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WENDELL'S WEEKEND PICK: 'Respect'
If you could pick one song as the soundtrack of your life, what would it be? Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” perhaps. The Gershwins’ “Someone to Watch Over Me,” maybe. How about Janis Joplin’s trademark “Piece of My Heart”? Such is the premise of Dorothy Marcic’s “Respect: A Musical Journey of Women,” the jukebox revue on the 14th Street Playhouse mainstage that charts the history of the American female as a chronicle of hard work, disappointment, strength, integrity and love. Marcic may not win a prize for her storytelling formula, in which an autobiographical character aligns her personal journey with a timeline of key moments in history that has all the panache of a grade-school textbook. But the author, who has a background as a leadership-seminar instructor, has a way of interlacing show-business icons with figures from the social movement, so “Respect” ends up being as much about Donna Reed, Annette Funicello and Marilyn Monroe as it does Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks and Betty Friedan. If “Respect” is overloaded with Top 40 ditties about boy lust, it also has a few honest things to say about the immigrant experience, alcoholic husbands, single moms and the indomitable spirit of the female psyche. But instead of operating like a blistering social critique, it comes off as a warmhearted, generous and life-affirming piece of entertainment pie. “Respect” — like the wildly popular Abba homage “Mamma Mia!” — isn’t intended as a showcase for sexy, Las Vegas-style performers, or at least not in this version by director Seth Greenleaf and choreographer Barbara Flaten. Playing Marcic’s autobiographical Dorothy, Mary Kathryn Kaye exudes the polished professionalism of an infomercial host who can’t stop beaming about the truth and virtue of her product. This narrative adventure couldn’t possibly be as funny as giggly Dorothy seems to think it is, yet you can’t help getting sucked into the theatrical nonsense involving Betty Boop, Rosie the Riveter, “I Love Lucy” and Barbie. As the threesome who perform most of the frenetically paced schtick, Amy Miller Brennan, Cory A. Farinacci and Denitra Isler are dynamos all: terrific singers with comedic brio and powerful acting kits. Farinacci is a petite but brassy belter (though an odd choice for depicting Monroe). Brennan is by turns giddy and heartbreaking (even as Betty Boop). And Isler gets to do a sequence on Rosa Parks (which feels a tad long and heavy-freighted). Matching songs to their chronological place in time doesn’t seem to be Marcic’s strong suit. Rodgers and Hart’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (1940), for instance, turns up in the section on the ’60s. But she does make some salient but subtle points about the treatment of women down through the ages. In her grandmother’s day, she says, strong women were dismissed as mean. (Cue to “Hard-Hearted Hannah.”) And after battling for permission to vote and wear pants, the independent types were still criticized —for having the audacity to go to work. As campy as “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” sounds today, when it was first recorded, in 1966, it actually intimidated men, according to our narrator. Featherweight though it may be, “Respect” honors the first tenet of musical theater. When there’s no other way to express an emotion, do a song. “Tall Paul.” “Animal Crackers in My Soup.” “Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.” “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” “I Am Woman.” “Bend Me, Shape Me.” Part of the fun is guessing which tune will pop up next. Are you ready, girls? THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Open-ended. $39.50. 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St., Midtown. 404-733-4750; www.woodruff center.org/14thstplayhouse THE VERDICT: Where the girls are: a giddy and infectious jukebox revue.
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