Let’s do a simple math exercise: If you graduated from high school in 1958, you were probably born in 1940. And if you were born that year, you’d be 75 in 2015. When I attended the Covedale Center’s production of The Marvelous Wonderettes at a Sunday matinee, there were no young people in attendance. In fact, the average age of the audience was approximately 75.
The show’s nostalgic score — girl-themed Pop tunes from the late 1950s and early ’60s (pre-Beatles) — has a nostalgic draw for people who grew up with them. Many in the audience responded to familiar numbers, often knowing them from their first notes.
But I’m not so certain many in the audience recognized themselves in the shallow characterizations of Cindy Lou (Kate Mock Elliott), Suzy (Grace Eichler), Betty Jean (Lauren Carr) and Missy (Blair Godshall). That’s not because the quartet can’t sing: They do fine with the show’s vocal requirements in harmonic renditions of tunes like “Mr. Sandman” (with some funny, herky-jerky choreography) and “Sincerely,” novelty numbers like “Mr. Lee” and “Leader of the Pack” (donning sunglasses) and solo song sets, especially in Act II featuring Carr and Elliott.
But Roger Bean’s script and Elizabeth A. Harris’s direction of the show keep all four young women (age 18 in Act I, 28 in Act 2) as cartoons. Post-intermission they’re individually, momentarily challenged by tougher issues of love, but a tune or two quickly solves each challenge. There’s precious little time for empathy to develop.
Suzy is awkwardly pregnant, having physical difficulty navigating steps — until she isn’t. But moments after waddling down a flight of steps, she’s doing choreography with everyone else. Betty Jean’s husband has up and left her, so she’s binge drinking and stumbling around. But after singing “It’s My Party,” she’s sober and back as the class clown. Not that this show should be high drama — it’s a jukebox comedy, after all — but its premise is purportedly about girlfriends and music, so the unconvincing character development is a disappointment.
If you accept The Marvelous Wonderettes as a well-sung revue of Pop tunes with quick jokes and temporarily funny situations, you’ll be fine. Just don’t go expecting to meet real people you can care about, because they’ll only show up briefly.
THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, presented by Cincinnati Landmark Productions at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, continues through April 4.
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2015.
