“Dogfight”
Civic Theatre
The Kalamazoo Civic Theatre’s production of the musical, “Dogfight” recently opened. WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
The storyline of the current offering, Dogfight in The Civic’s Parish Theatre, centers on the adventures of three young marines, Birdlace, Boland, and Bernstein, known as the Three Bees, on the night before they ship out to Vietnam in 1963. As a cruel joke, they pitch in for a cash prize awarded to the marine who brings the ugliest girl to a party.
In the process, one Marine, Eddie Birdlace, played convincingly by Sam Davis, finds that real beauty sometimes lies beneath superficial appearances.
This show offers much in the way of testosterone-fueled energy from a host of marines who light up San Francisco on their last night stateside. Although director Anthony J. Hamilton’s actors, particularly those playing the Three Bees, create believable comradery and rowdy characters, some audience members may find the story has some loose ends and unresolved questions.
Sam Davis’s Birdlace initiates rough and seemingly unfeeling interactions with Rose, a gentle guitar-playing waitress, rendered in a nuanced and sparkling performance by Hana Westrick. This clumsy mismatch between potential lovers provides humor, and poignant soft moments, as well as the push and pull of romantic chemistry that holds the evening together.
The show’s first emotional connection occurs with Birdlace’s invitation to Rose, “Come to the Party.” This song, and the carefully crafted dialogue around it, weave a web that conceals the motives of Birdlace. At the same time, it belies the character’s real interest, behind feigned casual interest. It’s a fine line to walk, but Davis, with support from Westrick’s Rose, nails it.
A key scene that doesn't work as well occurs at the party and dance as feminine ugliness is rated on a ten-point scale. Lyrics explaining the contest’s rules were lost in the sound mix with the accompanying music. Clarity and audibility of the lyrics over music were a problem throughout.
This scene’s impact is delivered in a restroom encounter between Marcy, a prostitute, played by Sydney Rae Harrison, and Rose. As Harrison leads, Westrick joins in for “It’s A Dogfight,” a vociferous gut-felt commentary on the marines’ true motives for the party.
Westrick’s strong and poignant vocal in “Pretty Funny” considers her recently damaged self-image.
The marine chorus opens Act II with the celebratory “Hometown Hero and Ticker Tape Parade,” a premature imagining of a homecoming welcome that never happens. Later in a tattoo parlor, Jordan Bruner as Bernstein, and Brandt Trotter as Boland, undergo a painfully comic bonding ritual. The sting of the needle was mitigated by enthusiastic audience laughter.
The show’s most memorable scene is built around a duet by Rose and Birdlace, “First Date/Last Night.” Augmented by director Anthony J. Hamilton’s creative use of varied pace on a revolving turntable, their two-steps-forward, one-step-back romance begins its slow advance.
Body language, awkward chit chat, and well-timed pauses help underscore the pair’s awkwardness, as well as their mutual fear of letting love slip away. For portraying star-crossed characters with trouble expressing feelings, Davis and Westrick express them very well.
After an encounter with Drew Gorzen’s wonderfully officious waiter, and a softening in Birdlace, this couple seems ready to take the next step in their budding relationship. They do.
Birdlace and Rose part after a heartfelt morning farewell. Anticipating their embarkation, the Three Bees reunite for a beer and bravado-infused reprise of “Some Kinda Time.”
As lights shift, bombs burst and bullets fly around them, the Three Bees, presumably sent as advisors, are discovered in a deadly firefight after an ambush in Vietnam. Although this scene is well rendered technically, Peter Duchan’s book offers no apparent decisions made under fire by Birdlace, or his buddies. This weak story ending and scenes that followed left me wanting more.
Cut to four years later as Birdlace, a broken man with injuries and PTSD, is seen stumbling through the streets of San Francisco. He finds Rose, who graciously tends to him and takes him in, although this final scene reveals little about the characters, their choices, or future.
If the play’s ending message is that the Vietnam War was a meat grinder for those who served, then my reaction is “I think I knew that. Can you show me something more revelatory about the characters and battlefield choices that I haven’t seen in a host of other movies and stage plays?”
Each generation should have the opportunity to reconsider the Vietnam War and the era. The appetite for this was evidenced by the young age of the cast and audience on opening night.
Hopefully, the vehicles entrusted with telling Vietnam War stories, whether it be fiction, film, or play, will provide audiences with better insights into characters inhabiting that bygone world.
