May 10, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — For a healing dose of happy tappers and sultry singers, all backed by the good-natured musings of a rope-spinning humorist, head to the Pioneer Theatre Company.
The show is “The Will Rogers Follies — a Life in Revue,” and it’s whip-snapping good.
Actor David M. Lutken plays Rogers in this 1991 musical, with book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Cy Coleman.
Lutken plays the homespun hero the same way history remembers him, as a humble man who couched clever observations in comfortable humor that made everyone, even the politicians and businessmen he targeted, laugh out loud.
Most of Rogers’ jokes in the show seemed relevant to today’s political climate, and serve as a balm for an audience in dire need of a laugh.
Supporting Lutken was Norman Large as Rogers’ crotchety father, who could not see his son’s gift, and Lisa Brescia as Rogers’ loving and long-suffering wife.
Florenz Ziegfeld, who starred Rogers in his Follies, is unseen in the show, but is voiced by Donny Osmond, who recorded his part.
Add to that more than a dozen Ziegfeld girls, dressed to the nines by designer Patrick Holt and choreographed by director D.J. Salisbury. Then add some wranglers and trick roper/whip master A.J. Silver.
Then put them all on a George Maxwell set that is evocative, elegant and versatile, a set that can take you to the moon and back, figuratively speaking, as well as multiple earthly locales.
It’s seriously doubtful this show could be done any better or with more eye-pleasing pageantry on Broadway.
It’s a showy show, of course, with glitz and glamour, and not about discovering deep, hidden meanings.
What you see is what you get in this buoyant production, and that’s pretty spectacular.
“Will Rogers Follies, a Life in Revue” plays through May 20 at Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City. Click this link for full details.
