Randy Kramer offered the best explanation as he welcomed the opening night audience to Beehive, now on stage at MusicalFare Theatre. He said the season was built during the pandemic and it’s all about forgetting about what is going on outside under all those facemasks and just having some fun. And for the most part, Beehive is all about putting fresh batteries in your favorite transistor radio and singing along with familiar Top 40 hits from yesterday.

Beehive is a send up to all the girl groups and girl singers of the ‘60s. It’s also a bit of a social history through fashion and hair styles (Kari and Susan Drozd must have had a blast working on the hair/wigs and fashions for this one) and a running commentary on selected events of the day.

Act 1 is all about the conventional world back then. Silly patter songs like “The Name Game,” tearful teen tunes like “It’s My Party,” and hopeful love songs like “Then He Kissed Me,” “Sweet Talkin’ Guy,” and “One Fine Day” had the audience singing along. The sextet of singers – Brittany Bassett-Baran, Stevie Jackson, Lily Jones, Sabrina Kahwaty, Kristen-Marie Lopez, and Timiyah Love were giving these songs their own treatment. They weren’t trying to imitate the songmakers of the day. It was indeed a jolly romp and the audience was eating it up.

Act II brought the second half of the decade. It started out with a lovely rendition of “Abraham, Martin, and John” by Jones, Lopez, and Love. It was a stunning, harmonic mesh of voices and a poignant lament on Mr. King’s and President Kennedy’s deaths plus a reflection on the lives lost in Viet Nam. Mores for women were changing, too, and so did the tenor and tone of the songs. The fashions were getting sassy as well,  as mini-skirts replaced the puffy crinolined skirts of a more modest length. As a society, we were moving from “My Boyfriend’s Back” to “You Don’t Own Me.” The cast cruised through a few British invasion tunes right back to the homegrown female voices. “The “River Deep, Mountain High” and “Pride Mary” medley did Tina Turner proud and the Aretha medley blew the roof off the house. Jones, Lopez, and Love did it again.  They even had a quick wardrobe change from slinky sequins to flowing chiffon. It was the highlight of the show. Then it was 1969 and time for Woodstock. Cottony fringed granny dresses and sandals replaced strappy sandals and sparkle. Kahwaty gave it her best as she tried to growl out “Somebody to Love.” But when Jackson came on stage in a send up of Janis Joplin, the audience laughed? Really? I was rather shocked. After an act and a half of well spun songs, for a couple numbers it felt like she was trying to parody (certainly not mock) Joplin and somehow some audience members found her performance amusing. The follow up trio turned “Me and My Bobby McGee” into a cheesy country tune without the signature bluesy soul.

Another thing that bothered me:  The trio ensemble pieces were as segregated as my Buffalo public grammar school, pre-Judge Curtain. It would have made a bold and beautiful artistic statement to mix it all up.

The set had the bright colors of the Laugh In stage, with different levels perfect for doing the twist, the jerk, and the pony. Director/choreographer Carlos R.A. Jones kept his cast movin’ and groovin’ all over the stage, too.

The back up band was solid, led by keyboardist Phil Farugia with  Larry Albert on guitar, Jim Linsner on drums., Jim Runfola blowing a mean sax, and Jimmy Runfola on bass.

If you’re into musical nostalgia and like to sing along, this is the show for you. So rat your hair, rub another coat of Jubilee wax on your Nancy Sinatra go-go boots, and grab a ticket a www.musicalfare.com. The show runs a fast-paced 90 minutes with one intermission to December 11.

As the Ralph Freed-Burton Lane song says, “I love a Gershwin tune. How about you?” So a whole show of Gershwin music sounds like absolute heaven to me. That’s what I loved best about Nice Work If You Can Get It, now onstage at MusicalFare Theatre.

This was 10 years coming to WNY, having a short run on Broadway in 2012. Overall reviews weren’t stellar there, but honestly, I don’t know why. It’s a kick of a show with an absolute killer score. MusicalFare put together an outstanding cast and crew that soared above the show’s paper-thin book.

MusicalFare embraced the show’s endearing hokeyness by just playing into it. It was brilliant. The show opens with onstage credit roll crafted to look like a black and white movie opening. Then the set is revealed and it’s perfectly Art Deco. Tone setting complete.

The story revolves around a rich playboy (Marc Sacco) ready to wed to country’s foremost interpreter of modern dance (Emily Yancey) who’s the daughter of a stuffy Senator (Jon May) and the niece of Prohibitionist (Charmagne Chi).  When the playboy falls for a bootlegger (Renee Landrigan) who secretly lifts his wallet and is storing hooch in his Long Island mansion’s basement, hijinks ensue.

But who cares about plot when you have the crème de la crème of Gershwin in your ears? Classic songs like “Sweet and Lowdown,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” and “But Not For Me” are woven into the story, propping up the all-too-predictable plot and showcasing the cast’s considerable vocal talents. The real standout for me was Landrigan’s “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Who knew a tomboy bootlegger had that sweet and sensitive side?

Sacco is perfect in his role as playboy Jimmy. He looked and sounded every inch the musical-era screen star, too. He played well against bootlegger John Kaczorowski,  as Cookie McGee, not-so-bad-guy bootlegger who pretends to be the mansion’s butler. Bobby Cooke brings the best laughs as the chief of the Long Island Police Department, carefully spelling L.I.P.D. with emphasis. Every time. Nicole Cimato leads the corps de flapper with fringe and style. Chi is the ultimate scene stealer as the Prohibitionist leader of the Society of Dry Women: how she manages to fall on her back and sustain a high belt is beyond me. I loved Pamela Rose Mangus’ second act entrance, but my disappointment is that we didn’t hear her sing in this one.

