{"id":243596,"date":"2010-06-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/visually-and-acoustically-loud-suds-not-pitch-perfect-but-fairly-fun-ride\/"},"modified":"2010-06-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T07:00:00","slug":"visually-and-acoustically-loud-suds-not-pitch-perfect-but-fairly-fun-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/visually-and-acoustically-loud-suds-not-pitch-perfect-but-fairly-fun-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Visually and acoustically loud ‘Suds’ not pitch-perfect but fairly fun ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Charlene Baldridge
\nCr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN
\n<\/strong>
\n

\"Visually<\/a>
Performers in \u201cSuds\u201d include (from bottom clockwise) K\u00fcrt Norby, Samantha Mills, Courtney Corey and Anise Ritchie. (Courtesy Ken Jacques)<\/figcaption><\/figure>At Balboa Park\u2019s Starlight Bowl on June 17, Starlight Musical Theatre opened its 64th summer season with a San Diego-sprung, four-performer piece titled \u201cSuds: The Rocking 60\u2019s [sic] Musical.\u201d Written by San Diegans Melinda Gilb, Steve Gunderson and Bryan Scott, with musical arrangements by Gunderson, the cheerful, enjoyable survey of songs popular in the 1960s continues through July 4. It is suitable for the entire family.<\/p>\n

Opening night pre-curtain and pre-Act II cheerleaders were Artistic Director Carlos Mendoza and Marketing and Public Relations Director Ryan Fahey. Both whooped it up, asking if everyone was having a good time. Fahey even announced that he would play the role of Cornelius in Starlight\u2019s upcoming \u201cHello, Dolly.\u201d It doesn\u2019t get more \u201caw shucks!\u201d Perhaps that\u2019s in keeping with Starlight\u2019s 1946 origins, when just about everyone did it for love.<\/p>\n

Starlight, which has had its financial ups and downs recently, is operating this season with a non-union orchestra. Longtime conductor Parmer Fuller is no more on the podium, and for \u201cSuds,\u201d excellent San Diego composer\/keyboardist Rayme Sciarone is music director, keyboardist and conductor with four additional players in the pit. <\/p>\n

Perhaps in an effort to make sure that the four actor\/singers \u2013 Samantha Mills as Cindy, Anise Ritchie as Marge, Courtney Corey as Dee Dee, and K\u00fcrt Norby as all the Men \u2013 will be heard in the 4,200-seat amphitheatre, sound designer Jennifer Edwards cranks it up to the highest decibel. The results are seldom balanced between singer and other singers and between singers and orchestra. Sadly, the musical numbers, which include such \u201860s hits as \u201cAre You Lonesome Tonight?,\u201d \u201cPlease Mr. Postman\u201d and \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have to Say You Love Me,\u201d range mostly from loud to louder. Also sadly, \u201cclose harmony\u201d sometimes means singers are close to pitch, but not on it; but it\u2019s so loud and so cute and so colorful, maybe no one will notice.<\/p>\n

Suicidal Cindy works as a Laundromat attendant. It is her birthday and she discovers with the arrival of the mail that she is responsible for some deceased relatives\u2019 IRS debt; that her cat, Fluffy, has been killed by a Corvair; and that her pen-pal boyfriend has dumped her for someone with better penmanship. <\/p>\n

When the Clorox bottle proves empty, and the plastic knife won\u2019t cut her wrists, she ties some long johns around her neck and attempts strangulation by washing machine. Along come competitive guardian angels Marge and Dee Dee, who set about solving all of Cindy\u2019s problems by finding her a new boyfriend. Ridiculous that a man is all one needs to solve one\u2019s predilection for suicide, but hey, the entire thing is ridiculous and inane, and that is its appeal. Fluffy, mindless entertainment is good for what ails you, though the audience applauded less loudly as the evening wore on. Let\u2019s blame the sameness, the incessant airplanes and a certain lack of truthiness emanating from the company. In order to play this material successfully, one has to believe. Norby is the only one who comes close to sincerity. In his seriousness one finds hilarity. The rest is all chatter and noise.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuds\u201d
\n8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays though July 4
\nStarlight Bowl
\n2005 Pan American Plaza
\nparque balboa
\nTickets $10-$75 (see website for Kids Free program)<\/strong>
\nstarlighttheatre.org<\/a>
\n232-STAR<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge SDUN Theatre Critic At Balboa Park\u2019s Starlight Bowl on June 17, Starlight Musical Theatre opened its 64th summer season with a San Diego-sprung, four-performer piece titled \u201cSuds: The Rocking 60\u2019s [sic] Musical.\u201d Written by San Diegans Melinda Gilb, Steve Gunderson and Bryan Scott, with musical arrangements by Gunderson, the cheerful, enjoyable survey […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":243597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Visually and acoustically loud 'Suds' not pitch-perfect but fairly fun ride","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}