10/17/2007

Reminiscing with ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams’
By Tom Range, Sr.

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

The opening segment of this review of the 1940s sets the atmosphere of this period of stress and success.  The show opens with the "Date Which Will Live In Infamy" speech of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, given on December 8, 1941, requesting Congress to declare war on Imperial Japan.  Pearl Harbor had been bombed the day before.

The show's script was written by Dave Weatherholtz, who created the review as an OC Jamboree show in 2001.  He has interspersed songs, radio commercials and segments of radio shows themselves in a pastiche which he uses to transport the audience to the living rooms of their youth, joining their families around the massive, wooden Philco console tuned to one of the three or four radio networks. 

A small stage near the audience was used to recreate the living room of the 1940s, with Renee and Peter Fox as the couple enjoying the performances being offered on the main stage, which duplicated a radio studio, complete with a prop girl (Carol Caldwell) displaying the applause cue card at appropriate moments.  The excellent staging is under the direction of Sharon Sorrentino, who also appears solo in two skits.

The songs presented include "Sentimental Journey," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," "Accentuate the Positive" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," among others.  The wartime setting of the 1940s is emphasized by the inclusion of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine songs being sung as a finale.  The commercials include those for Buster Brown, Aunt Jemima pancakes, Brylcream, Wild Root Cream Oil, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet" and "Look for the Union Label." 

The old radio programs include "Burns and Allen," "The Shadow," the Abbott & Costello routine "Who's on First?" and Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life."

The familiar "Who's On First" routine was performed by 10-year-old Nicholas Sampson and the 13-year-old Katerina Burton.  These accomplished young comedians attend local schools.  In the performances on October 19, 20 and 21, Nicholas's 14-year-old sister Danielle will play opposite her brother.  Katerina, who also sang "Over the Rainbow," aspires to attend Julliard and join the Metropolitan Opera.  Nicholas wants to "become the President of the United States."

In contrast to the youth of the Abbott & Costello skit is the maturity of dancer Kit Frederico who worked at the Pentagon and danced in USO shows during World War II.  She is seen in the "Tommy Dorsey's Boogie Woogie" set.  The choreographer of the "Boogie Woogie" skit is Rita Villani who was a Radio City Music Hall Rockette in the 1940s.  Other mature performers are Joanne Masone as "Chiquita Banana," Keith Bunting in "The Shadow" and "You Bet Your Life" who at age 13 started a band and began writing music and is an associate of Dave Weatherholtz, and Fran Mancino, the "bass" voice in Destination Harmony, which presented "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."  Her pre-Ocean Pines career included appearances in New York's Carnegie Hall and on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour."

An un-programmed event was the insertion of a skit featuring Charlie Sorrentino telling the "Cinderella" story in nonsense language and pronunciation, presented with the befuddled delivery worthy of a vaudeville comedian.  Only a nosey critic who inspected the set before curtain time probably noticed that the books on the set's living room table were contemporary, and the newspaper being diligently read by Peter Fox through much of the 1940s show was dated October 11, 2007.

The last four musical numbers, sung by Katerina Burton, Will Hall, the cast and the audience, present a patriotic recognition of the American military, past and present.  The backdrop used for this final segment, and visible throughout the production, is a 48-star flag that covered the coffin of a World War II airman George Felber.  Judy Nelson, the fighting man's niece, allowed its use.  She appears as "Gracie Allen" and as the woman contestant on "You Bet Your Life."

Performances of this enjoyable romp down memory lane will continue on Friday October 19 and Saturday October 20 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday October 21 at 4 p.m. at the  Most Blessed Sacrament School, located on Route 589 (Racetrack Road) near Beauchamp Road. It is almost guaranteed you will leave the auditorium humming "Accentuate the Positive" and trying to recite "Who's on First?"