Chris Kelly got to direct this frothy romp, with a great crew. Chris Cavanagh nailed the set, projection and sound mix. The sisters Drozd – Kari and Susan – created visual perfection with costumes and makeup respectively. Kristy Schupp choreographed some totally fun dance numbers…including real tap dancing, and one ensemble member on point shoes in a ballet sequence. Music director Theresa Quinn led the off-stage quintet in this s’wonderful score. Listen carefully and you’ll catch a few Gershwin riffs that aren’t in the program.

Speaking of program, my one quibble is the digital playbook. I get it. A digital program saves you paper and money. But it also creates a completely annoying situation in the theatre when cyber-savvy patrons ignore the pre-show message to turn off their phones and leave them on to read the song list. Yes, I’m talking to you, lady in Row F and two seats down from me in Row G. But I can’t go all Patti LuPone on y’all because the digital program sets you up for this behavior. Rant over.

Nice Work if You Can Get It is pure fun from start to finish. The music is superb, the visual and aural experience is a feast for eyes and ears, and you have no choice but to leave with a smile on your face. And as the Gershwin song says, “who can ask for anything more?”

The show runs two hours and 15 minutes with a 15-minute intermission, until October 9. Book your tickets at http://www.musicalfare.com.

It’s odd to think that the true spirit of Christmas – a wish for peace on Earth and  goodwill to all peoples – can be found in a story about war. But that is the essence of  All is Calm, now onstage at MusicalFare Theatre.

It’s a real story taken from a moment in World War I history. In the first few months of the war (“we thought it would be over by Christmas,” is an oft-repeated line in the show), British soldiers were acclimating to life in the trenches in that most frightening location of The Great War: No Man’s Land. Something happened on Christmas night, 1914: British soldiers on the Western Front heard singing and saw flickering lights coming from the German troops.  They bravely crossed this chasm of battle and joined in with carols of their own. Weapons were laid down, beverages, snacks, and stories were shared, language and cultural barriers were set aside. The men declared their own unofficial Christmas truce that lasted but a few days and was ne’er repeated again.  Playwright Peter Rothstein captured the simple elegance of this snapshot of humanity with this script.

If the story sounds familiar, you’re either a student of world history, you paid attention to the stories told by your grandparents, or you were in the Subversive Theatre Collective Audience in 2014 to see local writer Gary Earl Ross’ take on the same story, The Guns of Christmas.(Hat tip to the Theatre Companion for reminding me.)

Rothstein’s script is built on a series of statements from soldiers with each quote closed out with their name and rank. I’m a big fan of epistolary writing, and using this tactic felt like we were reading a soldier’s letter to someone back home. Associating words to people gave the story its heart. The production also uses the power of music to support this (sometimes debated) moment in WWI history. Music Director Theresa Quinn’s magical piano playing is absent, but her church choral director skills are apparent. There’s a whole lot of ensemble singing going on, and it’s all done a cappella. At times it’s a little bit barbershop quartet harmonics, other times I hear full-fledged British boy choir-layered harmonies in the familiar WWI tunes, including “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “Pack Up Your Troubles,” and “When This Bloody War is Over.”  It’s all so very good. Peppered between are stand out solos from the familiar voices of MusicalFare including Ricky Needham, Darryl Semira, Marc Sacco, and Louis Colaiacovo. It’s a tribute to the cast and Quinn’s direction to pull it off as successfully as they all did. There was no music to “help” the singer find his pitch: it’s all up to talent and skill that this cast has in abundance. If an occasional sound wasn’t quite as written, well, heck, blame trench acoustics.

Susan Drozd staged and directed this crew with military precision. There were beautiful moments when weapons were sharply, deliberately placed just so. Each actor held a firm gaze to the back of the house when delivering lines, speaking to everyone and someone else just beyond the backwall.  Chris Cavanagh’s dramatic lighting and battle noises were the perfect foils for designer Dyan Burlingame’s trench set. Kari Drozd managed costume design and it was fun to watch the men using simple leg wraps, hats, and coats to become other characters. This was an important detail in the story and signaled their transition from camp soldier to one in active battle. Actors represented multiple roles, too, and were adept at shifting accents and dialects as well.

All the elements come together to create a moving and powerful human experience.

The well-paced, one act (no intermission and just under 90 minutes) production ended with a reminder, from British poet Robert Laurence Binyon’s poem The Fallen: “We will remember them.”

All is Calm is onstage until December 12: tickets and details are at www.musicalfare.com.

Sidebar: MusicalFare, like every other space in our community,  has many protective policies in place. Vaccination cards and IDs are checked before you enter the theatre. Facemasks are required. There’s touchless ticketing, too. All good stuff that should encourage audience members to feel safe and welcomed. The one thing that irks me is the lack of the printed program. I totally get it: it’s another way to limit contact between patrons and volunteers, both of whom may be at risk. Digital programs may inadvertently cause a new epidemic: cell phones on during the production to follow the song list. Seriously. I was surrounded by multiple program perusers and even over heard one person comment about how convenient it was to ‘see’ the program now. Patrons, it’s OUR responsibility to manage our need to know during a show. Peruse before curtain, please, or when you get home. The Patti LuPone Rules still apply: phones off and away during a show, please. Theatres created digital programs to protect you, and not to give you a new way to distract actors and your fellow patrons. The pre-show video with actors demonstrating how (and how not) to wear a face mask, however, was a hoot.