The curtains open on a stairwell leading to a 1950s factory. But this is not a scene of industrial malaise. The set is awash in orange, aquamarine and bright pink, and the cast members do not wear rags but flowy, polka-dotted dresses.
Like their set, which gave life to a scene of real-life drudgery through vibrantly colored props and costumes, the performers in The Pajama Game, this year’s musical, brought vivaciousness to the stage borrowed from the springtime yet to come.
Directed by Ezra Flam, The Pajama Game was intended to run from Feb. 6 to 9 in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium. However, due to the snow day on Feb. 8, it appeared on Feb. 6, 7 and 11.
Based on Richard Bissell’s novel 7-1/2 Cents, The Pajama Game, which opened in 1954 and has since been performed on Broadway over 1,000 times, has the goofy appeal suited to a high school production.
There is ample room for laughter in its comedic take on labor relations and the occasionally tumultuous dynamics between management and workers. The site of the dispute is a pajama factory, where they persist with a childlike sense of optimism and determination although the workers’ demands for a 7.5-cent raise go ignored by their superiors. Amidst their plight, a star-crossed romance blossoms between Catherine “Babe” Williams (junior Nina Goodheart), the leader of the Union Grievance Committee, and Sid Sorokin (sophomore Noah Lanckton), the factory’s new superintendent.
Despite the script’s potential, the play’s 2.5-hour running length could not hold the audience’s attention. The saving grace here was not the story, which tended to drag, but the synchronized ensemble choreography. In fact, according to Flam, the Brookline Theatre Company selected the play for its emphasis on dance.
The production featured styles of dance ranging from fiery tango to cool jazz. Flam used the original 1954 choreography of the influential Bob Fosse, whose distinctive style of jazz dance is characterized by its use of turned-in knees, sideways shuffling, rolled shoulders and jazz hands.
It was in dance that the lively, undimmed spirit of the labor activists truly came alive. Like factory workers at an assembly line, the dancers moved in perfect synchronicity. But, like their characters, they never lost their individual spunk.
The standout numbers were “Hernando’s Hideaway” and “Steam Heat.” In “Hernando’s Hideaway,” Gladys (senior Lily Waldron), the quick-witted secretary to the strict head of the factory, tangos with Sorokin. The cast members wore glamorous ‘50s-style party dresses, preserving the coy sexuality of Fosse’s choreography in their swinging hips, rolled shoulders and angular shifts.
“Steam Heat” was performed by Waldron with support from seniors Regina Raphael, Ariana Weinstock; junior Jordan Underwood; sophomores Jacob Sanditen, Hannah Weighart; and freshman Talia Roland-Kalb.
The cast members mirrored each other with every step. Wearing androgynous penguin suits and bowler hats, the dancers delivered a performance complete with fancy footwork, splits and Fosse’s signature inverted knees.
In the dead of winter, The Pajama Game filled the stage with color, toe-tapping and the finger-snapping sounds of life.
Miriam El-Baz, Emma Nash and Eoin Walsh can be contacted at [email protected].
