New Castle Playhouse presents a delightful ‘Bye Bye Birdie’

July 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

Even with a faulty AC that made the auditorium feel like a sauna bath, the New Castle Playhouse production of “Bye Bye Birdie” that opened Friday night is as refreshing as a tropical breeze. Though the 1960 Charles Strouse/Lee Adams musical was never anyone’s idea of an American classic, you’d never know it from director Michael Cavalier’s kicky, deliriously designed and deliciously acted staging of the Camelot-era chestnut.

Inspired by Elvis Presley’s real-life induction into the U.S. Army, the show has always traded on dime-store nostalgia (for the myth of Elvis; for small-town American life; for the kitschy fashions of the late 1950s time period) to generate audience goodwill. And 50-plus years later, that retro combination still works like a charm — at least in Cavalier’s supremely accomplished hands.

Set in fictitious Sweet Apple, Ohio, “Birdie” revolves around a public-relations gimmick engineered by mama’s-boy music manager Albert Peterson (NCP ace in the hole Ben Solomon). Because Albert’s No. 1 cash cow — Elvis Lite Conrad Birdie, played by charming newcomer Jack DeCeasare — is about to be shipped off to the army, Peterson arranges for a Birdie fan-club member, 15-year-old Ohio teen Kim MacAfee (the adorable Sarakate Coyne), to send him off with a kiss.

Naturally, the arrival of Birdie and his entourage, including Peterson and Gal Friday Rose (Julie Garda, who also did the show’s ebullient choreography), generates a huge media storm in Sweet Apple. In the process, it completely upends the lives of Kim, her family (Neal Edman, Janice Hanna and Conner McBeth), her lunkheaded boyfriend (Joseph Cochran) and just about everyone else in their folksy “Leave It To Beaver” town.

The musical’s backstory — how Albert and Rose finally seal a love deal after he finally throws off the manacles of his nightmarish mother (a fantastic, scene-stealing Helen Marie Gould) — remains a sop for grown-ups who don’t give a fig about teeny-bopper idols or their shrieking, pony-tailed fans. Yet, thanks to the invaluable contributions of Solomon, Garda and the indispensable Gould, Albert’s Oedipal conflict becomes the stuff of irresistible comedy and some of the show’s best numbers, including “Baby, Talk to Me” and “Rosie.”

As usual for a Cavalier enterprise, the cast is practically bursting with youthful talent (where does he find so many spectacularly gifted, singing-and-dancing kids?), and his painstaking eye for compositional detail creates some of the most eye-popping human tableaux yet seen on the NCP stage. I was especially taken with the “Telephone Hour” number from Act I, which uses a Mondrian-esque maze of stacked cubes and rectangles, gaily painted in Day-Glo colors. And “One Boy” (gorgeously sung by Coyne, Mariah Fornataro and Delila Danch) is a bubblegum (teen) dream come to rapturous life.

Most impressive of all may be Act II’s indecently pleasurable “Shriner’s Ballet,” which, to be perfectly honest, serves no real narrative purpose in the show. But it’s so dazzlingly choreographed and smashingly performed by Garda and “the Shriners” that all you can do is gasp in delight.

The set design (by Cavalier, Garda and Hanna), costumes (Peggy Hanna, Patti Conti and Patty Sansone), props and musical orchestration (Tom Schaffner conducted the superb 13-member orchestra) are worthy of any big-ticket Broadway touring company. Kudos to producer Phillip L. Clark Jr. (who also plays Sweet Apple’s apoplectic mayor) for helping Cavalier realize his artistic vision. It’s truly a wonder to behold.

“Bye Bye Birdie” runs through July 31 at the New Castle Playhouse. For tickets, call 724-654-3437.