Review
CRITIC’S PICK
The Andrews Brothers
The New ‘40s Musical
by Roger Bean
directed by Nick DeGruccio
Musical Theatre West
@The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach
through May 4

Over Here! was an original Broadway musical from 1974-75 that featured a rare onstage appearance by singer Patty Andrews and showed the face of the American homefront during World War II. It had a serious tone, as well as comic, with original Sherman Brothers songs in the style of the Big Band sound of the ‘40s. Many revues have brought back the music of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the latest and most successful being The Marvelous Wonderettes by Roger Bean. But those glorious ‘40s sounds have somehow managed to elude revues. Now the talented Bean presents The Andrews Brothers, playing at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach until May 4 only, and what a sensational little show!  It may be smaller in scope than Over Here!, but a monumental force of ‘40s showmanship.

With its focus on nonstop entertainment, the show features 4 very prolific performers under the wand of genie Nick DeGruccio. Using the songs made famous by the Andrews Sisters, such as “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”, “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar”, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” “Mairzy Doats” and “On a Slow Boat to China”, among many, many others, The Andrews Brothers moves us through a USO show from rehearsal to finished product by means of song, dance and the zany antics of virtuosos David Engel, Larry Raben, Stan Chandler and Darcie Roberts. Roberts plays famous pinup girl Peggy Jones, and the boys are Maxwell, Patrick and Lawrence Andrews, all stagehands who con their way into becoming backup singers for Jones and eventually into the center spotlight for their once in a lifetime break, replacing the main act The Andrews Sisters, who unfortunately - or fortunately, for our boys - have been quarantined with the chicken pox. Faking laryngitis and “drag ging themselves out of bed”, the trio don the wigs and dresses (well, army, navy style) of Maxine, Laverne and Patty and somehow pull off more than a show, not without a barrel of  pratfalls and slapstick tomfoolery. It’s sheer heaven!

Roberts is tall, sexy and beguiles with her electric rendition of “I Wanna Be Loved”. The boys are equally marvelous –with Engel tapping brilliantly in heels, Chandler the ideal straight man, and Raben, stealing most of the hilarity as the asthma ridden, stuttering Patrick/Patty.
Kudos as well to choreographer Roger Castellano, costume designer Debbie Roberts, set designer Kevin Clowes and musical director John Glaudini for their terrific achievements, and for those entertaining newsreels before the show that includes a novel appearance by producer Paul Garman, and during intermission. To the entire cast and crew, you left me “Breathless”. WOW!!

5 out of 5 stars