DAMES AT SEA (COLONY THEATRE): 75% – BITTERSWEET

"Dames at Sea" at the Colony Theatre. Credit: Michael Lamont.

SWEET
While the tapping could have been crisper, everyone is in fine voice.
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly

BITTER
But try as everyone will, they’re still faced with Jim Wise’s forgettable music, which pays glaringly inadequate homage to Porter and Gershwin and is dragged down further by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller’s conspicuously predictable book and lyrics. Maybe this once seemed a fresh and clever parody of Berkeley’s improbable extravaganzas, but today, although times are just as much of a mess as they were in the ’60s and the ’30s, we’ve had our senses oversaturated with myriad spoofs of the genre.
Travis Michael Holder – Backstage

BITTER
Yet I found myself rather bored.
Samuel Bernstein – Stage and Cinema

SWEET
Burbank’s Colony Theatre now revives this delectable gem in a production directed with so much imagination by Todd Nielsen, choreographed with such taptastic flair by Lisa Hopkins, and starring such a sensational cast of six that it should make any musical theater lover’s must-see list for Spring 2012.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

SWEET
Terrific tap-dancing and crowd-pleasing songs are currently on offer at the Colony Theatre in Dames at Sea, the delightful spoof of old-time movie musicals.
Candyce Columbus – LA Examiner

SWEET
It is a tribute to the musicals of the 1930′s and has enjoyed revivals throughout the years. No wonder, as it is a charming and entertaining show that is now being presented at The Colony Theatre in Burbank.
Carol Kaufman Segal – Reviewplays

SWEET
Buoyed by a ship-shape cast, the Colony Theatre Company’s “Dames at Sea” revival broadsides the 1930s movie musicals of Busby Berkeley with tongue firmly in cheek.
Philip Brandes – LA Times

SWEET
Dames is a frothy delight that doesn’t pretend to solve the problems of the world but rather seeks to simply keep you smiling. With its dewy-eyed go-get-’em attitude and a multitude of cramp rolls, wings, and shuffle off to Buffalos, you can bet it’ll do just that.
Ellen Dostal – Musicals in LA

SWEET
For anyone who enjoys musical comedies, loads of fantastic tap dancing, boundless energy and enthusiasm, song and dance numbers galore, then you will LOVE this wonderful show.
Cathy Wayne – NoHoArtsDistrict

SWEET
Few musicals capture the flavor of the early Cole Porter revues and Busby Berkeley musical films quite as well as Dames at Sea. Its constant silliness, instantaneous breaks – for no apparent reason – into song and dance… and parody of just about every musical show, especially 42nd Street, make it delicious, frothy and lots of fun.
Don Grigware – BroadwayWorld

BITTER
This, I’m afraid, is the kind of musical that drives a lot of contemporary-minded and serious-minded people to say they don’t like musicals. I got a few good laughs out of Todd Nielsen’s staging, but on the way home, I wished I could chew on something more substantial.
Don Shirley – LA Stage Watch

SWEET
Dames At Sea is now getting a lovely production at the Colony Theatre in Burbank.
Robert Machray – Blog Critics

DAMES AT SEA
Colony Theatre
555 N. Third St., Burbank
Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through May 13, 2012
Tickets: (818) 558-7000