Adrift In Macau

The Age

Thursday June 26, 2008

Jim Murphy

Adrift in Macau

Music by Peter Melnick, book

and lyrics by Christopher Durang; Rachel de Benedet, Alan Campbell and original off-Broadway cast, cond. Fred Lassen

LML/Middle 8

4/5

Just when you thought no one could write a catchy tune these days, along comes Peter Melnick's Adrift in Macau. This breezy confection, a musical that spoofs films noirs set in the mysterious Orient, is admittedly lightweight and has only 13 songs but all have pleasing melodies and most are irresistibly rhythmic. Melnick is the grandson of the incomparable Richard Rodgers and when you remember that Rodgers' daughter Mary (Once Upon a Mattress) and her son, Adam Guettel (Melnick's cousin, who wrote The Light in the Piazza), are also accomplished theatre composers, one has to marvel at the Rodgers musical genes. Christopher Durang's zany scenario has such character names as Rick Shaw and Tempura (yes, he was battered by life), and his songs with Melnick are equally daffy. Pretty Moon Over Macau has atrocious lyrics because the character has to make it up as she goes along. Rick's Song is all about Rick not being given anything to sing. And the peppy Mambo Malaysian cheerfully ignores the incongruity of Latin rhythms in 1940s China (same goes for an Irish song). But the big torch song, So Long, wonderfully well sung by Rachel de Benedet, is a beauty. -- JIM MURPHY

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