Company: Idiosyncratic Dinner Guests

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Company: Idiosyncratic Dinner Guests

McCullough Theatre,

through July 1

Running Time: 2 hrs, 30 min

Whaddaya wanna get married for? In this UT Opera Theatre production of the Stephen Sondheim musical (with book by George Furth), directed by Lucien Douglas, it takes protagonist Robert two and a half hours, 19 songs, three girlfriends, 10 pushy pals, and turning 35 to find out. Robert's 10 married friends fret constantly about the single Robert (known to the company as "Bobby! Baby! Bobby! Bubby! Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!"). The women want him to get married. The men want to live vicariously through him as he balls hot chicks like Marta, the self-proclaimed "soul of New York." But then again, the men also want him to get married and sum up their ambivalence in the song "Sorry-Grateful," their reply to Robert's query: Are you ever sorry you got married?

Overall, the young actors in this show do a good job with the affected New York characters 10 years their senior and hold their own as performers. As the lead, baby-faced Christopher Norton looks appropriately baffled by his social predicament. In a land of stereotypes, Caroline Forney is sympathetic as Kathy; if you didn't read the playbill's dense three-page synopsis (Synopsis? What is this, the Niebelung?), you might keep waiting for her to show up at the end in a wedding veil. Kay Sherwood has a nice presence as the neurotic Amy. By far the most mature and accomplished performer (to the point of seeming out of place in this production) is Tracy Rider, who plays the rich and brash Joanne with nuance, sophistication, and (fancy that) a New York accent. Mandy Morris is charming as the ditzy airline stewardess April, especially while hysterically recounting the time a guy gave her a butterfly and then yelled at her when her cat ate one of its wings.

Despite a few evergreen gags about relationships, lines like "We are the generation gap!" ring true. The dearth of funkiness in this 1970 Sondheim work is further enhanced by the elaborate, hokey choreography (Rockette kicks and all) by Toni Bravo. Sitting through this show is not unlike having a dinner party for people who are pleasant enough if you can get past their idiosyncrasies, in this case a tendency to make noises at the end of their questions: "What would we do without you-ooh?" After all, even square guests occasionally surprise you with a quip like Joanne's deadpan comment about all the happily married couples out there: "I knew them and they're both divorced." Regardless, after the high-energy encore of "Side By Side By Side," even the most gracious hostess may be relieved to finally see her guests to the door.