Murder & Music Mix In "Curtains"

You think getting away with murder is hard. Try writing a Broadway musical.

Both subjects are very dear to the heart of "Curtains," a thoroughly entertaining new musical that opened Thursday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. It's a blissful, often very funny celebration of a bygone era, a theater world that has largely disappeared.

"Curtains" is set very specifically in 1959 _ near the end of Broadway's Golden Age. It was the year of such hit shows as "Gypsy," "The Sound of Music" and "Fiorello!" But "Robbin' Hood _ a new musical of the Old West," the show-within-the show in "Curtains," isn't one of them.

Trying out at Boston's fabled Colonial Theatre, the production is facing disastrous reviews. "If you loved `Oklahoma!' stay there as long as `Robbin' Hood' is running in Boston," goes one of the more positive notices.

Not only that. Its obnoxious and talentless leading lady is dead, collapsing during a curtain call and then expiring. The verdict? Murder. And everyone on and offstage is a suspect. Cue a Beantown detective, portrayed by David Hyde Pierce, a man who's not your average gumshoe. This copper has show biz in his soul _ he's an amateur thespian who, in announcing his community theater credits, says, "... in `A Midsummer Night's Dream,' my Bottom was very well-received."

It's the kind of corny, slightly naughty joke, courtesy of book writer Rupert Holmes, that propels the musical's genial self-mockery. Yet behind that tweaking is an affection for musical theater, a genuine appreciation of the craft and hard work that goes into making a show work. Director Scott Ellis artfully keeps that balance intact while pushing the convoluted plot forward.

Holmes has written mysteries before _ novels, plays and, his best-known theatrical effort, a musical based on Charles Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." He skillfully sets up a story chock full of twists, turns and red herrings. And his one-liners about the theater have the zing of a man who knows his way around a stage and the disasters that sometimes lurk there.

The chipper score, buoyed by William David Brohn's period orchestrations, is by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the team behind such musicals as "Cabaret" and "Chicago." "Curtains" may not rank with those classics, but on an initial hearing, there appears to be at least one Kander and Ebb standard here. The number is called "I Miss the Music," a hymn to that special collaboration between a composer and a lyricist.

The song, with its sweeping melody and simple yet eloquent words, takes on added poignancy these days. Ebb died in 2004, and you can feel that loss during Jason Danieley's sterling rendition of the tune. Since then, Kander and Holmes have made only slight adjustments and additions to the show's lyrics.

The suspects in the diva's death are a motley collection of theatrical folk, starting with the producer, played with brash, impeccable comic timing by the glorious Debra Monk. When Monk leads a chorus of stagehands in a snappy tribute to the money side of Broadway, "It's a Business," you know you are in good old-fashioned musical-comedy heaven.

Among other could-be murderers: the show's lyricist (Karen Ziemba) and composer (Danieley), a married twosome having personal difficulties; an ingenue (Jill Paice) who just may be a little too helpful; the acerbic director (Edward Hibbert) who turns snippiness into high art; the agile leading man (Noah Racey); the show's garment-industry backer (Michael McCormick); an ambitious chorus cutie (Megan Sikora); and, good grief, even a critic (John Bolton).

The detective not only wants to find the killer, but, what is more important, he wants to fix the show and turn it into a hit. Even murder can't stop him.

The ingratiating Pierce makes a deceptively unassuming detective. The performer lands his jokes and songs with a quiet charm, particularly a number in which he sings of his lonely life, an exisence of "lunch counter mornings and coffee shop nights." The actor is nimble, too, handling Rob Ashford's adroit choreography with ease.

Ashford's dances are often witty, particularly in the cowpoke scenes, and he showcases Sikora in one amazing number of gymnastic virtuosity.

Designer Anna Louizos' settings are framed by a fake golden proscenium within the actual proscenium of the Hirschfeld. William Ivey Long's costumes range from 1950s chic to Western duds for "Robbin' Hood."

Nostalgia is the order of the day, a fondness for a time when musicals were just meant to be fun. Yet they were more than that. One of the most touching moments in the show occurs when Pierce, his face awash in a beatific smile, attempts a dance routine with a whole chorus doing the same steps behind him. Dreams don't get much better than this.