MTW’s ‘Silk Stockings’

by Marchelle Hammack

While So Cal is burning, MTW’s sultry “Silk Stockings,” at CSULB’s the Carpenter Center, is smoldering but cool. Musical Theatre West has re-envisioned “Silk Stockings,” last produced in the Sixties and significant as Cole Porter’s last musical theatre contribution (book is by George Kaufman).

The story takes place in the City of Lights and Amour, Paris, with the commingling of Cold War adversaries America and Russia coming together to make a film that promotes peace and bridges the two cultural and political divides.

Combining elements from the original short story by Melchior Lengyal, “Ninotchka,” later made into a film of the same name starring Greta Garbo, as well as the film “Silk Stockings” with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, this production uses spare sets and simple lighting to great effect.

Steve Canfield, a Hollywood producer (John Scherer) meets and falls in love with a Russian bureaucrat Comrade Ninotchka Yaschenko (the wonderful and compelling Julie Ann Emery).
Also creating sparks are Hollywood star Janice Drayton (Darcie Roberts exuding her usual personality and pzazz) and Russian composer Peter Ilych Boroff (Andy Taylor). Indulgent free-wheeling capitalism does a pas de deux with unemotional and stiff ideological communism.

All this plot is augmented by three Russian bureaucrats (the very funny trio of Stuart Pankin, Nick Degruccio and Paul Kreppel) sent to Paris to rescue Boroff from the temptations of decadent capitalism. Lovely singing and dancing are provided by the ensemble, portraying those involved in putting together the film, with special vocal prowess by Ninotchka’s Julie Ann Emery. Using the real world event of Francis Gary Power’s U2 CIA spy plane being shot down over Russia puts the time at 1960.

“Silk Stockings” is a treat, a wonderful respite from a rocky world. Kudos to director Stuart Ross and all those involved.

You can see “Silk Stockings” through Nov. 23 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. or Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Tickets range from $30 to $58 with children (16 and under) at $25 and discounts for seniors, CSULB students and groups of 15 or more.

You can purchase tickets by calling 562-856-1999 (ext 4) or log onto www.musical.org for more information. The Carpenter Center is located at Atherton and Palo Verde on the CSU Long Beach campus.

During economic downturns, it’s so important to support theatre. The visceral connection between performers and audience is a great and redeeming pleasure as we celebrate our humanness with stories from the stage.