Sometimes a mid-run review can help boost ticket sales for a production. But Miners Alley Playhouse's stellar production of the musical revue Dietrich and Chevalier probably doesn't need it. D and C is a "hot ticket" item, and rightfully so.
Featuring a hit parade of songs made famous by Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier, mostly from the '30s and '40s, the show is actually more than a musical revue. There's dramatic punch to this play, with book by Jerry Mayer, as we discover that the Teutonic titan expatriate from Germany and the debonair dandy from France had an on-again, off-again affair that took on unexpected depth and significance during the Nazi occupation of France and after.
Meeting and becoming lovers during their early Hollywood "foreign sex symbol" years, Dietrich and Chevalier lived lives of decadence, thumbing their noses at bourgeois morality. Previously, Dietrich had fled Germany and later resisted repeated attempts by the Third Reich to bring her back. Instead, she devoted her life to entertaining the American troops, and was even made a captain in the U.S. Army.
Meanwhile, bored with Hollywood, Chevalier returned to France and succumbed to pressure from the Nazis to cooperate if not collaborate with the occupiers, and even went to Germany to entertain French prisoners, and perhaps German officers. After the war, he was accused and then cleared of charges of collaboration.
Those are the facts, but the drama expressed through fictional scenes and encounters between the two reveals the human sides of these consummate artists, and how their essential character is revealed under stress. Is it ever enough to simply be an entertainer? What responsibility does a performer have to the people he or she entertains? These are fundamental questions about the relationship between life and art. Dietrich comes off as heroic, Chevalier less so.
Miners Alley Playhouse has always offered outstanding productions, with excellent performances, insightful direction and great choices of material. But with the casting of Mari Carlin Dart as Dietrich, and Paul Page as Chevalier, they've added something more: star power.
Carlin Dart is simply uncanny in her portrayal of Dietrich. The voice, the poise, the attitude, the costume changes! It's an astounding performance, an accomplishment of true greatness. Page's star shines only slightly dimmer, as he lacks the physical appearance of Chevalier, and the simpering, petty and randy character itself is less sympathetic. But they are quite a pair, whether singing solos, flirting or reprimanding one another. Too bad they never really get to sing together. Both have excellent and expressive voices, and are stylistically right on.
Eric Mather shows remarkable versatility while playing "Everyone Else." Stage director El Armstrong guides the episodic play which covers decades in mere moments with a tight hand and sure vision, while musical director Donna Koplan Debreceni is a formidable presence as the piano accompanist.
Dietrich and Chevalier is a play in which history, legend and unforgettable tunes come together, but it is in the revelation of the way two cabaret singers interact, and respond to the tumultuous world around them, that this show transcends all expectations.
Dietrich and Chevalier plays at Miners Alley Playhouse, 1224 Washington Avenue in Golden (13th and Washington, 2nd floor entrance on 13th) through June 20. performances are Friday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 6 p.m (except for June 20, 2 p.m. only). Tickets are $25. Call 303-935-3044 or visit www.minersalley.com for information and reservations.
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