Noelle Nicholas, Anneliese Wolfaner, Dalia Aleman and Heather Simsay sing hits popularized by women spanning the start of the 20th century to the early 21st century in Pompano Players’ production of Respect: A Musical Journey of Women at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center through April 6. Photo by Amy Pasquantonio.
By Jan Sjostrom
Respect: A Musical Journey of Women mixes potholes with well-maintained pavement. A checklist from a recent road test of the Pompano Players’ production at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center might read like this:
A truck-load of familiar hummable tunes? Check.
Bittersweet and humorous commentary? Check.
Clever song packages that make a valid point? Check.
A cast of dynamic, powerhouse singers? Not so much.
The show cruises through roughly 60 tunes tracking the evolution of women’s status from the start of the 20th century to the early 21stvcentury via the path of American popular tunes sung by women. The music is intertwined with snippets from the life stories of the show’s creator, Dorothy Marcic, who wrote a book on the subject, and her female relations.
Noelle Nicholas’s tunes in Respect: A Musical Journey of Women include Blues in the Night and God Bless the Child. Photo by Amy Pasquantoni
Attractions along the way include tunes such as I Fall to Pieces, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, I Will Follow Him, Stand by Your Man, You Don’t Own Me, These Boots Are Made for Walkin’, Piece of My Heart, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Brave, and, of course, the title song.
An uneven cast consisting of singer-actresses Dalia Aleman (the Marcic-inspired narrator), Anneliese Wolfanger, Noelle Nicholas and Heather Simsay serves as tour guides. They’re backed by an adequate four-piece band, which is awkwardly shoved to the back of a stage cluttered with a set that resembles the inside of a thrift shop. Behind them is a giant screen often displaying a museum gallery totally unrelated to the material on stage.
Costumes, too, have little to do with the periods traveled and are suggested mainly by props. Choreography is minimal and basic.
A show like this walks a fine line between fidelity to the songs’ original versions and a makeover sufficient to layer on new interpretations. In this production, helmed by director Jeremy Quinn and music director Phil Hinton, the ghosts of the old songs linger because cast members often don’t have the horsepower to overtake them.
The singers are at their best when the score calls for harmonies, which are rich and firmly supported.
Anneliese Wolfanger’s roles in Respect: A Musical Journey of Women include portraying the 1930s cartoon sexpot Betty Boop. Photo by Amy Pasquantonio.
Several medleys, frequently linking only a few bars of songs, also rise above mediocrity. There’s a particularly good one in the first act that unites the sappy The End of the World, the slavish I Will Follow Him and, most delectably, a chorus that suggests a wide-open future that devolves into three singers baby-stepping in a row to avow that their ambition in life is to be Bobby’s Girl.
Aleman, decked out in a formidable red pants suit, has the presence and vocal chops this show needs more of. Her voice, in tunes like Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man and Brave, is so steady and tuneful it’s a shame she doesn’t have more numbers.
Her narration can be razor-edged, as when she drops the “fun fact” that most of the man-obsessed tunes of the 1950s and early 1960s were written by men. She’s also a confident cheerleader for the show’s upbeat message praising women’s hard-fought ascent from subservience to independence.
Heather Simsay plays women who get what they want in songs like Whatever Lola Wants and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend in the musical revue Respect: A Musical Journey of Women. Photo by Amy Pasquantonio.
Wolfanger shows off her clear, high soprano in a portrayal of the coy 1930s cartoon sexpot Betty Boop as she boop-boop-a-doops around the theater singing I Wanna Be Loved By You. She also delivers a foot-stomping These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ but struggles with the raw Piece of My Heart.
Simsay has occasional pitch problems and doesn’t quite have the pizzazz to pull off Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. But she’s steamy enough in Whatever Lola Wants.
Nicholas is a better actress than she is a singer. She lacks the depth and fortitude needed for songs like Blues in the Night or God Bless the Child. She’s on firmer ground with her moving portrayals of a Black woman recalling the lynching of two friends and the Civil Rights heroine Rosa Parks.
There’s enough wit and smart song packaging, plus toasty warm harmonies, in Respect: A Musical Journey of Women to almost make it possible to overlook the show’s shortcomings. Whether it does probably depends on how fondly you recall its golden oldies.
Pompano Players’ production of Respect: A Musical Journey of Women runs through April 6 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, 50 W. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach.Performances are held at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Running time is 1 hour and 45 minutes plus a 10-minute intermission. Tickets range from $45 to $65. For tickets visit https://tinyurl.com/yz64smaf or call (954) 501-1910.
