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It's been awhile since I brought out the gypsy (excuse the incorrectness, but that's the lyric) in me, but all it took was a few George and Ira Gershwin tunes and I was wearing my golden earrings.
The source of my mood change is the new and original " 'S Wonderful," mounted by the Pittsburgh CLO in a cabaret setting, with plans to send it on the road.
With more than 40 songs from the brothers' musical magic pounded out nonstop by music director Deana Muro on her grand piano and five fresh-faced youngsters with the energy to keep up the pace, the show is an invigorating jolt of entertainment for the dog days of summer.
The songs are the stars, of course, everything from "Of Thee I Sing, Baby" to the title song, with "Porgy and Bess" and "Rhapsody in Blue" thrown in, it's impossible not to behave like Fred and Ginger in "Shall We Dance."
Luckily, the Cabaret is too packed with tables to give you room to rhumba.
Where: The Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown
When: Through Sept. 5. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; senior matinees July 29 and Aug. 26, 1 p.m.
Tickets: $39.50-$44.50. 412-456-6666 or www.clocabaret.com.
Rogers and Astaire our youngsters are not, however. The guys -- Michael Campayno and Trevor McQueen Eaton -- and women -- Courtney Bassett, Jessica George and Montaja Simmons -- kick and arm-wave with more enthusiasm than grace on the shallow cabaret stage as the dances follow one on top of each other.
The singing is adequate as well, with Ms. Simmons showing the most range. Ms. Muro, left to carry the music alone, occasionally leaves a few notes out, as she did plowing her way through "An American in Paris" the night I was there.
The show's creators, including the brothers' relative Todd Gershwin, and director Ray Roderick, have constructed a clumsy context to present the songs, from a silly "Front Page" 1920s number to a 15-minute version of World War II.
The transitions are rough, some of the dialogue as stilted as those early 1930s Broadway musicals the Gershwins composed for, but the series of projections behind the actors is quite charming. It is a work in progress, after all.
The music, of course, needs no explanation. The scriptwriters need to trust it rather than layer it with corny "mini-plots."
You're going to leave the show singing and whistling anyway. They just don't write songs like that anymore.
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