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Ace
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Cast
Photo by Craig Schwartz
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By January Riddle
It’s 1952 in St. Louis, Missouri, and a family of two is falling apart. A well-meaning social worker (but aren’t they all well-meaning?) and a host of doctors and teachers are trying to convince a mother with depression that her pre-teen son will be better off in foster care.
“Ah, how misguided an era the fifties were!” we might say now in more educated (and less well-meaning) times. At the same time, we might wish for the implications of that era when patriotism was paramount and people knew their familial roles.
More than that is said and implied in Ace, a new musical about aviation heroes by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker in its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe Theatre. Stafford Arima’s precise direction and Andrew Palermo’s clever choreography (especially during the dogfight scenes) produce an emotional and emotive production. David Korins' simple and effective set allows quick changes of time and place without interfering. Despite Oberacker’s monotonous music that never lifts high enough to fly even a kite, the actors’ voices are good to excellent, and the 10-piece pit orchestra does a fine job conducted by David Kreppel.
Taken at its surface script,Ace is about the legacy of heroism in World War I and II. It portends to pay tribute to those brave pilots who engaged enemies in dangerous dogfights and the sacrifices of women and children left behind, sometimes permanently, while warriors did what warriors must do to preserve faith and freedom. To accept that premise may be just fine. The play goes along well enough in that mode.
It is less comforting, certainly less simplistic, to look at the subtexts. War is not healthy for families and other living things. War may be hell for those who must engage in it, but it is a lasting purgatory for those left behind. Legacies are not always what time and romanticizing make them.
The central legacy lies with the fatherless Billy, incredibly played and sung by Noah Galvin, whose mother Elizabeth (a sweetly fragile Lisa Datz) fights her own battle with depression and a lifelong guilty secret. Billy is angry at being technically orphaned and fights with schoolmates, teachers, a lovely couple of foster parents, Louise and Edward, (Betsy Wolfe and Duke Lafoon), and himself. In a splendid bit of satire, Wolfe delivers a hilarious cookie baking scene reminiscent of the best of Lucy when Louise tries to live up to the perfect homemaker image.
Most of the play’s humor comes from Emily, a similar social outcast and precocious Nancy Drew wanna be, who becomes Billy’s sidekick and cheerleader. Smartly and wittily played by Gabrielle Boyadjian, this Ugly Betty of a girl forces Billy and the plot to snap to and solve the mystery.
A prior legacy actually prompts Billy’s situation, and its story is told through a somewhat lame dream device, with Ace (Darren Ritchie) as the ghostly guide who leads Billy through his turmoil in a series of nightly escapes. It is during those somnambulant sequences that the guilt-tripping grandmother Ruth (wonderfully sung by Heather Ayers) tells her story, and the hero pilot, John Robert (Michael Arden), reveals his true identity. Finally, Billy can fill in the blanks of his own heritage, and Elizabeth can shed the deceptive cloak with which she tried to protect her son.
In true musical (and romantic fifties) tradition, all’s well and tidy in the end. Ace is a good show, certainly worth the ticket price. But, that empty space in the missing man formation reminds us that the cost of war is not priceless.
Ace plays at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego’s Balboa Park through February 18. Performances are: Sun/Tue/Wed at 7pm; Thu/Fri/Sat at 8pm. Matinees Sat & Sun at 2pm. Tickets are $47-$75. For reservations: (619) 23-GLOBE.
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