UNIVERSITY MUSICAL 'SUGAR' MAKES YOU HAPPY (REVIEW)

There is a scene in "Sugar" that instantly reminds you how utterly charming musicals can be. As dancers tap away atop the Dixie Flyer bound for Miami, the shades on the windows rise one-by-one to reveal the principals singing a happy tune called "Sun on My Face."

Musical comedy can make you glad you're a member of the same species as the people on stage.

That opportunity presents itself when the University Theatre production opens at 8 tonight at the Rose Theatre.

The musical will continue at 8 p.m. Saturday, Thursday and March 5-6. A 2 p.m. matinee will be presented March 7.

Based on the film "Some Like It Hot," "Sugar" is a playful romp about two male musicians in 1930s Chicago who dress as women and join an all-female band to escape from gangsters.

The nonstop singing, dancing, music-making, romance and if-you-only-knew jokes make for an entertaining and amusing evening at Rose Theatre. The collaboration of the theater and music departments and the dance program at Southeast is a prototype for the musical theater major Southeast hopes to create.

Scott Krietemeyer and George Aplin play the pair of musicians, Joe and Jerry, who spend much of the 2 1/2 hours in drag as Josephine and Daphne. Their transformation and duet on "The Kind of Beauty that Drives a Man Mad" is a showstopper.

Krietemeyer is a likable leading man, not quite as caddish as Joe could be, and he shines on the solo "It's Always Love." The expressive Aplin owns all the punch lines. He has great fun being Daphne and lets the audience share his glee.

As Sugar, the blonde singer with an unfortunate thing for saxophone players, Laura Huusko has the endearing quality of a beauty who doesn't know it. She has a fine voice, too.

Matt Kiesling shows off a lilting voice in his role as Sir Osgood Fielding, the millionaire who falls for Daphne. And the geezer chorus behind him registers on the laugh meter.

The chief bad guy in this tale is a gangster named Spats Palazzo, who does most of his talking with his feet. Freshman Doug McDermott is talented and graceful in the part. McDermott also choreographed the moves of his tap-dancing gang, played winningly by J.C. Kime, Mike Renick and Brian Hendricks.

Dancing is not an afterthought in this musical, and choreographer Dr. Marc Strauss has done a good job of making the choruses look sharp. People in these roles often go unheralded but shouldn't in this case. Mandy Brooks, Megwyn Sanders, Bria Nicholson, Amy Hankins, Jessica Hency, Carrie Kraft, Jessica Carter, Margaret Dorsey, Bonnie Thornhill and Lori Coe put a lot of the sparkle in "Sugar."

The same is true for the male chorus composed of Shannon Smith, Brian Hendricks, Mike Renick, Caleb Zustiak, Buddy McKenzie, Daniel Campisi, Marcus Stephens and Barry Rice.

A lot of little parts add up in this delightful evening of musical theater.

Kim Westrich has a nice sense of comic timing as Sweet Sue, leader of the all-female band. She and David P. Schneider, who plays her harassed manager Bienstock, play off each other well.

Marcus Stephens nails his few lines as the musicians' contractor and one of the hoodlums who gets knocked off.

Director Dennis C. Seyer has pulled all these parts, 14 scene changes and 11 set changes together remarkably with the assistance of stage manager Melissa Grote. Seyer also designed the scenes and lighting and is the production's technical director.

One of the beauties of this Jule Styne/Bob Merrick show is how seamlessly the songs advance the story. Those songs are artfully accompanied by the orchestra directed by Dr. Christopher Goeke. A musical is only as good as its orchestra allows, and this "Sugar" is good.