Great lunar moth doctor dolittle1/8/2024 Its most elaborate effect is the Great Pink Sea Snail, which is large but distressingly two-dimensional, as if run over by hell’s own dump truck, and its menacing potential is severely undermined by an effete French accent. Those who marveled at “The Lion King” will be unimpressed by this show’s simplistic animal puppets. Tune’s “Dolittle” is strictly kid-show stuff, with little in the way of sets. This isn’t the kind of musical that will educate your little darlings on the wonders of stagecraft. There’s some impressive firepower in smaller parts, too: Polynesia, the bird who loves to sing, is operated and voiced by golden-voiced Sarah Stiles. Dee Hoty, a frequent Tune co-star, plays the love interest, Emma Fairfax, who is more convincing as Dolittle’s prickly opponent than as his girlfriend. Tune has found other top- drawer talents. Burr plays Chee-Chee, the world’s most talented tap-dancing monkey. And Tune, who directs this production, has devised a wonderful dance number with choreographer Patti Columbo called “Monkey-Monkey Island Dance.” The colorful ensemble piece showcases the talents of 12-year-old Aaron Burr, a dancing sensation whom Tune discovered in a televised national dance competition. There’s a charming trio, during which the doctor hoofs it while sandwiched between the creature’s two torsos. These are the moments when Tune’s “Dolittle” comes alive. We get too much detail about Dolittle’s banishment from polite Victorian society (it involves a trumped-up charge over freeing a seal) and his subsequent nautical quest for the Great Pink Sea Snail, which gives Dolittle a faintly disturbing Captain Ahab single-mindedness in the story’s middle chapters.Įventually, though, Tune finds an excuse to get his long, long legs moving (it involves the Pushmi-Pullyu, a two- headed llama that may give small children the willies, or at least prompt some probing questions about anatomical functions). Great chunks of the intermission- free 90-minute show are spent on the story. Tune doesn’t spend a lot of time doing what he’s famous for (at 67, he can be forgiven for slowing down a bit). On that point, some may be a tad disappointed. Harrison’s talk-singing, nondancing approach had its charms, but Leslie Bricusse’s charming and tuneful songs beg to be belted out and moved to – and who’s going to pay good money to see a multi-Tony- winning Broadway legend and virtuoso tap dancer do a Rex Harrison imitation? One other change, though, is an improvement: Tune can sing and dance. At times he seems like the host of a fantastical travelogue on the Discovery Channel. Tune has transformed him from a grumpy loner into a friendly narrator. He says he’s uncomfortable around others of his kind, but he doesn’t really mean it. He was a character that kids could relate to, especially those of us who felt shy or somehow different, showing us that it was OK to be eccentric if your heart was in the right place. He was curt, rude, boorish and moody with other people only animals made him human. As played by the inimitable Rex Harrison, Dolittle was a true xenophobe. “Curmudgeon” doesn’t begin to describe his crustiness. One of the things that made the film memorable was Dolittle himself. If, on the other hand, you want a gentle way to introduce your little Binkey to the wonders of musical theater, Tune’s eager-to-please “Dolittle” serves nicely. It’s yet another example that in these timid times, even tried-and-true classics of children’s entertainment can’t escape the dreaded Fear of Offending Syndrome. Dolittle,” which opened Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, will be a disappointment. If you, like me, harbor fond memories of that long-ago event, then Tommy Tune’s touring musical version of “Dr. Only the most committed and hardy fans braved the brisk northern Ontario weather to stand in line and be the first to see it I was among them. It was a big deal in our small Canadian town when the movie opened on that chilly day in 1967.
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