Issaquah Village Theatre's `Jungle Queen Debutante' Is Just Swell

"Jungle Queen Debutante," music and lyrics by Thomas Tierney, book by Sean O'Donnell at Village Theatre in Issaquah last night through Nov. 2; $11-$16; 392-2202. --------------------------------------------------------------- "Jungle Queen Debutante" sends bad movie musicals straight up the river - the Amazon River, that is.

Village Theatre's opening production for the 1991-1992 season is a world premiere that takes a machete to the Technicolor conventions of the 1950s and leaves a trail of laughter in its path.

Take one sweet preppie (Stephanie Parker), the kind who'll keep her pearls on even while dangling over a volcano. Send her in search of a stalwart but myopic archeologist (Brad Curtis) who first falls prey to the charms of a Peruvian jungle goddess (Becky Thatcher) and then simply falls for a transplanted "chantoosie" from Trenton (Judy Ann Moulton).

Mix these up with mobsters, spies and some bump 'n' grind natives in a mish-mash plot that telegraphs its outcome to Machu Picchu. Or was that the Lost City of Viracocha?

Composer and lyricist Thomas Tierney, working with script writer Sean O'Donnell, has crammed enough cliches to choke a python into the two acts and well over two hours of "Jungle Queen." The show is most likely to appeal to those who remember when the word of the hour was "swell," and "coming out" was a term generally reserved for young girls.

Director and choreographer Steve Tomkins brings out a kind of sappy innocence in his cast, while Kim Douglass does much the same with the small pit orchestra.

Despite a strained singing voice last night, Catherine Odegard was punchy and funny playing the part of Parker's aunt, a role melding Mata Hari with Mary Poppins.

Larry Albert had some nice moments, too, taking the part of a New Jersey crime lord who plans to deal in "Amazon Amnesia."

Double-casting in the ensemble allows "Jungle Queen" to keep its roll call under a dozen, while adding to the general fun. (Will Eric Englund have time to shift from native guide to dashing ambassador?)

There's actually something endearing about seeing Dorothy May Rosenthal and Julianne Barnes play eager debutantes one minute and pelvis-pushing tribal members the next. Robert Mead and Barry L. Snarr make the switch in the opposite direction - from Jungle Queen minions to Albert's tagalong slimeballs.

Charlene Hall's set and Alex Berry's lighting for "Jungle Queen" are quite suitable, considering they're operating with the constraint of having to look as tacky as an aging B-movie print. Costume designer Kathleen Maki wraps the natives in generic tatters, and swaths Parker in a delicious formal gown for her final entrance - swinging on the jungle queen's rope.