Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette "Conga" provides an exuberant finale to Act I of the North Hills High School production of "Wonderful Town." Click photo for larger image.

By Christopher Rawson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Audio slideshow: 'Wonderful Town' a crowd-pleaser includes commentary by director Glen Richey and cast member Nicole Dohoda. Click photo for larger image. See the show "Wonderful Town" plays at 8 p.m. today, tomorrow and Saturday at North Hills Senior High School, 53 Rochester Road, Ross.

If I were to direct a high school musical (my respect for the required skill set makes me quake at the prospect), the North Hills Senior High School auditorium is the venue I'd choose -- not too small at 475 seats but far more congenial than the airplane hangars of which some suburban schools are so proud.

But would I have the confidence in my students and audience to tackle "Wonderful Town," the 1953 love letter to bohemian New York by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green?

It certainly isn't one of the 50 or maybe even 100 most-produced high school musicals. But since its 2002-04 successful Broadway revival, audiences have been rediscovering its optimism and charm. And the basic situation of two ambitious young women arriving cold to make their way in New York should resonate with any generation.

Granted, it's not the New York we know today, but a cheery cartoon of Greenwich Village, where everyone's a painter, singer, actor, dancer or poet, or at least pretending so for credulous walking tours. Sisters Ruth and Eileen discover it's really just another small town.

Well, OK, that's fiction. But it taps right into a love of cities, especially the colorful urban bustle, opportunity and release from provincial conformity that reach their fullest expression in the New York of mid-century, the world of The New Yorker and Broadway and the burgeoning avant-garde that have drawn the sisters from Ohio.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Junior Nicole Dohoda plays Ruth, left, and senior Lauren Sarazen portrays Eileen in "Wonderful Town." They have been performing in plays together for a decade. Click photo for larger image.

Ruth is the older and plainer (she thinks), possessed of a tart tongue and smart banter. Eileen is the looker, a sweet optimist to whom men are attracted as to the proverbial pot of honey. Within a couple of weeks she has suitors of every kind, including a nerd, a newsman on the make and an uptight editor whom we can see is really destined for Ruth.

Home is the noisy, uncomfortable basement apartment where the sisters lodge while they look for work. It brings with it colorful neighbors, including a football player and his intended, an artist landlord and an unwanted stream of, uh, clients of the previous tenant.

Ruth is a writer with a chip on her shoulder who needs to learn to write what she knows, and Eileen is a singer-dancer who needs a break. They both get that when Ruth interviews some Brazilian navy cadets and starts a dance riot, which somehow ends up with the Brazilians and Eileen in jail. Eileen immediately turns all the cops (Irish to a man) into her personal protectors and willing servants.

The whole thing gives Ruth the subject of a story that starts her career, and Eileen's celebrity wins her a chance to perform.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Andrew DeBonis as Robert Baker has a leading-man solidity rare in high school. Click photo for larger image.

I wish the North Hills program pointed out that this is autobiographical, that Ruth McKinney's real stories about "My Sister Eileen" were adapted in 1940 into a long-running play of that name by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, who then wrote the book for "Wonderful Town." The roots in reality of what seems an urban fairy tale provide a satisfying actuality.

And that gives a historical foundation to the lyrics' thick texture of contemporary reference. It's like riffing on history, most intensely in the riotous "Conga" number, where Ruth's compulsive rhyming references to the news are finally swept away by the sheer joyous force of the dance that choreographer Janet Bartlett sends cascading into the audience.

Obviously central to North Hills' happy, generous production is director Glen Richey, who proved a model for any high school director with his calm before the show, even on the night that the Gene Kelly Awards judges and the Post-Gazette were there. "It's their show now," he said of the students.

He showed that same trust in choosing "Wonderful Town," knowing he had junior Nicole Dohoda to play skeptical Ruth and senior Lauren Sarazen to play sunny Eileen.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette From left, Katie Esswein, Justin Garvey, Mary Caitlin Mitton and Stacy King talk about props backstage during intermission. Click photo for larger image.

Ms. Dohoda has the verbal agility and sense of the wry that Ruth needs. Early in the show, she works awfully hard -- simpler would still be prickly enough. But that sense of overdoing is true of her character, too. When she lets herself go in the "Conga" number, I really started to admire her and love Ruth, whose triumph in love and career centers the play.

But Ruth's shadow depends on the sun of Eileen, and Ms. Sarazen supplies that, full wattage, slaying suitors by the dozen with her bright smile. By the way, their predecessors in these famous roles were Shirley Booth and JoAnn Sayers (1940), Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams (1953) and Donna Murphy and Jennifer Westfeldt (2002).

Outstanding among the men is the Robert Baker of Andrew DeBonis, who has a leading-man solidity rare in high school -- he even looks good in a suit -- and scores equally with the gentle ballad "My Quiet Girl" and the richer crooning of "It's Love."

Andy Ryan's football player has presence and leads a predictable but lively cheerleader number, complete with North Hills colors. Further good support comes from Shawn Grindle's nerd and Chuck Shoemaker's newsman.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Students in the North Hills School District perform "Pass the Football" with Andy Ryan, far right, in the role of Wreck. Click photo for larger image.

Jess Presutti plays the landlord, changed from Mr. Appopolous to Athena Vallianatos, which required some cuts in the relationship that develops with a proper visiting matron. Director Richey also trimmed the show to about 2 1/4 hours, cutting out, for example, segments of Ruth's comically bad writing.

That auditorium I covet is small enough for orchestra director Heidi Kohne's peppy 23-strong band to flood the room with Bernstein's syncopated, jazz-influenced score. And Ms. Bartlett's choreography starts the evening off right with a lively opening, which introduces Greenwich Village and gets everyone on stage.

Even though this is very much Ruth's and Eileen's show, the cast of 40 includes an active ensemble, strengthened by lots of stage experience at the North Star Kids and Spotlight Performing Arts (where many of these students will perform in "Les Miserables," May 18-19).

You leave feeling just the way a classic musical comedy (or Shakespeare comedy, for that matter) should make you feel -- up!

And because of that compact auditorium, North Hills schedules its musicals over two weekends, so you can still get that feeling in the three final performances this week.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Senior Lauren Sarazen (Eileen), in red, gets a hug from Kelli Whalen (Helen) following a successful performance of "Wonderful Town." Click photo for larger image.