Naughty Austin Offers a ‘Personal’ Musical
By Sandra Beckmeier

AUSTIN-The latest of Naughty Austin’s adventuresome season includes the production of Personals, a whimsical musical comedy about singles looking for love.

The story opens with a handful of characters hanging out in a piano bar, perusing the newspapers personal ads, playfully nudging one another and reading aloud the humorous exaggerations written for romance seekers.

Although the story examines the colorful side of personal ads as a means to cure the status of being single, characters will use any means necessary to find a mate, including contemporary technology, chat rooms, instructional audiotapes, and videotape messaging. This is one witty musical.

The piece began as characters in a book written by David Crane and Marta Kaufmann. The characters later were cast into a revue as Crane and Kaufmann included comic sketches and a series of monologues. Eventually a handful of writers well known both on and off-Broadway (Kaufmann and Crane are known as the ideamakers behind the hit television sitcom Friends) formed a collaboration to complete a score.

Naughty Austin Productions cast company members, able actors who seem to enjoy singing the snappy songs. Firebrand Cathie Sheridan plays a sequence of characters who use a videotape service to find love. Her performance as an intellectual passive-aggressive, and later as a co-dependent making a plea fearing the rapid loss of her youth is believable, bringing the audience nearly to tears.

Louis, played by Kirk Addison, is a quiet trickster. Louis is introduced as shy and undeveloped, armed with a self-help audiotape that teaches the socially inept the fine art of romance. Addison’s comedic talent is magnified repeatedly, including a scene with a campy twist when he portrays a cross-dressing mother with unpredictable flair for nightclub gossip with the girls.

The kinship between director Blake Yelavich, and musical direction by pianist John Howrey are admittedly intuitive and the collaborations of artistry work beautifully on the small stage.

Yelavich keeps a candle lit for innovative off-Broadway musicals to produce in Austin. In the meantime, the company hopes to find a permanent home soon, and will continue producing art that uniquely suits the smaller stages. Certainly the company will continue to grow as audiences and critics continue to anticipate their seasons.

When asked about his take on producing musicals, Yelavich said he would be happy to produce a musical every third show, but because of the expense involved paying for royalties and rights, he safely commits to two projects a year. The company enjoys producing smaller scale avant-styled productions methodically blended with a simple storyline. “I would like to bring the small musical back to town,” he said. “But to do that, I’ll need to watch the audience’s feelings of this production, and others. In reality that is who I am producing for-not me or the actors, but the ones in the seats.”

Personals is a wonderful surprise. The story includes clever, deadpan comedy, and music that is meticulously crafted by Howrey, who remains close to the eyes of the audience. The songs tell believable stories anyone can relate to, and the work is a refreshing approach using many dimensions that one might expect from a larger production. It is a memorable performance by a capable cast.

Naughty Austin Productions presents Personals through Feb. 15 at the Hideout downtown, 6th and Congress. Info: www.naughtyaustinproductions.com or 512-407-8877.

Rating B

Posted February 4, 2003