`Victor/Victoria' On Stage: Light, Flashy Froth

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"Victor/Victoria." Music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, and book by Blake Edwards. Additional music by Frank Wildhorn. Directed by Mark S. Hoebee. At 5th Avenue Theatre, Tuesday-Sunday through July 26. $22-68. 206-292-ARTS.

How does a lavishly produced Broadway star vehicle take to the road without its star in the driver's seat?

If it's the splashy production of "Victor/Victoria" at the 5th Avenue Theatre, it offers audiences a smooth and well-appointed ride - to a pretty banal destination.

This vehicle was clearly designed for Julie Andrews, the coolly charismatic star who lent a fire-and-ice allure to Blake Edwards' nimble 1983 film of "Victor/Victoria." Andrews also was the main attraction in this expanded Broadway version of the story, which opened in New York to mixed reception in 1996. Edwards (the star's husband) wrote and directed the musical, with songs by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse, and additional music by Frank Wildhorn.

But Andrews bowed out of the long-planned (and often postponed) Seattle and Houston runs of "Victor/Victoria" due to lingering throat problems. So the 5th Avenue production features Anne Runolfsson as Victoria, a cross-dressing entertainer in 1930's "gay Paree."

And while Runolfsson has a supple, attractive singing voice, and an amiable enough stage presence, she does a good, serviceable job in a show that needs something more, some special je ne sais quoi to overcome its luxury-class vapidity.

How could a fairly ribald, innuendo-laden story about "a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman" seem so, well, pedestrian? Chalk it up to progress: Since "Victor/Victoria" broke some cinematic ground in its initial release, we've had other comic, gently instructive gender-bender and gay-pride romps, including "Tootsie" and several variations on "La Cage aux Folles."

"Victor/Victoria" - the musical - does not reflect this increased mainstream sophistication about androgyny and homosexuality. Rather, in a tired Broadway format, it recycles much of the film's plot and many of its gags, yet fails to duplicate the tender male-female, straight-gay camaraderie or scampering pace of the original.

That doesn't make it joyless: There are amusing farce and slapstick bits (staged here by director Mark S. Hoebee), some pleasant if evanescent tunes (the best, "Le Jazz Hot" and "You & Me," are repeats from the movie), loads of very swish costumes by the great Willa Kim, and those smart Art Deco settings by Robin Wagner.

And the ensemble doesn't lack for charm. Au contraire.

Tony Roberts is a nice surprise as Toddy, the avuncular gay cabaret veteran who befriends the penniless Victoria and helps her craft a booming career as the faux female impersonator, Victor.

To those who know Roberts primarily as the bland second banana in various Woody Allen films, here he is droll and crisply understated in a role that could easily be camped up. His major affectation is a foppish British accent that waxes and wanes, but helps distinguish his Toddy from Robert Preston's lovable film portrayal.

As the suave Chicago mobster King Marchan, Michael Nouri (who, like Roberts, also played his role on Broadway) won't wipe James Garner's film Marchan from your mind - especially in the double-take andslow-burn-bewilderment department.

Though sometimes wooden, Nouri is handsome and virile enough to make both Toddy and Victoria swoon, and his sturdy baritone gets a good airing in the "Almost a Love Song" duet.

Best of all, there is Tara O'Brien, who periodically ignites the show and neatly swipes it. In your standard blond-bimbo role of Norma, O'Brien goes way beyond expectations, using her elastic physique and some shrill Chicago yowling to invigorate a batch of venerable floozy jokes. Her several side-splitting shticks include the savage punishment of an innocent door.

As in the film, the story's farcical romance plot and sly butch-femme commentary alternates with big production numbers meant to be camp, though with little of the film's fun drag bits. Luxuriously packaged in spangles and lame, bedazzled lighting (by Diane Ferry Williams), silk draperies and (at one zany point) pastel pompadour wigs, these extravaganzas feature well-executed but unremarkable choreography by Dan Mojica.

Many theatergoers may appreciate "Victor/Victoria" as simply light, flashy froth: So be it. Or, on the other hand, you could rent the snappier movie, getting some of the same songs and Andrews too. With ticket prices for this star-less show topping at $68, that's not a bad option.