They've extended Sisters of Swing: The Story of the Andrews Sisters at Broward Stage Door for one final weekend. Get there and see it if you can. It's one of those nostalgic, feel good shows — a nothing matters in life if you don't have music kind of tale.
The story of the legendary Andrews Sisters features a cast that includes Molly Anne Ross, Sarah Ashley, Malia Nicolini and Brad Raukshin, who are so invested in the characters that you can't help but love them.
Sara Ashley, Molly Anne Ross and Malia Nicolini as the Andrews Sisters in Sisters of Swing at Broward Stage Door.
Ross is Patty, the youngest, lead singer, and a rebel to boot; Ashley is Maxene, the middle child who plays mediator, and Nicolini is Laverne, the oldest who has a mind for business and also acts as the girls' mother hen. Raukshin plays quadruple duty in a bunch of roles including the Andrews Sisters' manager, Maxene's husband, Bing Crosby, and even a blonde beer garden waitress and Carmen Miranda.
I didn't have much hope for the script. Usually these jukebox shows just hang a plot around sing-along songs, but writers Beth Gilleland and Bob Beverage have wrapped an interesting well-woven story about one of the original girl groups. And what they portray here has a wider message about the foibles of fame as we follow the dynamic of the sisters' relationships beginning in their early days of traveling in the Vaudeville circuit in their parents' Packard to the very end of their careers.
In-between situations deal with anti-Semitism (Maxene falls in love with the Jewish guy who becomes their manager), alcoholism, broken marriages, strife between the trio over money, and just how much the Andrews Sisters added to the American Songbook. And songbook the show is with Gilleland and Beverage bringing to the light how the Andrews Sisters' songs got made and what made them popular. Highlights include the first 78 rpm hit, the Yiddish tune Bei Mir Bist du Schon, a travesty to the their Greek father, Peter Andreus — he anglicized his name when he came to America — who was anti-Semetic. While we never meet Peter in the play, his presence is there — he chases Jewish manager and Maxene beau Lou Levy with a rifle, and ends up in jail. He builds he and his wife "a palace in the Palms" with the girls' money as they squeak by on meager funds. His iron fist looms over almost ever decision they make.
As far as the logistics of the play, projections above the stage give audiences a sense of time and place.
The original Andrews Sisters
For instance, it's 1941, and the girls hoot and holler while dancing and singing to the Beer Barrel Polka. Suddenly the screen flashes "Pearl Harbor Bombed" and the radio announcement comes on. It's intermission.
Act II finds the girls ready to be catapulted into their USO roles as they became known for entertaining the troops, especially the wounded in hospitals. These are where the sing-along songs really come in and the Broward Stage Door audience, most of them of the age that the Andrews Sisters were all to ready to join in: Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time, and of course, that mega hitBoogie Woogie Bugle Boy.
The cast and direction of this Andrews Sisters is what makes this absolutely heartfelt piece of nostalgia sing. Each of the actresses create individual personalities for their characters, which makes for interesting character studies, and keeps up the investment instead of having the audience wade through a story to just get to the musical nuggets. Plus, all three songbirds have talent to boot.
Director and choreographer Dan Kelley keeps the action moving and ensures that the music is in tandem with the storytelling so that one doesn't overshadow the other. Musical direction by Michael Larsen couldn't be more sparkling and he gets the most, too, from his singers and two other bandmembers. Colleen O'Connell's costumes are period perfect and Sean McClennand's set design captures the era.
Sisters of Swing plays through Aug. 2 at the Broward Stage Door Theater, 8036 W. Sample Road, Margate. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $38-$42; students $16. Call (954) 344-7765 or visit www.stagedoortheater.com.
