Shanghai Lil's
Jaygee Macapugay delivers a charismatic performance in Pan Asian Repertory's revival of this otherwise middling tuner.
in Shanghai Lil's
(© Corky Lee)
The setting is San Francisco's Chinatown during the fall of 1941 (so we know, though the characters don't, the turmoil that world history has in store). Shopworn dancer/chanteuse Mei-mei (Jaygee Macapugay), growing weary of a gypsy's peripatetic life and at least one bad romantic choice (perhaps a string of them), offers to direct an amateur night that Lil (elegant Christine Toy Johnson) hopes will stir up business at the restaurant she's now running solo after the death of her husband. "What uncertain times we are living through," sings Lil (half the songs consist of over-obvious interior monologues). "You must press through the hullabaloo."
The entertainment add-on is the brainchild of Chase (the winning Whitney Kam Lee), a waiter and would-be dancer -- and yes, he starts the show off by romancing a mop. Once the plan is fomented, it's the standard "Hey, kids, let's put on a show!" scenario. Sara (Leane Cabrera), a wholesome Japanese-American teen staying with Lil, is pressed into service, as are her fellow waitresses (Rebecca Lee Lerman and Lisa Villamaria, who appear to have been instructed to mug to the max) and a would-be comic (Timothy Ng), who delivers an arsenal of groaners while sporting Groucho glasses.
Despite the show's limitations, some of the performers still manage to impress. Macagugay has charisma to spare, and the scene brightens considerably every time she steps on stage. She also sensitively handles her character's nascent romance with the much younger, inexperienced Chase. If Cabrera is over-ingenuous as Sara, it's because this model teen's "gee whiz" outlook is written in: the actress nonetheless manages to lend the role some authenticity and grace.