A Marvelous Pity

Another LRMB. WGAF? Well, we do, for a lot of the wrong reasons.

Comments (0) By Brandon K. Thorp Thursday, Aug 2 2007

Susan Lerner Photography

Mark Anders: Mad dog and Floridians go out in the noonday sun.

Details

Words and Music by Noel Coward. Directed by David Ira Goldstein. With Mark Anders, Stefanie Morse, Jeffrey Rockwell, Christopher McGovern, Julie Jacobs. and Rupert Ziawinski Presented through August 19 at Florida Stage, Plaza Del Mar, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. Call 800-514-3837, or visit www.floridastage.org.

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I wish to God I'd seen more of Stefanie Morse over the years. Who the hell is this woman, and why isn't she famous? She's beautiful, she can dance in seemingly any style with great freedom and verve, and her voice is one of those Broadway-bound marvels that blesses any song it touches with more beauty than the composer gave it. At times, she sounds like Julie Andrews, with those lovely transparent notes flying around in the upper register and the sensual throatiness down below. Then she contorts it, and she can sound like anything: a torch-song singer, a warbling milkmaid. Even Ethel Merman.

It is impossible to a find a technical flaw in A Marvelous Party, and I thank Louis Tyrell and company for a lovely evening. I've never seen a more skillfully executed LRMB. If only somebody would sink so much effort and talent into a real play or two, I would be a very happy man.