An acute comedy that's anything but obtuse

The Triangle Club promises to "steel" campus attention this weekend with its 110th production, "Puns of Steel."

Boasting puns far wittier than the above, the show is a revue loosely structured around the theft of a young cast's script. As the actors attempt to salvage the musical without any printed material, hilarity ensues.

Following the loss of the script in the opening number, the first act continues with a series of disconnected songs and sketches. The second act consists of three satirical 10 minute "mini-musicals," a new genre for the Triangle Club.

While the first "mini-musical" does not focus on a specific topic, the second satirizes a famous Broadway musical and the third lampoons an entire genre. The show concludes with the traditional kick line and closing number.

Robert Duke, who has directed five Triangle shows since 1990, returns to lead this year's cast. Accompanying him as the music director is Jay Kerr '67, who was the president of Triangle while at Princeton and who has been involved in 10 percent of all McCarter shows ever performed. Jeanne Simpson choreographs her fifth consecutive show.

In praise of the professionals who run the show, Katie Grzenczyk '02, the stage manager, said "This particular group . . . it's a veteran kind of a team. There was a unified purpose and approach."

For the past four years Duke and Kerr have led the team of student writers who create the Triangle show script. Having the duo oversee both the writers and actors this year "helped because there was some continuity. That was important," said Doug Lambert '01, president of Triangle.

Duke agrees. "It's great to see it all the way through to the end," he said.

As he watched the writing process, which began in January, unfold, Duke said he observed that, "people got very comfortable trusting each other. I feel that that has gotten better every year."

As the writers brainstormed for comedic ideas, "they [could] say, 'That didn't work, let's try something else.' " This year the writers composed more songs than in any of the shows Duke had directed previously.

Another change in the production of the Triangle show has been the writers' increased presence onstage. "It used to be years ago that writers wrote and actors acted," Duke said. But this year, in addition to providing material for actors, many writers are taking the stage to perform themselves.

There are 25 people in the cast, an unusually large number for a Triangle show. But this performance is "more of an ensemble show," Duke said, rather than "six or seven people who do everything and a big chorus."

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The energy level of the actors has been a boon to the show. "This year's cast is a lot of fun. We have a great time," said Elizabeth Greenberg '02, a Triangle actor and the club's public relations director. "Everyone's friendly, fun and crazy, which everyone needs to be."

Certainly the trek across campus to Broadmead Daycare, where the cast rehearses, demands such enthusiasm. Five minutes before a run-through, the sound of a single vacuum cleaner pervades the finger-painting-bedecked building.

But shortly after practice begins, the din of three groups dancing to the piano fills the rehearsal space. As members of the center group break away to flaunt their tap dancing skills, actors on the periphery look on in mock disdain of their cohorts' diverse abilities. In the frenzy of musical numbers, there is no scarcity of talent to display.

Two weeks before the final rehearsal, the director's job is to channel this energy into a finished product. "These shows are really raucous . . . [but the production] isn't good unless it's polished," Duke said.

"That's what they're doing in the next week . . . we've got raucous," he admitted with a smile.

One of the more difficult aspects of directing the 110th production is the show's unique format. While the "book show" develops momentum as the plot rushes toward a climax, the revue must sustain short bursts of entertainment within each sketch.

"The hardest part of doing any musical revue is the second act. You come back from intermission and you sort of have to top yourself," Duke said. "There's no natural build to the show."

Yet the essential unifying factor has been the "play within a play" concept. "The thing I really like about this show is how often it became about creativity and ideas . . . kind of a leit motif . . . the show just has a nice flavor as a result, and kind of a sense of cohesion," Duke said.

"It's a show that's really conscious of being a show," Grzenczyk said.

"The whole show is all these little pieces that come together in the end," said Micah Arbisser '01, a member of the Triangle Club. In addition, he said the play has "a good mix of Princeton-oriented and not-Princeton-oriented" humor.

As opening night approaches, the cast and crew await audience reaction to their own original work. "If an audience is having as good a time as the people on stage," said Joshua Boak '01, a veteran of four previous McCarter shows, "then you know it's a success."

The Princeton Triangle club presents "Puns of Steel," at McCarter Theatre. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Call (609) 258-ARTS or stop by the McCarter box office for reservations.