“Flora the Red Menace,” at 1st Stage, was the first musical John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote together. As in their later musicals, it features a spunky heroine, this time a would-be fashion designer who struggles to find work in New York during the Great Depression. She creates an artists’ cooperative of bohemian young people and wants nothing more than to earn $15 a week. Instead, she meets the man of her dreams, Harry, a struggling artist who attempts to convert Flora to his Communist Party ideals. Flora is so in love with Harry that the difficulties of coordinating her job, her romance and the party don’t bother her until the end of the play, when she has to limit her loyalties.
Although a certain goofiness in the plot keeps “Flora” from being one of Kander and Ebb’s greatest musicals, it’s possible to hear in “Flora” foreshadowings of “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” That is due in large part to the work of Music Director Paul Nasto, who created new orchestrations for this production, culling from the original 1965 Broadway production and the 1987 revival.
Director Susan Devine directs a tremendously talented group of actors, allowing them to maximize both the humor and the sadness of “Flora,” whose book by David Thompson makes clear the difficulties of living in New York during the Great Depression.
| Onstage |
| ‘Flora the Red Menace’ |
| Where: 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean |
| When: Through June 17 |
| Info: $15 to $30; 703-854-1856; 1ststagetysons.org |
Dani Stoller plays Flora with a winning combination of determination and wistfulness. Stoller effectively modulates her powerful voice throughout the show. She almost whispers the lovely ballad “A Quiet Thing,” while belting out other numbers.
Flora’s love interest is portrayed by Joshua Dick, whose clear tenor brings out the beauty of every song he sings, particularly “Not Every Day of the Week” and “Dear Love.” Charlotte, the Communist zealot who covets Harry herself, is played by Sherry Berg, whose big voice fills a role that depends as much on comedy as it does on singing ability.
The cast also includes Mary Beth Luckenbaugh, Mikey Cafarelli, Sam Edgerly, Kelsey Meiklejohn, Stephen Hock and Davis Hasty, all of them superb. Altogether, nine actors create 27 parts, with minimal props and no major set changes. Yet they succeed at creating the feeling of New York in 1935. It’s refreshing to report that the singers are not miked, as so many singers are, even in small theaters in the area. You have the sense that you are hearing a new kind of Kander and Ebb, pure and unadorned.
