Lyric Rep Bops to the Top with SH-BOOM! LIFE COULD BE A DREAM

LOGAN — With some rare exceptions, gone are the days of drive in movies and local radio DJs. Flared skirts and pompadours weren’t always reserved for costume parties and punk rock, and there was a time when no one batted an eye at expressions of love for a Rama Lama Ding Dong. Some of the fashions, styles and songs of the fifties and sixties have been revived with the invention of the internet and the return of swing music, and Utah State University’s Lyric Rep opens an exciting summer season with a title that blends the spunk of the sixties with a vibe that passes lines of age with ease. Sh-Boom! Life Could Be A Dream, written and created by Roger Bean earned fits of laughter and literally caused the shaking of both young and replaced hips in the audience.

The plot is centralized in the basement apartment of Denny Varney whose mother implores him to get a job and not fill her house with rock music that he continuously blasts and sings. He hears about a radio contest where the local winners will earn a 1-year recording deal and launch their way to stardom. He quickly takes up with two of his best buddies, Wally and Eugene, to form a trio called “Denny and the Dreamers”.

When they need sponsorship they beg Big Earl who owns the local tire shop to let them audition. He sends two surrogate judges in his cutie-patootie daughter, Lois, and head mechanic, Duke, to evaluate. Lois thinks they need a fourth member since quartets are all the rage and it just so happens that Duke has can sing in a way that makes Lois melt. The rest of the story plays out as the band wrestles with ego, eyes for Lois and a jukebox blend of doo-wop era sensations that make the story thrive and the audience jive. 

Director Kitty Balay guided an exceptional production. Her direction of Sh-Boom! did a swell job of teaching good values without being heavy handed. Characters had the maturity to apologize, lift one another up, and have the hard conversations. It’s a show that could have been written in my grandfather’s heyday but with plenty of present day potency. It never felt preachy or pedantic.

Slang like “loser-doozer” felt authentic rather than dated, and the show seemed to land with all in attendance as there was strong applause and a steady stream of guffaws and ha-has. I was sitting next to a lovely woman who had me by a decade or two, as well as a teeny bopper who was probably the youngest in the house. Both caught onto the music, laughed at the continuous banter, and walked out with huge grins on their faces. 

Brett Terrell’s ease and charm as Duke were straight out of James Dean’s playbook. Terrell had a shocking voice that filled the two tiered house. The opening numbers that didn’t feature Duke were instantly impressive to me as Jonathan Kaplan (Denny), Cameron S. Neeley (Wally) and Jonah Newton (Eugene Johnson) were stellar singers in their own right. Terrell took that a step further sounding for all the world like he was cut from the cloth of Michael Buble or a member of the rat pack. I don’t wow easily at singing, whether that’s a preference for strong acting, a lack of musical refinement, or something else. What was something else was the swoon inducing croon of Terrell who looks to have a bright future as a performer. 

One of my favorite discoveries of the show was the versatility of Marin Robinson. She appears on stage as the doe eyed uptown girl who places Denny and the first two dreamers directly into the friend zone. Robinson was hilarious in her  portrayal of Lois’ instant fixation on Duke. At one point Duke tosses a jacket during the song and it lands a few feet from Lois’ chair. Robinson not-so-discreetly slides fully down the chair to snag the leather jacket with her foot, drag it towards her and greedily inhales the scent of him as he tries to ignore her. This overt comedy coupled with a sense of dignity for the character helped her avoid some of the misogynistic tropes that were so common of the era, but were thankfully absent in the script or the production. However what really elevated her performance was her work as Denny’s grating mother which was performed live off stage. Robinson’s mother voice was hilairous and a major change of pace from her girl-next-door Lois. 

The show felt both modern and period correct thanks to excellent choices in the technical design and choreography. Stephanie R. White created choreography that took skill to do well and another layer of complexity to be done badly when the show called for characters to appear off-beat. It was well researched to have the look and feel of the period of the time with modern flair and was so effective that the audience stood to sing and dance along for the show’s final numbers. 

Likewise, the show had exceptional scenic design from Dennis Hassan that drew on a diverse cast of characters from the era. Posters included Jackie Wilson, Marilyn Monroe, The Righteous Brothers and Buddy Holly. For a show trapped mostly in a converted 1960’s sewing room, the stage had levels, life, and places for the five main characters to go. 

Lyric Rep’s opening show has it all. I added about a dozen songs to my spotify playlist that are straight bops. The audience interaction as Denny and the Dreamers stoke the fire of the audience’s approval was strong, and the story had a beautiful arc that was never too tight or loose. Audience members who liked last year’s Lyric Rep production of The Wonderettes are in for a treat with Sh-Boom! Life Could Be A Dream.