Pageant
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Cititour.com Review
Anyone who has watched a recent edition of the Miss America or Miss USA pageants has already seen the ultimate in tackiness, tastelessness, and talentlessness. Which may be one reason the 1991 Off-Broadway spoof “Pageant,” now seems a bit tame. Still, this lovingly put-together revival of the Bill Russell-Frank Evans-Frank Kelly tuner, now at the Davenport Theater, still earns its fair share of laughs over its 85-minute running time.
The show’s set-up is marvelously simple: six regional contestants are competing for the title of “Miss Glamouress,” sponsored by a beauty company that makes ridiculous products, including a hair spray with a spritzer to help preserve the Ozone layer or a lipstick that comes in flavors like “Roast Beef Red”. In addition to the traditional beauty contest sections, like talent, swimsuit, and evening gown, this pageant also includes a spokesmodel sequence, a physical fitness routine, and a beauty crisis question.
The show’s main gimmick is equally simple: all the contestants are played by men in drag (grandly costumed by Steven Yearick). The only man qua man on stage is the show’s oily host, Frankie Cavallier, played to smarmy perfection by Broadway song-and-dance man John Bolton.
Director Matt Lenz has used a keen eye in choosing the performers to embody the sextet of wannabe winners. Nic Corey is a dizzy hoot as Miss Industrial Northeast, a Hispanic temp worker at a women’s prison with outlandish fashion taste and little knowledge of how to play the accordion. Curtis Wiley is all steel and sass as Miss Bible Belt, with a roof-raising voice that makes the most of “her” big number “Banking on Jesus.” Seth Tucker is appropriately hippy-dippy as Miss West Coast, who believes in reincarnation and who appears to have the IQ of a gnat.
Even better are Marty Thomas, as the deliciously demure “Miss Deep South,” who is all charm and manners (except in her hideously misguided talent selection); the Amazonian if amazingly flexible Alex Ringler, who nails the fierce determination and killer instinct of Miss Texas; and, especially, Nick Cearley (better known as the male half of the band The Skivvies) as the down-to-earth Miss Great Plains, who wins over the crowd with her aw-shucks spirit.
But who wins the crown? That’s the other gimmick: a random selection of audience judges is chosen each night to bestow the sash on one lucky gal. But I gotta tell you; at home, I always pick the winner of every pageant from the beginning -- and on my evening, my streak continued unbroken.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.pageantmusical.com
Cast
John Bolton, Nick Cearley, Nic Cory, Alex Ringler, Marty Thomas, Seth Tucker, Curtis Wiley
Open/Close Dates
Opening 7/14/2014
Closing 10/26/2014
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 6/29/2014
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Davenport Theatre
354 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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