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'Boy Friend' treats you well
By Pat Craig
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Light and fluffy as county fair cotton candy, "The Boy Friend" Charlestons into Walnut Creek's Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts as fresh as a summer breeze and exciting as summer lightning.

There isn't much to this tale of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together. But put together Sandy Wilson's sassy songs, a great piano, banjo and drum combo, and a richly talented cast and you get what just might be this summer's best two hours of entertainment.

Lois Grandi, who has worked minor theatrical miracles in the tiny Playhouse West Theatre on Locust Street, has moved her mainstage operation into the Knight Stage Three black box at the Regional Center. And it's incredible what she's been able to do with a little more space.

With a stage twice as big as the one on Locust, but still no bigger than your rich uncle's rumpus room, Grandi has managed to give "The Boy Friend" a big musical feel, complete with fully realized dance numbers and a leggy kick line surely similar to the kind that made the '20s roar.

The piece, written by Englishman Sandy Wilson in the early '50s, is a perfect parody of those roaring '20s musicals that were short on plot and long on song and dance. And that's what Wilson provides here, setting the scene for a gaggle of British girls attending school in France. Not that it particularly matters, because the lessons at this school all involve singing, dancing and love, and each of the 18 or so numbers in the show is an object lesson in romance among the flappers and their fellows.

Wilson's songs not only capture the flavor of the period, they mimic the familiar composers of the era as well. Throughout, the wordplay of Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin is evident in the lyrics, and the tunes all sound vaguely familiar.

The '20s, like the '50s, seem to be an era created as much by movies and theater as reality. Just like the '50s were not all that much like "Grease," the '20s were probably nothing close to "The Boy Friend." But in both cases the eras are made to look enormously fun. Here, particularly, the fun is provided by a well-cast group of singers and dancers who provide some outstanding numbers. The principals, led by Joy Sherratt, who is a delightful Polly, the poor little rich girl, are simply stunning. Sherratt is teamed with Derek Lux, as Tony, and together they provide some memorable moments, particularly with the number, "I Could Be Happy With You." Other standouts include Sabrina Harris and Andrew Savine in the number "Won't You Tango With Me?"; Tielle Baker and Roland Scrivner (as the elderly, ever-randy Lord Brockhurst) in "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love"; and J.D. Daw and Lisa Christine in "The Carnival Tango," a show-stopping dance number. The list could go on forever, but just go and pick your own favorites from this absolutely charming piece of fluff.