PUP Frosh Revue: "Sex on Broadway"

For freshmen, it seems to be a rule of thumb that the Street social scene — in all its drunken debauchery — merits the most immediate sense of class cohesion. Freshmen gain a feeling of inclusion, insider status and hipness by participating in the weekly Saturday night forays.

So it's understandable that the Princeton University Players' annual all-freshman show, "Sex on Broadway," would somehow work a Street scene into its stage performance.

Indeed, Director Peter Schram '09 goes for the easy laugh with the first number of this brisk 14-act show. To an otherwise average performance of the Phantom of the Opera's "Music of the Night," Schram adds a few Street-inspired twists: Raoul (Casey Ford Alexander '09) plays an inebriated Lothario looking for a cheap feel, and the Phantom (Jonathan Feyer '09) is a Johnny-come-lately loser competing for Christine's heart – or whatever else he can get. Sure, the Street stuff will work its magic on Princeton neophytes, but to the rest of us, it just makes this tarnished performance all the more dull.

And what about the following scenes? More of the same. The first half of the show, tied together by that ever-creative theme of "humor," flows one Broadway classic into the next. In each, we see many recently-graduated high school dancers testing their mettle as musical actresses. A few have the requisite vocal range to keep the show watchable, but most, I suspect, would be better off in one of Princeton's dance troupes. In the Cabaret number "Mein Herr," many of the dancers' voices get lost under the shuffle of their own feet. In another Cabaret piece, "Two Ladies," the two ladies are shadows in comparison to the number's star, Feyer, who clearly has talent to boast.

Despite his mechanical awkwardness, Feyer performs mini-miracles in many of the show's first scenes. He has the voice of lion, despite the body of a mouse, which lends him a naturally comedic presence.

But he's enough to keep us watching only for so long. In the second half, Alexander takes over, and "Sex on Broadway" finally gets some life. Having deferred a year to perform in the Broadway-bound San Francisco show "A Little Princess," he pulls together the individual strengths of his co-cast — a sense of rhythm, a magnetic stage presence, a voice to kill and looks easily as lethal.

The show's second half, which lacks only in creativity — this time, "seriousness" binds all the numbers — showcases Alexander in a number of skits, including the pulsating performance of "Cellblock Tango" from Chicago. Alexander seduces a number of his teeming dancers with the spins and swirls of a matador, and his energy is contagious for audience and actors alike. A few of the dancers finally show a little passion as they narrate parts of the "Cellblock" number, which blends into the next scene, "As Long as You're Mine" from Wicked, a rather carnal duet between Alexander and his saucy plaything.

It's just too bad we have to sulk through "Sex on Broadway's" first half to get to the more endearing second half.