Wick’s No, No, Nanette Will “Make You Happy Too”

By Britin Haller

Poor Nanette. People are always telling her no. And not just no, but twice to get the point across, as in “No, no.” It’s not like she’s asking for much either. The darling girl just wants to have a little fun with her friends before committing to a lifetime of marriage. Is there anything wrong with that?

No, No, Nanette is celebrating its hundredth birthday this year having first appeared on the scene in 1925 at the Globe Theatre (now the Lunt-Fontanne) on Broadway. It’s based on a 1919 play called My Lady Friends by Frank Mandel, who wrote the Nanette book along with lyrics man Otto Harbach. In 1971, the musical was revitalized into the version we see today. That one featured legendary tapper Ruby Keeler and won the Tony Award for Best Choreography.

Playing this month at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, No, No, Nanette is a blast from the past. It’s a comedy of errors, set in the Roaring 1920’s jazz-age flapper era, that’s full of hilarious farcical moments ensuing from when a group of eccentric personalities converge on a seaside cottage in Atlantic City, with plenty of tap-dancing, and oodles of heart. And with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, and a terrific score by Vincent Youmans that includes the classic showtunes “Tea For Two,” and “I Want To Be Happy,” The Wick has an absolute hit on its hands. We love a theater venue with a big red curtain, and a mini-overture to get us in the mood, and The Wick delivers on that too.

This is one stacked cast. Touring triple-threats, Jeremy Benton and Kaitlyn Davidson, lead the pack as Billy and Lucille Early, a New York attorney and his wife who just can’t seem to get on the same page, but despite all that manage to make beautiful music together. Benton is returning to the Wick after his phenomenal turn as Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie which resulted in a Carbonell Award nomination for him. Davidson attacks her character of Lucille with the passion that only a true shopaholic can have. Lucille just loves to spend her husband’s money for the most ridiculous of reasons. “I had a bad week at Mahjong,” she says. And poor Billy must throw himself into the most outlandish of situations in order to support his wife’s addiction, and help out his client and friend, Jimmy Smith.

As Uncle Jimmy Smith, the wealthy Bible-pusher with a heart of gold who wants nothing more in life than for everyone to be happy, Charles Baran, makes us ecstatic. Seems Uncle Jimmy has gotten himself into a fine kettle of fish. While selling his Bibles in other cities, he met three young attractive ladies with financial problems, and he’s been helping them out. All is going well until Jimmy decides enough is enough, and tries to cut them off their gravy train. Watching Baran’s face as Jimmy gets deeper and deeper into the deep doo doo, is a riot.

Jimmy lives in a gorgeous home with his wife Sue, his ward Nanette, and their dissatisfied housekeeper Pauline and her vacuum cleaner. Nanette is being pursued by Tom Trainor, who is both Lucille’s nephew and a law clerk at Billy’s firm. He’s kind of a kiss-ass if we’re being honest, and is giving off red flags, and too-good-to-be true vibes, so we hope for Nanette’s sake, Tom isn’t too-good-to-be true.

Kathryn Kendall plays Sue Smith, Jimmy’s satisfied spouse who obviously doesn’t manage the household books, or she’d realize her husband has been giving away the farm to a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. Elizabeth McGuire is Nanette, the oh-so-precious ingenue and the apple of Uncle Jimmy’s eye. And Ellie Pattison is Pauline, the queen of the one-liners housekeeper who hates her job and keeps threatening to quit, but something always happens to keep her there. Much love for Pattison when she comes sloshing across the stage, martini glass in hand.

We learned how talented Kevin Hincapie is in a recent local production of The Fantasticks, and he further solidified that belief here in his role as Tom, Nanette’s eager beau. There’s a lot to be said for perseverance, and being in the right place at the right time, and Tom is ready to propose whenever the right opportunity arises. And also ready to propose even if it doesn’t. But as Tom’s uncle-in-law and boss at the law firm, Billy, reminds him, “The law comes first.”

Britte Steele is having a moment. Fresh off her showstopping role in LPAC’s 9 to 5, Steele is now one third of what we like to call the Roaring 20’s version of Charlie’s Angels, Flora, Winnie, and Betty. Along with Gianina Mugavero and Alexandra Van Hasselt, two ladies who are no strangers to showstopping themselves, this trio of floozies is bound and determined to make Uncle Jimmy pay for his indiscretions, even if they have to blackmail him to do it. The irony is that Jimmy’s intentions were always pure, and he wasn’t even lusting in his heart.

No, No, Nanette is loaded with wholesome finger-snapping tunes like “Peach On The Beach,” where Nanette and friends don their finest seaside attire and carry parasols, and “Take A Little One-Step” when Sue and the entire company give us a dancing finale. Elizabeth McGuire shares her frustrations with everyone trying to rule her life and charms us in the title song.

The ultra-smooth Jeremy Benton has two big numbers as Billy, first when he is feeling the sea (and the Charleston), calling to him in the appropriately named “Call of the Sea,” and later in “Telephone Girlie” with the Witches of Atlantic City, Flora, Winnie, and Betty, encouraging Billy not to be sad that his wife has left him, all the while knowing they were the cause of her going.

The three witches: From left, Britte Steele, Gianina Mugavero and Alexandra Van Hasselt,

Kaitlyn Davidson as Lucille has two big numbers herself with “Too Many Rings Around Rosie” and the sensational smoky “Where Has My Hubbie Gone Blues.” Benton and Davidson only have one song together where it’s just the two of them, but it’s a doozy of a hoofing dance-off called “You Can Dance With Any Girl.”

