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'Girls Night': More Than Karaoke
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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By Kristina Dorsey, Day Arts Writer
9/20/2007
"Girls Night: The Musical" is the kind of show best viewed with a gaggle of girlfriends and a pitcher of margaritas.
Because it's pretty much what you'd expect from that title - giddy female humor and frothy pop music. You can just imagine a gang of pals giggling and singing along as the actresses belt out "I Will Survive" and "It's Raining Men."
The show, which began a five-day run Wednesday at the Garde Arts Center, was created by British writer Louise Roche, and it's directed by her husband, Jack Randle.
"Girls Night" doesn't break any new ground. It is about, naturally, a girls' night out: four pals spend an evening on the town, in a karaoke bar. You get four characters who fall into comfortable types: Carol (Janine Smith), the partier; her sister Kate (Danielle Wetzel), the reserved one; Liza (Sonya Carter), the woman whose abandonment by her father has cast a long shadow on her life (yes, there are serious moments amidst the mirth); and Anita (Deborah Radloff), the space cadet who likes her Prozac.
The characters reminisce about teen years and training bras. They complain about pregnancy, and they dish about men. They sing all those anthems you'd expect at a karaoke bar: "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "I'm Every Woman."
Beyond the friends and the fanfare, there is an angel (Jennifer Jane). An irreverent angel, at that, dressed in white jeans and sneakers. She's their pal who died in a motorbike accident when she was 17, and she comments on the action, like she's a "Desperate Housewives" graduate.
The women in the cast are average actors but exude the requisite sense of fun, and they have nice voices. Carter makes that disco warhorse, "I Will Survive" sound fresh again, and Radloff transforms "The Love of My Man" into a showstopper.
"Girls Night" started as sort of a mom and pop operation in England, with the first show featuring Roche's mother doing the costumes. It became a bit of a sensation, touring there and now crossing the pond, as it were.
Its coming to America is bound to take advantage, whether intentionally or not, of the trend of female-focused stage shows like "The Vagina Monologues" and "Menopause, The Musical." For "Girls Night," who knows? The timing might just be right. The Garde was packed Wednesday, with the downstairs nearly filled - with, of course, almost all women.
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