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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Whitewater park with 'wave shaper' to open in Bend ... Colorado governor supports LNG project ... Fire danger rises to 'extreme' on Tuesday ... Whitewater park with 'wave shaper' to open in Bend ... Colorado governor supports LNG project ... Fire danger rises to 'extreme' on Tuesday ... REVIEW Review: Caberet's 'Dames at Sea' all about singing and dancing Comment By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Feb. 14, 2015 at 1:58 PM By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Feb. 14, 2015 at 1:58 PM » Social News Funny how time works. The year 1968, when "Dames at Sea" first opened off-Broadway, is more remote from us today than the 1930s — that's when the musical is set — were from audiences of the '60s. No matter. The '30s of the Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals are a timeless place in which a sassy newcomer can step into a role at the last second and become a star on opening night. Same as ever. We know that Ruby, a star-struck rube from Utah who shows up in the Big Apple with nothing but tap shoes in her suitcase and a prayer in her heart, will knock 'em dead. It's not the tale but the singing and dancing that counts. And the singing and dancing in Oregon Cabaret Theatre's new production of this old warhorse, which opened Friday night, is very good indeed. Director Valerie Rachelle, who also choreographed, and music director Jennifer Schloming are at the top of their games, and the song-and-dance routines, many of which take place on the deck of a U.S. Navy battleship, are first-cabin. With a new Broadway musical in rehearsal, we meet star Mona Kent (Jessica Blaszak), a temperamental diva rehearsing with Joan (Emily Fisher) a good-gal member of the chorus who would have been played by Joan Blondell, and Hennesy (Billy Breed) the producer. Enter Ruby (Jillian Van Niel), a naive but plucky Broadway hopeful from the sticks who promptly and literally (much to the annoyance of Mona) falls into the arms of Dick, a sailor who just happens to be an aspiring song writer. Mona, butchering her attempts at French phrases at every turn, functions as a villain, driving what plot there is. But the plot is hardly the point. It's an armature on which to hang generally good tunes, most of which involve some irresistible tap-dancing routines. With a book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise, "Dames at Sea" took its cue from "Gold Diggers of 1933" and a million similar pictures from Hollywood's Golden Age ("Footlight Parade," "42nd Street," et al). Dick and Ruby make us think of Powell and Keeler. The warm-hearted show is less a satire than a celebration, a Valentine to a musical genre. In "It's You," Ruby and Dick celebrate falling in love at first sight, like a couple of Shakespeare's lovers. "Choo-Choo Honeymoon" is an infectious celebration of romance by the play's other young couple, Joan and Lucky (Scott Reardon), another sailor and pal of Dick's with whom wise-cracking Joan once had a romance. When the WPA, one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" agencies created to combat the Great Depression, shows up with bulldozers and begins demolishing the theater, it looks like the show is off. Nonetheless, Mona, in a funny bit, discovering that her name has been misspelled on the marquee, clomps across the stage with a wooden ladder en route to fixing the snafu. But the guys formulate a plan. They'll just talk The Captain (also played by Breed, doubling), into staging the show on their battleship. The entire second act takes place on Patrick Larsen's eye-popping battleship set, with its multiple ladders and gun turrets. There's the play's title song, with the mandatory bit of two sailors dancing with mops. There's overbearing Mona trotting out her inner siren to romance The Captain and get what she wants in one of the show's funniest moments, "The Beguine." There are goofy exchanges, as when Lucky suggests sailors can fill out the cast (Ruby: "Can they tap?" Lucky (with a knowing wink at the audience): "On this ship they can"). The sweetness generated by these impossibly innocent characters is relieved only by the shenanigans of the egotistical Mona. And even she, after becoming seasick (the plot device that gives Ruby her big break), has a gesture that shows a change of heart. If this were written by Shakespeare, The Captain would be a Duke and guardian of at least one of the girls, the battleship would be a nearby forest, the two young couples would be married in the end, and the villain, Mona, would be odd-woman out, excluded from the happy ending. But Shakespeare it ain't, and the decks are cleared for these indomitable characters to wrap things up singing their hearts out in "Let's Have a Simple Wedding." The original off-Broadway production gave Bernadette Peters her start, and it's easy to see why. The key to a broadly comic spoof is to play it straight from the heart, without obvious irony, and "Dame at Sea" is two hours of unalloyed sunniness.  Reach freelance writer Bill Varble at [email protected]. By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Feb. 14, 2015 at 1:58 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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