When the curtain opens, one sees a carefully posed, frozen row
of maids and butlers, dressed in 1930s uniforms, which fills the
stage from one side to the other. They move and break into a
rendition of Cole Porter’s “High Society,” with choreographed dance
steps.
From the start, director Bernie Cardell keeps that look in
staging for this musical that started as a movie in 1956, based on
“The Philadelphia Story,” with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. It went
to Broadway in 1998 and London’s West End in 2005.
It includes familiar songs such as “True Love,” “I Love Paris,”
“Just One of those Things” and “Let’s Misbehave.”
Performance Now Theatre Company, a Highlands Ranch-based group,
presents “High Society” through Feb. 26 at Lakewood Cultural
Center.
With music by Cole Porter and book by Arthur Kopit, it was
staged by the company 10 years ago under the direction of late
founder Nancy Goodwin. Five original cast members will reprise
their roles in this romantic comedy: Alisa Schmidt plays the lead,
Tracy Lord; Craig Ross repeats his role as rascally Uncle Willie;
Jane Philips is stuffy Mother Lord; Dan Paglioscotti is Chester and
Laura Jones is in the ensemble.
New cast members include Chad Hewitt as reporter Mike Conner;
Shane Delavan as George Kittredge and Marc Graham as C. Dexter
Haven. The cast total is 28, which makes for fully staged
production numbers, backed by a live band, led by music director
Marsha Whitaker.
Society girl Tracy Lord is planning her large, fancy 1938
wedding to the bland George Kittredge, when her live-wire
ex-husband C. Dexter Haven appears and refuses to let the marriage
take place. A pair of reporters who arrive to cover this society
event find more than they’d expected, as Seth Lord and Uncle Willie
enter the scene.
Cardell’s cast is polished in their timing and many of them
bring excellent voices to this light, entertaining, somewhat dated
musical, enhanced by Porter’s charming music.
“High Society runs through Feb. 26 at Lakewood Cultural Center,
470 S. Allison Parkway, Lakewood. Performances: 7:30 p.m. Fridays,
Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $25/$22.50/$19. 303-987-7845,
www.performancenow.org.
