ANN ARBOR, Mich.–The Penny Seats Theatre Company has chosen for its summer musical a production that is funny, satiric and makes fun of all things 80s. Xanadu is a fun show that frequently has its audience giggling and singing along.

This 80s-send up mocks the movie Xanadu in which the muse Clio comes to Venice Beach, California to inspire a depressed artist named Sonny Malone. She talks him down from suicide and boosts his confidence to the point where he decides he is going to open a roller disco—a place where all the arts meet in one place and combine with athletics. It is filled with songs from the 80s including such numbers as “I’m Alive,” “Evil Woman,” “Suddenly,” “Have You Never Been Mellow” and the title song, “Xanadu.”

They also make great use of a challenging space. Performing outdoors in Ann Arbor’s West Park, the band shell stage is effectively separated from the audience by a swampy moat. Director R. MacKenzie Lewis solves this distance by bringing all the action forward to the concrete patio nearest the audience. He then has his actors hiding behind stage pieces so they don’t have to make the long trek to the ”backstage” area. This assists with keeping the play moving at a fast pace and eliminating the awkward telegraphing of character arrivals that can so often happen in this space.

The 9-person cast manages costume and set changes with practiced ease, keeping the 90-minute play in constant motion. Lewis also adopts clever use of his cast members to create what are traditionally set pieces in this musical. His creation of a Pegasus was especially entertaining and effective.

Paige Martin as Clio/Kira gets special credit for her ability to roller skate on a rough concrete surface. She adeptly handled Sebastian Gerstner’s choreography and looked like a natural on the skates. Her chemistry with Matt Pecek’s earnest Sonny Malone was sweet and the audience figured out they were falling in love long before the “curse” was placed. The two were enthusiastic and hit their humor lines with effective timing. Between her Aussie accent and an inconsistent sound system that created a distracting buzz on opening night, though, it was sometimes difficult to understand her, especially her short sentences or one-word responses.

Of the sister muses, Allison Simmons’ Calliope was the most amusing. She contributed to the comedy with distinct and exaggerated facial expressions, widening her eyes and stretching her face to respond to Kasey Donnelly’s Melpomene as she plotted against Clio. The two were an amusing pair to watch and “Evil Woman” was one of the highlights of the show. Simmons, though, was always point on with her characterizations, even during the ensemble numbers.

While the production was clearly devoted to entertaining its audiences and tickling them into early evening laughter, a musical relies on its music and its sound to really soar. In these two areas, the Penny Seats production was sorely lacking.

The sound system on opening night was unpolished and distorted the voices even while amplifying them. Microphones were not always turned on at crucial moments and the sound was uneven throughout the production. This compromised dialog and singing both.

Nor did the band help overcome the sound problems, rather they created several more. The singers and band members were often mismatched, as if they had had little time to practice together and still hadn’t found the right note. The fifty or so yards between the band and the singers were certainly in part to blame. Tempos were inconsistent and some songs fell flat and didn’t have the impact that they should have.

Costumer Ginny Reiche created costumes that were mostly very comfortable for the heat while being able to transform quickly into other costumes, particularly for the sister muses who had to double as other characters. There were a few costumes, though, that were a bit on the skimpy side and left actresses clutching at them to keep from falling out of them in embarrassing ways.

Xanadu is a fun show and the Penny Seats artists are enthusiastic in making it work in their outdoor setting. If it comes across as a bit unpolished due to the sound issues–always an adventure in outdoor theater–their earnestness invites forgiveness and makes it possible for the evening to still be a fun journey back to the Reagan years.

[Editor’s Note: While the sound issues were a definite problem on opening night, the company was able to work them out for the second night, and hopefully for all the performances.]

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