By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
The history of Onepiece, billed as “A Splashy Musical Play” goes back many years to a time when Randy Bibb felt especially creative. In his mind, he wanted to create an homage to the glorious musicals of the past like 42nd Street, but set it in a water park a la an old Esther Williams feature film.
Early iterations of Onepiece were produced by Bibb, but it always felt like he had more to add to the project. Onepiece sat on the sidelines until the pandemic.
One of Bibb’s neighbors heard about the dormant musical and accepted the challenge to mount the work and give it the prominence they both thought it deserved.
The result is a fully-fleshed musical with direction by Jack Lampert, who is delighted that Onepiece is being staged at the very same venue he began his theatrical career in New Orleans, the former N.O.R.D. Theatre, since refurbished and renamed the Ty Tracy Theatre in honor of its storied managing director.
Lampert assembled a group of local performers, some of whom have had starring or featured roles in other productions. They worked on their lines and began to learn Bibb’s rather melodic and quite original score with some fun and satiric lyrics.
The music director he selected for the project is Melissa Marshall, the well-known and highly regarded vocal teacher and former standout in productions at Summer Lyric Theatre. She selected superb arranger and accompanist Jefferson Turner as her assistant musical director. Gabe Parsons, a Loyola University student whipped out the several instrumental arrangements.
With just a few players backstage, Turner on keyboards leads them in a surprisingly good musical staging with original tunes that borrow measures from classic songs culled from the Great American Songbook.
Kaelyn Turkmany stars as Hester Williams, an aging movie star famous for her swimming and underwater ballet scenes. She splashes onto the stage belting her anthem and affirming that she is “A Five Point Star in a Two-Bit Town.”
Her longtime fiancé, Bobby Biscayne, has grown tired of waiting for her and hatches a plot to get her to finally give up the single spotlight and swim with him as a duo. Rusty Fox plays the scheming promoter.
Adrienne Simmons plays Deanna, a lifeguard with considerable swimming skills who Bobby knows can take over for Hester in the aquacade show and go on to enjoy a successful film career as well. But she is unsure of herself and in love with her longtime boyfriend Woogie, played by Max DoVale.
One of the more hysterical parts of the show is Woogie and Deanna’s “secret handshake,” where they jump, twist, gyrate, bend and grasp in sync with each other over and over again. Woogie is an unqualified nerd, but so is Deanna at her heart.
Deanna is reluctant to seek stardom in front of the camera or in a pool because she is responsible for taking care of her mother, played hilariously by Laylanna Gunn. Mrs. Garland, as she is known, suffers from multiple personality disorder. The most recent personality she channels is the incongruous child star of the 1930s replete with a polka dot sun dress.
Her big song is “I Just Wanna Grown Up” and is an absolute delight. The lyrics by Bibb are very funny, but it’s Gunn who sells the song with her comedic presence. Gunn also played an additional character the first week of the run due to an illness in the cast.
The character she played is Hollywood gossip columnist Louellen Parsnips. Lisette Bayle assumes the role for the final week of the run. The role is intended to show how callous and uncaring these writers were and the tremendous power they held in making or breaking a movie star’s career.
In the case of Hester, Bobby Biscayne uses his wits and his conniving skills to try to knock Hester off her diving platform and into his waiting arms.
In addition to the leading and featured performers, there are water ballets that are performed by Hester’s Chlorines. The six Chlorines listed in the program are Justice Hues, Julia Lemann, Phoebe Kleehammer, Jay Canova, Cailyn O’Hara and Kristy Ganssle. (The six apparently alternate performances because there were only four on the night of this review.)
The choreography by Monica Ordoñez is also notable. Staging dancers to appear to be performing in a water ballet is tough enough, but to do so on the very small Ty Tracy Theatre stage is quite commendable.
The set design is by Marshall Harris with assistance from Tommy Centanni and the lighting and sound designs are by Charles Patrick. Julie Winn handles the original costumes with Cathy Pailet handling the wardrobe and props.
With this, the first show by the Crescent City Theatre Alliance, Jack Lampert, his technical staff and the cast of Randy Bibb’s Onepiece have demonstrated they can pull off a musically pleasing and funny production.
Onepiece (2 hours), written with music and lyrics by Randy Bibb, closes this weekend at the Ty Tracy Theatre in Gallier Hall in New Orleans. Showtimes are nightly at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, click here.
