Late in the second act of The Will Rogers Follies, Will Rogers (Larry Gatlin) delivers a heartfelt and quite timely monologue about America's dilemmas. Mind you, he was speaking of the great depression, but as he spoke of Americans struggling to find jobs, food, and hope, you cannot help but think that right outside the Music Hall those very same problems are occuring at that very moment.

Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Peter Stone's Will Rogers Follies opened on Broadway in 1991, earning the Tony for Best Musical (a major coup, with main competition Miss Saigon, plus co-nominees Once on This Island and The Secret Garden). This flashy musical was originally directed and choreographed by Texan native Tommy Tune. His associate on that production was Jeff Calhoun, who is at the helm of this new production.

The Will Rogers Follies centers around the great American icon who had a country fried, laid back, southern approach to his manners, life, and his jokes. All of this while twirling a rope around him. While the book skips years and tweaks with details, the bulk of his life is there.

I observed the first national tour back in the mid 1990s with original stars Keith Carradine and Dee Hoty, and I simply fell for the hummable score and Tune's dazzling choreography. The production now at the Music Hall is not comparable to that tour; instead it has become a dull, horribly ill-paced piece, weighed down by a mostly sleepwalking cast.

During my years of attending musicals at the Music Hall, there have been productions with horrible sound problems, but this one wins the title of "Worst sound ever at the Music Hall" by a mile! Performers voices sound small and swallowed, as if they were speaking from a cave buried in peanut butter. This is not helped by the orchestra constantly drowning out solos. The lyrics in several songs are fast and flowing, so many of the jokes within them are lost or barely audible.

It is obvious that Calhoun borrowed from Tune's original choreography for for this re-creation, but somehow the transition was lost. At times, the ensemble seems to struggle to get through some of the dance steps. They do not gel or flow into the transitions within the dances, but instead it looks as though they were taught the number the day of the performance. Thus, such numbers as "Will-A-Mania" and "Our Favorite Son" come off anticlimactic, not like the showstoppers that they were intended to be. Additionally, the pace in this production is an up and down effort that makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster with molasses covering the tracks.

The performances are mixed. Country singer Larry Gatlin (Will Rogers) does have the vocal pipes to do justice to the score, although his final solo had him slightly off pitch at the performance I attended, and his vibrato was completely off track with his volume. But for the life of me, I could not understand the long, long, and lackluster opening monologue of Rogers reading the newspaper headlines, a segment which has clearly been adjusted for Gatlin. I recall in the original that it was brisk and quite humorous. This time around, Gatlin's new material is excrutiating and slightly offensive. A rim shot from the pit would be appropriate, just to save some of the jokes.

Rogers should be warm, loving, and adored by the audience, but Gatlin does not become Rogers. His performance instead comes off as a self-indulgent, country & western star skating around the character, instead of becoming the character. He possesses no chemistry with Jane Bodle (who plays Rogers' wife, Betty, with winsome grace), the actors playing his children, or even George Riddle, who plays Will's father, Clem. Gatlin instead delivers an uneven performance, separate from the rest of the company. While he does have a wonderful singing voice, he simply lacks the actor's tools to bring life, blood, and energy to the role. There are a few times when he nails down the character perfectly, such as the second act dramatic monologue and his final solo, "Never Met A Man I Didn't Like." But those times were far and few in between.

I am flabbergasted at Riddle's horrible, awful, and simply disastrous performance as Clem Rogers. He lacks diction and volume; I could not understand, comprehend, or hear 95% of Riddle's lines. Adding to that, there is no comic timing, pace, or energy whatsoever from Riddle.

The best performance belongs to Ms. Bodle. She does justice to the bland role handed to her. Betty Blake is not written as strongly as Will, but this does not stop Bodle from delivering what has to be the most believable and truthful performance of the night. She wraps her lilting soprano voice around such ballads as "My Big Mistake" and "No Man Left For Me" and brings the score to full life.

Thankfully, the designs of costume, sets, and lighting are a visual feast here. Vincent Scassellati's costumes are weighed down with sequins, beads, rhinestones, feathers, and other glittery finery in every color of the rainbow. Tony Walton's massive (and self lit) staircase returns in this tour and is used to full effect by the company. Marcia Madeira's lighting wonderfully complements Scassellati's costumes and Walton's set.

While visually it is sublime, this production is sorely lacking in its interpretation of the material.

The Will Rogers Follies plays through July 20th at Dallas Music Hall in Fair Park. Call 214-631-ARTS for tickets.

CAST:

Will Rogers.............................Larry Gatlin
Betty Blake............................Jane Bodle
Clem Rogers...........................George Riddle
Ziegfeld's Favorite...................Nicolette Hart
Wiley Post.............................Jason Edwards
Voice of Ziegfeld.....................President George H.W. Bush

Directed & Choreograhed by Jeff Calhoun

Set Design...........................................Tony Walton
Lighting Design.....................................Marcia Madeira
Costume Design....................................Vincent Scassellati
Sound Design.......................................Abe Jacob Asst
Director/Choreographer...................DJ Salisbury

--John Garcia