Review: Curtains

Murder Will Out

Lyric returns to the source

by Christopher Lane

After a 15-year hiatus from book musicals, Lyric Theatre is back with one of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s most recent musicals, Curtains, a “musical comedy whodunit” with a captivating mystery surrounding a musical within the musical. Kander and Ebb, best known for Cabaret and Chicago, have another big show in Curtains, full of drama and humorous sub-plots.

On opening night of “Robbin’ Hood,” a new musical that the producers desperately want to send to Broadway, the abysmal leading lady is murdered during the curtain call. A policeman, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi, shows up to quarantine the entire cast and crew, as the murderer was clearly someone involved in the production. Unfortunately for him, the murdered actress was disliked by the entire team, leaving the Lieutenant with a record number of suspects, who all fit into some sort of theatre stereotype.

While there were some jokes and dramatic moments that fell a bit flat, some of those lines were just a bit too corny to give with much conviction.

Curtains features an enormous cast, and fortunately there is not a weak link to be found among them. In fact, the show is strongest when the entire cast is onstage, particularly with their strong choral rendition of “The Woman’s Dead,” and their neatly choreographed performance of “He Did It.” The cast and crew have done well at keeping everything tight and looking good. While there were some jokes and dramatic moments that fell a bit flat, some of those lines were just a bit too corny to give with much conviction.

The experienced leads all play their parts well. Adam Gallay is particularly comical as the Lieutenant, who seems more interested in the musical numbers than the murder case. Raina Ebel shines as the lyricist with a wonderful singing voice. Kevin Kibbey and Nancy Stewart are perfect fits for their roles as the cynical director and tough-talking “It’s a Business” producer, respectively.

Towards the end of the play, the plot seems to wrap up a few times before a whole new song and dance number starts up again, and there are a couple of difficult-to-buy plot twists.

 The one significant issue with this play is its length, which is roughly three hours, including the intermission. There are some numbers, one dance sequence in particular, that continue for a while after they stop being interesting. This is unfortunately true of the musical numbers from “Robbin’ Hood,” the musical that is supposed to be bad, and generally succeeds at that goal, but is performed a bit too often for its intended comic effect. Towards the end of the play, the plot seems to wrap up a few times before a whole new song and dance number starts up again, and there are a couple of difficult-to-buy plot twists. That being said, even the longest songs and dances are well-performed, and the story, while a bit rambling, does at least keep the audience guessing right until the mystery is solved.

Lyric Theatre’s production of Curtains is a big old freight train of a musical, and while it can drag on, the team fortunately has enough talent to keep the audience entertained till the curtain call.

Curtains continues to June 9