It’s precisely for shows like Do Re Mi that Musical Theatre West’s Reiner Reading Series was created, Broadway chestnuts that for one reason or another have faded from memory despite Tony recognition and decent runs, and with Daniel Smith directing a crème-de-la-crème cast at Long Beach’s Beverly O’Neill Theatre, Do Re Mi’s one-night-only concert staged reading provided more than a few delights.

Of the three shows vying for Broadway’s 1961 Best Musical Tony, only Bye Bye Birdie, the winner, has stood the test of time, an enduring charmer that like its 1962 successor, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, remains a delightful Kodachrome snapshot of life in the Elvis-‘50s, Kennedy-’60s.

Do Re Mi’s look at the jukebox biz circa 1961, on the other hand, feels more dated than period-piece with references to a time and place unlikely to stir memories in (or even make much sense to) anyone under retirement age.

Written as a star vehicle for Phil Silvers, the bespectacled comedian you’d need to be at least 65 to recall as TV’s Sgt. Bilko, Do Re Mi recounts the misadventures of perennial loser Hubie Cram (Michael Betts), whose long-suffering wife Kay (Meloney Collins Benjamin) we first meet as she once again finds herself “Waiting” for hubby to show up from his latest unsuccessful scheme.

Ignoring Kay’s advice to “Take A Job” with her dry cleaner father, Hubie opts to join his gangster pals Fatso O’Rear (Pablo Rossil), Skin Demopoulos (Gabriel Kalomas), and Brains Berman (Jeffrey Mahler Landman) in leasing jukeboxes to various drinking establishments around town.

The trouble is no one’s interested in their “jukes,” and so the foursome decide to begin managing talent as well, which means auditioning decidedly untalented singers like Irving Feinberg (William Martinez), Marsha Denkler (Jackie Cox), and Gretchen Mulhausen (Jennifer Strattan) before finally discovering the real deal in blonde stunner Tilda Mullin (Heather Lundstedt-O’Neill) before the equally looks-blessed music exec John Henry Wheeler (Richard Bermudez) steps in to steal her away.

Spoiler alert: A Senate investigation later targets Hubie as purported jukebox racketeer “Mr. Big” before he finally learns his lesson and agrees to “Make Someone Happy,” that someone being Kay.

Though decidedly minor Jule Styne, Do Re Mi does feature that one enduring hit (covered by everyone from Doris Day back in 1961 to Audra McDonald five decades later) and a number of others worth discovering, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s lyrics are particularly clever in “What’s New At The Zoo” (“Ouch, you’re stepping on my pouch.”),

Still, it may be hard for post-boomers to relate to Do Re Mi’s era-specific plot and not terribly likable characters.

Fortunately, director Smith gives the Do Re Mi reading a number of imaginative touches, though the show itself provides few if any chances for him to show off his remarkable choreographic gifts.

It does, however, offer its leading man another role of a lifetime, Betts’s loud-mouthed Hubie making for a versatility-demonstrating follow-up to the shy, retiring Dusoleil of last year’s Amour, and it’s a pleasure to hear Hubie’s songs performed by someone with a voice (words unlikely ever to have been used to describe Phil Silvers).

The same can be said for Benjamin, who sings Kay’s songs in a rich alto the role’s originator Nancy Walker could only dream of in addition to giving the busy-round-town jazz vocalist the opportunity to strut her considerable comedic stuff.

Quintessential musical theater romantic leads Bermudez and Lundstedt-O’Neill sing gorgeously, with particular vocal snaps to his “I Know About Love, her “Cry Like The Wind,” and their duetted “Make Someone Happy.”

Three stooges Rossil, Kalomas, and Landman give classic Hollywood gangsters a run for their illegally-earned money; Bryan Dobson (Wolfie Farber) and Tom Shelton (Moe Shtarker) score their own laughs as a couple more not-so-reputables; and Cox, Martinez, and Strattan’s hilarious audition numbers should be uploaded to YouTube posthaste.

Carlin Castellano, Katie Marshall (Thelma), and Glenn Shiroma complete Do Re Mi’s topnotch cast.

Daniel Thomas music directs to perfection in addition to conducting a Broadway-scale orchestra from Los Angeles Musicians Collective.

Heidi Westrom is stage manager. Kalomas and Betts are Reiner Reading Series producers.

At its best, Musical Theatre West’s Reiner Reading Series has provided audiences with the unadulterated delights of On The Twentieth Century, last fall’s Once Upon A Mattress, and more than a few others.

A not-so-classic musical like Do Re Mi offers far greater challenges, and though the rewards may be fewer as well, it’s hard not to welcome a once-in-a-lifetime chance to discover a bit of Broadway’s forgotten past.

Beverly O’Neill Theatre, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
June 3, 2018

Tags: Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Garson Kanin, Jule Styne, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre West, Reiner Reading Series