than Todd Thompson as Dr. David Fanning is just right as Agent Strong: tall and handsome, yet a little goofily ungainly as he leaps about the stage. The other roles are filled well by the usual Gaslight suspects: Deborah Klingenfus, Joe Cooper, Mike Yarema, David Orley, Maria Alburtus, Sarah Vanek and Robert Shaw.
Among the men, Shaw is the best singer, but he isn't put to much use in this overcrowded show; his Russian-traitor character sings, of course, "Back in the U.S.S.
R.," but Shaw's body mic wasn't working well the night I saw the show. Regarding the music, from the show's title, you know what Fanning will be belting out all night.
Other pop songs seem to have been appropriated almost at random, although music director Linda Ackermann and her combo put "Live and Let Die" to good use as chase music. And those chase and fight scenes--they're always a hoot, with effects that are intentionally cheesy and low-budget yet hilariously creative. For this production, designer Tom Benson and his crew give us a chase on snow skis, complete with Alpine avalanche; a midair pursuit of an airplane by a spy with a jetpack; an undersea battle with a giant squid; and a Mount Rushmore climax somewhere north by northwest of Lincoln's nose.
The main show ends, and you assume justice has prevailed, but no--it's time for the olio, a tribute to the disco era, complete with blow-dried hair and enough polyester to remind us why there are periodic oil shortages. Every time I start to feel nostalgic for the 1970s, something like this happens. Selections range from the Village People's greatest hits (both of them) to "Disco Duck.
" Actually, this is the part of the evening in which Nancy LaViola's choreography really counts, and Klingenfus, in particular, proves spectacular in the disco style, complete with All the performers seem to be enjoying themselves, none less than Todd Thompson as Dr.
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