Backwards, in High Heels or Not

Every time there’s a standing ovation in Tucson maybe a third of the people are actually that enthusiastic, the others are trying to get to their cars more quickly. There was a standing ovation to the exit at Backwards In High Heels, the splashy, energetic and vivacious bio-musical of Ginger Rogers put up last night by The Arizona Theatre Company, the State Theatre of Arizona. I cannot tell you how much I like the fact that we have a State Theatre of Arizona, and how Soviet that sounds. Well, we do and it is. It is the duty of any reviewer, I feel, to report that others seemed to enjoy The State Theatre’s production of Backward In High Heels a great deal.  

ATC has done some brilliant work in its time (The Clean House, for example). It may this season, but it’s not Backwards In High Heels. The cast is full of stunningly talented people performing—in many cases --classic songs and dance routines beautifully for a pointless, embarrassing and hackneyed narrative loosely based on Ginger Rogers’ life. I thought of the scene at the end of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (the only musical bio anyone should ever endure), where we race through Fosse’s life, and I miss it, folks, I miss it. Whatever Ginger Rogers’ life was like, her early dancehall circuit, her tetchy relationship and phenomenal success with Fred Astaire, her sensible acting career moves, her relationship to her mother and her many marriages, I found that I can’t possibly care  if it’s told so numbingly and cynically as this purported musical does. There is no suspense in a biography, with regards to whether someone will succeed. The attendant drama in a life such as Ginger Rogers’ may only exist in our uncreative speculation. I went home and Netflixed Top Hat.

Now I don’t expect ATC to do a Michael LaChuisa musical. But they will do one musical a year and it will be safe (even Hair, which was very well done). They’ll have the black show. They’ll have the Jewish show. Sometimes the black or Jewish show will be the musical. I ain’t misbehaving here. I’m not the cynical one. I haven’t seen so much in the way of the Mexican or Latino show, though their offices are 75 miles from the border. What would a brilliant ATC season look like? What would a production of Valdes’ Zoot Suit look like? Where’s Marie Irene Fornes? How about Rudolpho Usigli? Who? Not since La Malinche in 1996-97 have they made any attempt to do a show with Latino roots. The State Theatre of Arizona is representative of the state we’re in. Oh, I’m kidding. I’ll face the music and dance.

Anna Aimee White is a brilliant performer and her take on Ginger Rogers, beautiful singing, flawless dancing, were all very welcome. Matthew LaBanca plays--  and come on, sorry Ginger, but what do we really care about? You AND  –Fred Astaire, and he’s a bit hardy for the slight graceful iconic dancer. Mr. LaBanca sings well, moves well, but he’s not Fred Astaire. Presenting the challenge of emulating brilliant dancers and performers can itself be a kind of folly.  Their duets should have been the awe-inspiring moments of the show, but were not. Ginger danced better alone in this universe. Competent, playful, maybe even outstanding, but not Astaire and Rogers.

There’s nothing wrong with The State Theatre of Arizona being a little silly. Christianne Tisdale was boffo imitating a slew of famous starlets at a lemonade party. Benjie Randall and James Patterson danced and performed well, playing the kind of Broadway version of what we now assume people were like in the Great Depression. Sort of like the poor singing and dancing in Les Miserables, we needn’t dwell on that so much. Finally, Poor Heather Lee had to play Ginger Rogers’ mom, Lelo, and make every effort to douse the fun and bring us back to dramatic reality. This uniquely talented actress delivered lines seemingly taken from the Broadway Archive of Troubled Mother and Daughter Clichés, and she did so gracefully and thoughtfully. Thank you, Ms. Lee, thank you.   

Backwards In High Heels is fun. It’s not $45 fun, but it’s fun. It is my own personal failing that I gag a little at talented people performing cloying nonsense like this. Theatre started out as a church and is ending up like a really expensive night of very talented karaoke.  Don’t believe me? Check out American Idiot. I recommend Backwards in High Heels if you prefer your theatre light and breezy. There is a terrifying trend on the American stage, where we stop and wink at the audience, as if all art forms are camp and all passions are suspect. One moment in tonight’s show, Lelo striking her daughter Ginger, passed by unremarked. We needn’t get the whole life. What if this musical were about Fred and Ginger making the movie Shall We Dance?  I stood at the end of Backwards in High Heels and I applauded for those brilliant performers, wonderful musicians and sweet choreography, but not for Ginger, and no not for ATC.

--T. Ulises-Soto