Musical ‘110 in the Shade’ turns out to be not so hot

Greenhouse Theatrical’s "110 in the Shade" may not be the least competent musical Super Summer Theatre audiences have seen, but surely it’s one of the most boring.

This adaptation of N. Richard Nash’s "The Rainmaker" relies on the passion of its lead actors. Lizzie (Mary Ellen Spann) lives on a sprawling Depression-era ranch. She wants a fella, but she’s plain-looking, see, and everyone knows you got to be pretty to get a fella. Enter Starbuck (Timothy Burris). He’s a drifter selling hope in the form of a $100 spell that will bring life not only to the town, but to Lizzie as well.

If we’re going to care, we need to have two leads who make us understand the euphoria of passion, and a physical environment so full of detailed allure that we can smell its life. Director Byron Tidwell doesn’t have much luck on either count.

Composers Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones give the feel of an enjoyably lazy atmosphere by providing a sluggish prologue that segues into some aimless dialogue about the weather. It’s a skillful opener, because it tells us without effort where we are and what sort of folk we’re dealing with.

With Tidwell, we’re immediately jolted by the lack of connection between the music and the dialogue. We don’t even believe the characters are as hot as they say they are. The land and the elements are important characters in this play, but here, they are merely background for the spoken lines.

Spann is a technically proficient vocalist, but she gives her character no dramatic journey. Her transformation into a self-confident, self-satisfied creature seems to take place offstage. Of course, that’s understandable when her transformer is supposed to be Burris — an admirable, oral interpreter, but a shell of an actor.

There’s some pleasure to be had in Bart Pace’s unaffected singing as the down-to-earth sheriff, and Colin Ward’s no-nonsense approach as Lizzie’s kind-hearted widowed father.

The scenery is so bare-bones — as was Super Summer Theater’s previous production — that maybe its time the group specify in its contracts that directors must spend a certain amount of monies to make the stage look good. With only a few exceptions, isn’t spectacle part of what we come to a musical to see?

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.