by Stan Jenson

The Gershwin Brothers – George Music, Ira Lyrics – have given us some of the most cherished entries in the Great American Songbook.  They wrote and produced about a dozen musicals in the 1920’s and 1930’s, all pretty frothy fare except for the gritty opera Porgy and Bess, but somehow the brothers have continued to write new shows long after their deaths.  Or so it would seem.

In the late 60’s, I became fascinated with an updated Los Angeles production of their 1926 collaboration, Oh, Kay!  I thought it was incredible that I knew virtually every song in the show, including “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Do, Do, Do What Ya Done, Done, Done,” and “Clap Yo’ Hands.”  I later realized that the producers had basically used the 1926 title and plot and then simply replaced many of the original songs with solid Gershwin hits.  A similar procedure over the years gave us My One and Only in 1983 and Crazy for You in 1992, the latter being an updating of their 1930 musical Girl Crazy (which was filmed three different times, the most famous version starring Judy and Mickey).

Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep) is currently presenting Nice Work If You Can Get It, a “new” musical that premiered on Broadway in 2012.  It starred Matthew Broderick as a rich playboy named Jimmy who is trying to clean up his frivolous reputation by marrying a classy lady instead of the succession of cheap chorus girls who were his previous wives. It features such songs as “Someone to Watch Over Me” (again!), the delightfully syncopated “Sweet and Low Down,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” and the titular “Nice Work if You Can Get It.”  The book by Joe Dipietro was “inspired by material by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse.”  It has been over 50 years since I saw Oh, Kay! but the current show’s plot certainly felt familiar.  Perhaps all Gershwin musicals feature a playboy named Jimmy who is addicted to chasing multiple girls and singing witty songs?

No, I went back and reviewed the plot of Oh, Kay! and an internet page sums it up as “Oh, Kay! follows the adventures and misadventures of the wealthy Jimmy Winter. The story kicks off with a case of mistaken identity when Jimmy’s soon-to-be wife, Constance, is away, and a bootlegger named Kay is mistaken for his new bride.”  Well, yep, that pretty well sums up Nice Work if You Can Get It as well, but that’s no problem.  Most of the Gershwin musicals could have had their plot synopsis written on the back of a cocktail napkin. The current production, Nice Work, has lots of jokes, a great balance of songs and dances, and at CVRep, a blue-ribbon collection of performers and technicians.

Playing Jimmy is Hayden Stanes, a tall good-looking chap who deftly handles comedy, is great at singing the Gershwin songs, and is one hell of a dancer. We meet him at the top of the show when he is one of several men watching chorus girls in a bar dance to “Sweet and Low Down.”  We next travel behind the bar where a group of bootleggers have assembled, led by Billie (Jennifer Knox), a cute blonde with a penchant for wearing men’s clothes.  Her lieutenant in the bootlegging gang is a man named Cookie, brought to life by the rubber face of local Broadway vet Douglas Graham.  The drunken Jimmy exits the bar by the back door and meets the gang – especially Billie.

Jimmy is engaged to marry a “classy dame,” Ellen (Emily Unnasch) who is the world’s foremost modern dance artist. Unnasch’s overly prim character, beautiful operatic soprano voice, and her ridiculous modern dance moves make her a crowd favorite. 

Jimmy decides to bring Ellen to one of his family’s least-used mansions.  Billie and her gang also decide to use the mostly-vacant mansion, which the drunken Jimmy had talked about, to hide a large shipment of bootleg hooch. When the local girls notice that Jimmy’s home, they come flocking in to see him.  Ellen’s father (Jack McGee), a pompous senator, comes to the house to check on her. He is accompanied by his prohibitionist sister (Cathy Newman), the head of the local chapter of The Dry Women’s League.  Throw in the local police chief (Tim Ewing) and the bootlegger gang who are pretending to be servants and we have set the stage for the mayhem which ensues.

At intermission I remembered that Joyce Bulifant (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Airplane, etc.) was supposed to be in the show.  I wondered if I had missed her or if she had been replaced.  No, she makes her entrance about ten minutes before the end of the show and then she takes control of the stage.  It was delightful icing on the cake to see her, and by the way, she looks terrific!

David Eggers, doing double duty as director and choreographer, doesn’t give us a moment to ponder about how ridiculous the plot actually is.  One gag quickly follows another, both verbal and physical.  One of my favorites was his farcical use of doors.  As one character would open a door to leave, another actor would open another door at the other side of the stage at exactly the same time and make an entrance.

Just when we thought we couldn’t stand the prohibitionist sister for another minute, someone spikes her lemonade and what follows is pure comic gold.  Eggers is also at the top of his game with the 30’s-style dance numbers.  The finest of those is a lengthy full stage routine of “Fascinating Rhythm” which finishes the first act.

Music director Brent Alan Huffman, assisted by Stephen Hulsey, decided to use pre-recorded music to accompany the songs.  This enabled us to hear the delicious orchestrations of the period, including lots of sweet woodwinds playing in thirds.  For set changes and incidental music, they played snippets of such Gershwin classics as “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Concerto in F,” and “Walking the Dog.”  I fell in love with Gershwin’s music when I was 12, so I have heard most of his works many, many times and hearing the snippets was a delight.

Jimmy Cuomo’s sets have been a mainstay of Coachella Valley Repertory since its inception and they don’t disappoint here.  I especially enjoyed the mechanics of how pieces moved or were removed to create different rooms of the mansion.  However, there was a bit of room for improvement in the detailing of the sets.  We were supposed to be in a wealthy mansion but most of the decorous details were very obviously painted instead of built, so they looked a bit collegiate.

John Galo (Production Stage Manager), Joshua Adams (Sound Designer), Melina Ginn (Stage Manager), Ryan Marquart (Prop Designer), Lynda Shaeps (Hair/Makeup Designer), Emily Tappan (Costume Designer), and Moira Wilkie 9Lighting Designer/Technical Director) all did their work well. All could be seen and heard, and appeared right for the period.

Gershwin musicals, or virtually any musicals from the 20’s or 30’s, will not be everyone’s cup of tea in 2024.  In a world of Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen, they are certainly an anomaly, but for me they are enjoyable and CVRep’s production of Nice Work if You Can Get It is absolutely terrific. The audience I was with had the time of their lives, and most of them had had some very long lives!  A couple of times I heard audience members singing along, and a man in front of me actually danced with his arms to the opening number (thank goodness he didn’t continue!).  The sentence I heard repeated during intermission was, “This is really great!” 

CVRep really understands their audience; they opened the season with a gay love story and are finishing with a musical that will most be enjoyed by folks over 60. Check the Web site for summer offerings and next year’s mainstage productions.

CVRep is located at 68510 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, CA 92234. The box office is open Tue - Fri 10:00am - 4:00pm and 1 hour prior to performances. For ticket purchase or information, call 760-296-2966 ext. 0 or email the box office at boxoffice@cvrep.org. The Web site is www.cvrep.org .

Photos by David A. Lee