Fit for The King?

As the title of an Elvis Presley tribute show, Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love sounds fiery and intense. The show itself, which is playing a three-week engagement at Au Bar, isn’t. In fact, it’s almost Disneyesque in its scrubbed, wholesome eagerness to please. Diehard Elvis fans will probably find it rather bland, but they may still enjoy the nostalgic appeal of such songs as “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Blue Hawaii.”

The quality of the show is inconsistent. Created by the unlikely team of a critic (Will Friedwald), a performer (Jay Leonhart), and a producer (Jack Lewin), it has the advantage of their accumulated wisdom. The patter is generally brief and never gets in the way of the music. However, there are so many songs in the Elvis catalogue that the show falls into medley hell. To the creators’ credit, the most famous songs are not overdone, and we get playful renditions of such lesser-known items as “Rock-A-Hula” and “Do the Clam.” The most playful of all is “Return to Sender,” performed as heard on a scratchy 45 RPM single — complete with skips! — by Andy Karl, who has some of The King’s charisma, not to mention his low notes.

The one female in the three-person cast is Emily Drennan, a member of Toxic Audio. She has a lovely voice and a winning stage personality. But what’s up with Tom LoSchiavo? He lacks the voice, the polish, and the presence for a show like this. If it’s true that casting is 90% of a director’s work, then Kurt Stramm lost 30% of Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love when he put LoSchiavo in the revue. At least the band, led by musical director Tedd Firth, is smokin’.

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Sperling Hits Gold

The Lyrics & Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y, now well into its fourth decade, has been running on fumes for a long time. All too often, these concerts have been over-produced, pretentious, and a little boring. But this past weekend, Ted Sperling put together Frank Loesser in Hollywood, one of the best L&L concerts we’ve attended in years.

Sperling’s musical credentials are noteworthy — he won a Tony Award last year for his orchestrations of The Light of the Piazza — but he also proved to be an exceptional host for the Loesser tribute. His narration was smooth, knowledgeable, entertaining, and always economical. He understood that the show was all about the music. Sperling occasionally sang as well, revealing a warm, crooning voice.

The show was full of wonderful songs, from the justifiably famous (“On a Slow Boat to China”) to obscure gems (“I Said No”). Wisely, Sperling let stars Mary Testa, Julia Murney, Steven Pasquale, Capathia Jenkins, and Clarke Thorell do what they do best: sing with style and polish. Special guest star David Yazbek, the composer of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, served as a modern-day link to Loesser. If Ted Sperling could be convinced to take over L&L and make it his own, he might be able to lead this venerable series to a new era of greatness; failing that, if the Y could get him back even once a season to do a show like this one, it would be a step in the right direction.

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House Call

It seems extremely unlikely that there could ever be a play with more expositional asides than House of Desires. This broad romantic farce by the 16th-century Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz, now being presented by The Storm Theater, features so many cases of mistaken identity that even William Shakespeare would blush at the excess. Fortunately, everything from the set design (Todd Edward Ivins) to the lighting design (Michael Abrams) speaks of quality and craftsmanship, and Michael Daly’s fight direction is terrific.

Director Peter Dobbins has provided some clever staging, but the acting is wildly uneven. Joshua Vasquez, as a put-upon servant, stands out in this cast like a beacon of hope. We should also commend Mark Cajigao for wisely underplaying for comic effect, Jamil Mena for his physical comedy turn, and Gabriel Vaughan for being villainous without being silly — not an easy thing to do in these surroundings. But there are also some dreadful performances, the worst of which comes from Jessica Myhr, who seems better suited to playing Vampira than a Susan Lucci-style vixen. Granted, the play is intended to be an over-the-top romp, but Myhr gives new meaning to “over-the-top.”

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]