Lights are bright with 'Broadway'

Hurting from all the postmodernist muck in theatres today? Broadway, the 1920s comedy-melodrama by American playwrights George Abbott and Philip Dunning will be performed this weekend in the Balch Arena Theater as this fall's Drama Department major. The play promises to be just the time-vacuum you need to suck you out of the fresh air and into the musty, smoky, bathtub-gin-reeking world of a Prohibition cabaret, promises director Laurence Senelick and his cast and crew of Tufts students and professors.

Though the play was written way back when in 1926 _ making it an authentic period piece _ much of its message is still pertinent to current American culture. But the technical spectacle abounds, turning the Balch Arena into an authentic-looking 1920s speakeasy cabaret, in which we meet a cache of interesting and diverse gangsters and showgirls.

"It's remarkable how many of the comments and emotions are identical to how they would play out in modern day," says junior Josh Bauml who plays the character of Steve, a bootlegging Mobster.

But though the actors are all playing characters with a performance background (one particularly rooted in musical theater), the play itself is not a musical and contains no full-out song-and-dance numbers. The little bit of dancing the play does contain is started onstage but finished offstage, presumably in the cabaret itself. A catchy musical score accompanies the play, however, and audiences are guaranteed the satisfaction of humming the "hit parade of the 1920s," as described by a crew member.

Still, the main auditory attraction of this play will be its lines _ that tough 1920s repartee that never misses a beat. The play centers on the lives of performers in the cabaret, with the Billie Moore _ the central ingenue character _ struggling to choose between the two men vying for her heart. One is a gangster and the other is the male star of the cabaret, both conforming to stereotypical caricatures of the Jazz Age.

"One of the juiciest aspects of the play is its language," said Senelick, a professor in the Department of Drama and Dance who has previously directed shows like Euripides' The Bakkhi at Tufts. "It's packed with 1920s slang _ tough talk, vaudeville lingo, the backtalk of cops and reporters. The cast, the designers and I have worked hard to create the world of the period." Indeed, this is the jazz age, with all its flappers, sheiks, small-time performers and big time crooks.

Broadway is atypical of the shows Senelick has previously directed with the department, in that it is firmly rooted in theatrical traditions and contains no twists and gimmicks. But that doesn't mean that the technical aspects of the show will be lacking. The complex sets and costumes alone will be enough to transport the audience through time. And, the talented cast, consisting of many newcomers to the Tufts stage (including several freshmen in leading roles), has been working with the material since the beginning of the fall semester.

"It really looks great," said freshman Julia Arazi, who stars as Billie. "[The cast] has a great mix of professionalism... it's hard work but it doesn't feel like it."

Such efforts will be brought to life over the course of this weekend and next, with a run of seven performances. And, in keeping with the slang of the period, Selenick promises that those in attendance will be treated to a "high old time."