Review of "Xanadu" on Broadway

Broadway veteran Tony Roberts grounds the wild and crazy proceedings with his low-key persona and subtle comic timing as Danny Maguire, an older man who had encountered Kira 40 years earlier and who now becomes involved in the roller disco dream.

This is a rewritten version of the thankless role that was played by Gene Kelly (of all people) in the film, and Roberts is perfectly cast. He also does a turn as Zeus in a mini-spoof of another '80s flick, Clash of the Titans, that is one of the funniest sequences in Xanadu; Beane manages to incorporate the Newton-John hit “Have You Never Been Mellow?” into the scene, and the role-doubling of the cast leads to a joke that's knocked out of the park by Mary Testa.

Indeed, Testa and her partner in crime, Jackie Hoffman, are two of the best reasons to see this show. They appear as the jealous muses Melpomene and Calliope, who take revenge on Kira by causing her to fall in love with a mortal, which is verboten. These roles didn't exist in the film but, especially as played by the brilliantly funny Testa and Hoffman, they provide just enough narrative spine to keep the show going.

Xanadu is set in Venice Beach, California in 1980, and the members of the production team have the period and place down pat. Charles G. LaPointe's wig and hair design is dead-on accurate, while Eric Stern's synthesizer-and-drum-heavy musical arrangements of the songs by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar are wonderfully cheesy. Howell Binkley's lighting and David Zinn's costumes incite a riot of bold, clashing colors. Intentional bad taste is a hallmark of the production design; when a centaur, a cyclops, and Medusa turn up late in the proceedings, and when Kerry Butler is borne aloft on Pegasus, the audience goes nuts.

Dan Knechtges' choreography is frighteningly appropriate to the '80s, trading on the kind of movements that we who lived through those years wish we could forget and that younger people must view as ludicrous. Of course, all that boogeying and bumping and dancing on skates is terrific when it's supposed to be funny, as it is here. The production number “All Over the World” raises the roof of the theater, and when a dozen or more mirror balls descend during the finale, the audience is in Disco Heaven. Xanadu is the very first musical of the 2007-2008 season, but it's a no-brainer that Knechtges will score a Tony Award nomination for his work here.

Speaking of dancing on skates: The only bad news about Xanadu is that the show seems to be quite dangerous. Aside from James Carpinello, ensemble member Kenita R. Miller was missing in action at the press performance under review, and I saw her after the show with her foot wrapped. Here's hoping that further injuries can be avoided and that every member of this incredibly hard-working, supremely talented cast can enjoy the fruits of the production's great success.

Stage seating at Xanadu is available at a fraction of the cost of tickets for seats in the house. If you can score a place on stage, you'll really feel like you're part of Broadway's newest hit, one that's sure to be around for years to come.