LOGAN – The Lyric Repertory Company opened its 2024 summer season with a resounding bang, thanks to an outstanding production of Sh-Boom! Life Could Be A Dream by playwright Roger Bean.
Bean was also responsible for the hit juke box musical The Marvelous Wondettes staged by the Lyric Rep in 2023. Sh-Boom! is similar, except that it has a plot.
Granted, it’s a silly plot. Y’know, poor boy from across the tracks meets rich girl, love ensues, boy loses girl, girl gets boy, everybody lives happily ever after.
Under the deft direction of Kitty Balay, however, Sh-Boom! is a showcase for music and singing, not dramatics. So who cares if the plot is cheesy, as long as the show is hugely entertaining.
And it definitely is.
Sh-Boom! is a musical review of easy listening hits from the 1950s and 1960s, as performed by a quartet of small-time singers preparing for the “Dream of A Lifetime” talent search.
The show opens with Jonathan Kaplan, Cameron S. Neeley and Jonah Newton handling harmony and comedy relief as a trio of mis-matched friends with something sadly missing.
Those missing magic ingredients arrive, however, midway through the first act when Brett Terrell as Duke and Marin Robinson as Lois enter the scene.
Last seen in the Utah State spring production of the musical Floyd Collins, Terrell is shaped like a fireplug, but has a voice like pure gold. He sings lead in the quartet dubbed “Denny and the Dreamers,” delivering impressive renditions of “Fools Fall in Love,” “Runaround Sue” and a particularly smooth “A Sunday Kind of Love.”
The audience practically melts every time Terrell opens his mouth to sing.
After years of doing character roles and physical comedy in USU shows, the lovely and talented Marin Robison finally gets to play a lead in Sh-Boom! and she makes the most of that opportunity.
Even when she’s not singing, Ms. Robison still shines and shimmers. Her face is never still, always reflecting exactly the appropriate emotion for whatever is happening around her. You can barely take your eyes off her superb performance.
She never belts out a song, but Ms. Robison makes every note count in “Lonely Teardrops,” “I Only Have Eyes for You” and the dramatic “Unchained Melody.”
As you might expect in this light-hearted show, things finally work out and “Denny and the Dreamers” make it big. Nearly half the second act is a stage performance by the quartet in tuxedo jackets, with Ms. Robison along for the ride, accompanied by the Big Dreamer Band on stage.
The members of that musical ensemble are Kelin Gibbons on guitar, Thomas Pratt on bass, Ben Gittins on drums and Lizzy Prettyman on keyboard.
That rousing stage performance drew a standing ovation from the opening night crowd.
Performances of Sh-Boom! Life Could Be A Dream will continue through July 27 at the Caine Lyric Theatre.
The Caine Lyric Theatre is located at 30 West Center Street in downtown Logan.