It was the show that introduced Liza Minnelli to the Broadway stage, winning her a Tony Award at 19. It marked the first musical comedy pairing of John Kander and Fred Ebb, the composer-lyricist team that would soon join Broadway's titans. Its initial run was short, just a couple of months in 1965, maybe because a musical poking fun at American Communists didn't seem too amusing barely more than a decade after the infamous McCarthy hearings.

Whatever its weaknesses, Flora the Red Menace -- with music by Kander, lyrics by Ebb and a book by Robert Russell and the great George Abbott -- is a show with enough going for it that it deserves more than being consigned to the Broadway history books.

Fort Lauderdale's Rising Action Theatre is taking a crack at Flora, and though the result has its own flaws, the production is one of the company's better efforts. Rising Action's blend of gay theater, drama and musicals has given it a diverse audience, and the segment that gravitates toward musicals will doubtless enjoy this rare production of Flora.

Director-choreographer Kevin Coughlin is using David Thompson's revised 1987 Off-Broadway script, which turns a show written for 25 actors into a piece that can be played by nine. The conceit is that the bare-bones show we're watching is a production of the Depression-era Federal Theatre Project. For a theater with modest resources, a theater like Rising Action, that works.

The success of Flora the Red Menace depends heavily on who's playing the title character, Hungarian-American fashion illustrator Flora Meszaros. The actor has to nail all of Flora's qualities -- being kooky, naive, energetic, immensely likable. Happily, Rising Action found a convincing Flora in Christina Groom, a petite redhead with a good (though not great) voice and oodles of charisma. That Flora was a fine fit for Minnelli, who would become a kind of muse for Kander and Ebb, is clear. But Groom proves that her older Flora, one with lots of moxie and a vulnerable heart, works too.

The cast surrounding Groom delivers some decent singing and capably executes Coughlin's sometimes-inventive choreography. No one is a vocal standout, but cringe-inducing moments (as when several performers go flat, individually and together) don't happen often.

Chris Costa is handsome enough as Harry Toukarian, the dishy Communist Party member who recruits a smitten Flora into the fold, but he simply doesn't have the acting chops to make us believe that either Flora or her party competition, the conniving Charlotte, would risk so much for a milquetoast stutterer.

As Charlotte, Kitt Marsh is funny in a kind of cartoonish, Boris-and-Natasha way, but she's way too mature to make her pratfall-filled seduction of Harry work, coming off more like Comrade Cougar than Flora's viable rival.

Lissen Ellington and Scott Hindley ably deliver the requisite fancy footwork as the dance team of Maggie and Kenny. But the greatest pleasures in Flora the Red Menace flow from hearing such early Kander-Ebb songs as Quiet Thing and Sing Happy, from Groom's sparkplug of a performance, and simply from the chance to see a rarely done musical live again.

Christine Dolen is The Miami Herald's theater critic.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@