Review: XANADU at The Paramount Theatre
Surprise Broadway hit and Tony Award nominated XANADU opened at The Paramount on January 19, running through January 24, 2010. Having very little recollection of the original 1980 cult movie starring Olivia Newton-John, I went to this musical stage revival with an open but skeptical mind. Unlike other musical stage revivals of movies such as Young Frankenstein, XANADU the musical is actually a parody of the campy classic and the humorous one liners really work in this production. Such as with one character’s observation “This is like children’s theater but for 40-year-old gay people.”
Clio, is sent by Zeus from Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach, California instead of Venice, Italy in order to assist Sonny Malone, a struggling artist, in realizing his artistic dreams. She changes her name to Kira and in order to disguise herself she speaks with an unbelievable Australian accent which, of course, is a reference to Olivia Newtown-John.
I really like Elizabeth Stanley as Kira and Max von Essen does a pretty decent job in making Sonny into a surfer dude from Venice Beach. Annie Golden really stands out in her character acting as one of Kira’s evil sisters Calliope but the best performance comes from Larry Marshall who plays both Zeus and Danny Maguire, the greedy businessman and owner of XANADU. Danny explains to Sonny that he loves artists because they can move in and improve a neighborhood and then they can force them out and make lots of money by bringing in urban professionals.
And things start to work out right away for the couple as Kira is able to magically help Sonny transform XANADU for its decrepit state to a wonderful roller disco in only a few hours. And Kira is feeling so happy but is unable to come up with a word to explain her excitement until one of her sisters offers up a description- “Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
The audience laughed throughout the entire performance and even the grumpiest curmudgeon will find it impossible not to slip a smile at some the humor. From the Centaur to a flying Pegasus, the giant disco ball or the muse on roller skates, the campiness all comes together in XANADU to make such a fun to watch musical.
XANADU is as gay as Broadway can get and hilarious entertainment for a brisk 90 minutes with no intermission. XANADU plays only through Sunday January 24, 2010 with tickets ranging from $20-$60. Most importantly, don’t be the only person in town that hasn’t seen it after it leaves Seattle next week. For more info and tickets, hurry up and visit www.stgpresents.org.