Tom and Nanette have three chances to work out the details of their relationship, first in “I’ve Confessed To The Breeze,” where they express their love to each other, then in “Tea For Two” where they discuss what marriage and kids might look like for them as a couple, and finally in “Waiting For You,” when Nanette learns that the grass is not always greener, and what the power of a single kiss can do.

But the pièce de résistance, not to mention the overall theme of the show is “I Want To Be Happy.” Uncle Jimmy has a look of childlike wonder on his face as boys strum ukuleles, and Sue and Nanette dance with him. Too bad Jimmy’s whole world is about to come crashing down, proving once again the old adage of no good deed goes unpunished. “If this gets around Bible circles, you’ll be ruined,” Billy warns him about the three women he’s been paying.

Ensemble members Kalista Curbelo, Alexandra Dow, Stephen Eisenwasser, Catherine Hamilton, Miranda Jones, Emma Kantor, Cody Knable, Josh McWhortor, Ben Massouras, Isaiah Mayhew, Rob Ouellette and Dance Captain Melanie Farber fill out the cast. Each are terrific tap-dancers in their own right.

Following all those tiny toes around a stage with lighting isn’t easy, however Clifford Michael Spulock makes it seem so. Kevin Kacy and Laura Garfein manage this fast-paced show, and must be commended for keeping it tight.

Scenic Designer Jack Golden has created three beautiful sets for the three different locations that the three different acts take place: in a NYC home, a cottage on the sea, and a garden setting. There is no intermission between Acts 2 and 3, but to entertain us while we wait we are shown cast rehearsal photos courtesy of Projection Designer Kacey Koploff.

Ann M. Bruskiewitz’s eye for costuming deserves attention and a nod. Personal favorites are the argyle sweaters, Flora, Winnie, and Betty’s dresses, and then later their blue, pink, and yellow bedroom attire, Lucille, dripping in diamonds while showing off a blue sleeveless cocktail dress with a matching headband and scarf, and Uncle Jimmy’s outlandish now, but likely not for that time period, golfing wear. Wigs by Bobby Zlotnik are successful with all the looks, but no more so than Nanette’s signature bob hairdo with bangs, a popular style in the Roaring 20s.

We’ve given red marks to The Wick before for sound system problems beyond a sound designer’s control, but thankfully there were no such issues for Justin Thompson to have to deal with. A minor pitch problem only during one song was not even so bad as to need correcting, for fear of making it worse. Overall, the sound sounded great.

But after all is said and done, we still have questions. How cute is the doorbell ringtone that plays the first few notes of “I Want To Be Happy,” and is happily rung often? Was that a Wick creation, or in the script? Google provided no answer, but to whomever came up with this one, nice work, and can that doorbell be bought online because every home should have one.

How many bedrooms does that seaside cottage really have because it seems like a clown car with the arrivals coming fast and furious.

Do we really need all the “big girl” jokes? While they’re in the script, and likely must be adhered to for legal purposes, we cringed every time. As a society, we’re better than that now.

In 2023, we saw Jeremy Benton in Bye Bye Birdie, in 2025, it’s No, No, Nanette.

While researching, we learned that in the 1925 production, Pauline the housekeeper had two musical numbers of her own. Given she is such an audience favorite, why were these numbers cut from the 1971 revival, and all subsequent versions?

How wonderful would it have been to see Rosie O’Donnell as Pauline in the 2008 City Center’s Encores! presentation? O’Donnell took up tap dancing just for this and did a bang-up job of it too. Her choreography, as well as that of her co-stars, was created by Randy Skinner, and it’s his moves that The Wick’s song-and-dance man Jeremy Benton, with an assist by Melanie Farber, adapted putting his own flaps, twirls, and dips on things.

Why does the ending wrap up so quickly? “Should we be clapping?” our companion asked us during “Take A Little One-Step,” and we have to admit we weren’t sure either. Might we all have such immediate and clear-cut resolutions to our problems.

Director Norb Joerder and Musical Director Bobby Peaco have done a tremendous job creating a world that’s not unhappy for too long. Do you wish you could go back to happier times? You can, with the sweet as candy No, No, Nanette at The Wick Theatre. So go rot your teeth a little, and enjoy a planned sing-along that includes this perfect line “Life’s really worth living when we are mirth-giving.”
They really don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

From The Look At This Cool Piece Of Trivia We Dug Up Department: In a parody of No, No, Nanette, Oliver Hardy stars in 1925’s Yes, Yes, Nanette, a short film directed by his buddy, Stan Laurel. It’s available for free in its nine-minute entirety on YouTube.

Britin Haller is a mystery author and an editor for Turner Publishing. Her recent short story “So Many Shores in Crookland” can be read in the 150th issue of Black Cat Weekly. Britin’s latest edit, a cozy mystery novel called Dumpster Dying is by Michelle Bennington and available where books are sold. Find Britin across social media.

No, No, Nanette plays through April 6 at The Wick Theatre 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton FL; Wed-Sat Evening Performances at 7:30 p.m.; Matinees are at 2 p.m. Wed, Thurs, Sat & Sun. Running time approx. 130 minutes includes a 15-minute intermission. Tickets starting at $89. Call 561-995-2333, or visit thewick.org.