'Singin' in the Rain' stunning

David Engel 'Singin' in the Rain'

puts a smile on your face

When David Engel decided to join Cabrillo Music Theatre's production of the classic "Singin' in the Rain," he determined that audiences would want to see a faithful reproduction of the 1952 film rather than the 1985 Broadway revival.

The result is a stunning, highly entertaining production that comes close to replicating the iconic film version, which (with apologies to "The Wizard of Oz") is vaunted as being the greatest movie musical of all time.

Engel heads up a stellar cast in Cabrillo's production of this delightful show, which ends its two-weekend run this Sunday at the Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Paralleling Gene Kelly's work on the film, Engel serves as choreographer as well as portrayer of silent screen idol Don Lockwood. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Kelly, Engel painstakingly transcribed each dance scene for Cabrillo's version.

In the company's now regular "talkback" session with the cast, Engel told the audience that his intention was to present "the essence" of Kelly's performance without copying him.

An original cast member of the Off-Broadway hit "Forever Plaid" who also starred in Cabrillo's previous incarnation of "Rain" in 1999, Engel is a voracious student of the original film, saying he watched it several hundred times in preparation for the show.

The highlight of the show is the performance of the title song, sung by a deliriously happy Lockwood during a downpour on a New York City street. To replicate this scene, technical director Hugh Scott devised a way that water could be pumped into the theater and sprayed onto the set using overhead jets. (The effect works, but it's more like "Singin' in the Drizzle.")

The water accumulates in splashable puddles on the stage, then drains and is filtered and recycled through the same system. The effect is presented twice— the second time as a curtain call featuring the entire cast.

Randy Rogel, another "Rain" veteran, is Cosmo Brown, Lockwood's second banana. The charismatic Rogel has played the role made famous by Donald O'Connor in more than 25 productions and actually improves upon the part by playing piano on stage.

He does a more than credible job in what Engel says is the production's most difficult number, Cosmo's manic "Make 'Em Laugh" sequence, which has him leaping about, getting smacked in the head with twobyfours, wrestling with a mannequin and jumping into standing flats.

In the Debbie Reynolds role of Kathy Selden, Shanon Mari Mills is appropriately cute and perky, with a crystal clear voice. Her version of "You Are My Lucky Star" is one of the vocal highlights of the show.

The three stars are terrific, but the show's scene stealer is Melissa Fahn in the role of vapid diva Lina Lamont.

With her squeaky Bronx accent, she is the epitome of the ditzy peroxide blonde made famous by Jean Hagen in the original film. Fahn's characterization is fleshed out with the addition of a song she sings in the second act, "What's Wrong With Me?"

The film wasn't designed to be a classic; it was just another MGM musical produced by Arthur Freed, a lyricistturnedproducer, who wanted a vehicle for a bunch of "trunk songs" he and Nacio Herb Brown had written in the 1920s.

The Cabrillo production uses most of the songs from the original film, with the addition of "You Stepped Out of a Dream," written by Nacio Herb Brown and Gus Kahn.

Also included for the first time on stage is the classic ballet sequence surrounding the song "Broadway Melody," an impressionistic and elaborate dance number.

The black-and-white silent films screened during the show are also remarkably effective.

Rounding out the cast are former Cabrillo director Gary Gordon as Monumental Pictures' studio head R.F. Simpson; Linda Neel in the Cyd Charisse role as "the girl in the green dress"; local favorite Terry Fishman reprising his 1999 performance as flummoxed director Roscoe Dexter; and, in a splendidly funny cameo role, Cabrillo veteran Gene Bernath as a frustrated diction teacher.

Cabrillo's production of "Singin' in the Rain" is not to be missed. To quote the song: "What a glorious feeling!"

For tickets and information, call (805) 449-ARTS (2787).