‘State Fair’ First-Rate Entertainment
“State Fair” Monday, Jan. 26, Spokane Opera House
Who would have imagined that “State Fair” would be this much fun?
When the Best of Broadway season was announced, I figured this national tour would be nothing but a recycled piece of second-rate corn featuring a less than scintillating star, John Davidson.
Boy, was I wrong. “State Fair” turns out to be a first-rate Rodgers and Hammerstein vehicle: funny, clever, romantic and sentimental. In fact, this show has everything that the world has grown to love from American musical comedy’s golden age. And Davidson is terrific as Abel Frake, an Iowa farmer obsessed with his hog.
As you might guess, this is hardly a glamorous role. I remembered Davidson as a boyish All-American, but here he is delightfully gruff, coming off more like someone from “Hee Haw” than a suave leading man. In fact, with his gray hair and weathered face, Davidson is now a virtual dead ringer for Will Rogers.
He earned laughs with his moony-eyed ode to his favorite pig, “More Than Just a Friend,” and especially with an hysterical scene in which he surreptitiously pours an entire bottle of brandy into his wife’s mincemeat recipe. He’s not John Davidson; he’s a fun-loving Pa Kettle savoring the taste of the demon brandy.
And, believe me, Davidson is only one of the many charms of this show.
The rest of the young cast is absolutely top-drawer. Carol Swarbrick is a wonderful Mrs. Frake, girlishly excited by her blue ribbon for her mincemeat and also endearingly romantic with Abel under the Iowa moon. Valerie A. Accetta is equally outstanding as the young Margy Frake, the daughter who sings a beautiful version of one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic tunes, “It Might As Well Be Spring.” Her romance with the worldly reporter, Pat Gilbert (Mark Martino), is so touching it actually brought tears to my eyes.
The men are just as good, especially Martino and John Simeone as the rambunctious Wayne Frake, who falls hard for the singer Emily Arden.
The many fine supporting performances are capped by an inspired scene from Jim Fitzpatrick as the mincemeat judge. He takes a few too many spoonfuls of that brandy-laced concoction and proceeds to do a teetering, tour-de-force drunk act which owed something to both Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He neither underplayed it or overplayed it, and the audience was in hysterics.
The sets and costumes were Broadway quality, which makes sense because they are the Broadway sets and costumes. The midway scene and the outdoor dance-hall sets were particularly evocative of the innocent pleasures of a 1940’s fair.
The 10-piece orchestra did justice to the music of Richard Rodgers. Has anybody (except Gershwin) written so many beautiful melodies?
I dare you to leave this show without “It Might As Well Be Spring” running pleasantly through your head, unless of course, you have a “It’s A Grand Night For Singing” running pleasantly through your head.
, DataTimes MEMO: “State Fair” continues tonight and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Call 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT for tickets.