Monday, February 21, 2000

By JOE ADCOCK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
THEATER CRITIC

We enjoy our pets close up. Not necessarily in our laps, not all the time, anyway. But for animal lovers, the human/non-human relationship is (you should pardon the expression) intimate.

Also intimate is the relationship between audience and performers in a music and comedy revue. Or so it should be. Which means the Village Theatre's First Stage is not the ideal setting for "Pets!"

"Pets!" is a revue in which performers tell about or even portray animals. The menagerie includes cats, dogs, a turtle, a boa constrictor, a budgerigar parakeet, an iguana and a horse.

The Village cast of four is competent, but it is not made up of 500-watt grab-'em-and-hold-'em cabaret charismatics. Director Marie Ruzicka has trouble building tiny scenes into big, big climaxes. The accompaniment combo of two keyboards and percussion is diffident -- not much help in selling the goods.

But the biggest problem is the First Stage, the Village's original home -- across the street from its magnificent new headquarters. First Stage is an old movie theater in which the seating area stretches out like a long and narrow regiment facing a little stage that is not at all commanding. This is not intimate. The performers are certainly not in our laps. They sometimes seem to be off in a different universe, sending out faint and timid signals: "'Pets!' to Earth . . . 'Pets!' to Earth . . . Are you out there?"

"Pets!" was devised by New York producer Helen Butleroff with the help of 16 composers, lyricists and sketch writers. It has done well enough here and there over the past seven years. One can see how the right cast in the right setting could grab and hold an audience with this material, which is sometimes funny, sometimes poignant.

THEATER REVIEW Pets! A revue devised by Helen Butleroff using songs and skits by 16 composers and writers. Village Theatre First Stage, 120 Front St., Issaquah. Through March 5. Tickets $10-$14, discounts for students and seniors; 425-392-2202.

Which is not to say that the Village cast is completely defeated. Greg Allen is a singer/dancer who puts plenty of energy into whatever he does. He is particularly funny as a hound who wants a bagel and as an iguana who wants a mate.

Taryn Darr, as Allen's co-cat in a tap-dancing felines number, shows off to good advantage as a hoofer. In a series of brief monologues, Heather Hawkins holds her own as a writer who draws inspiration from a parakeet. And Eric Jensen has a droll presence as he delivers a series of "fun facts." Cats, we learn, are America's favorite pets, closely followed by dogs.

One of those dogs is Zena, director Rusicka's husky/akita. Zena makes a couple of appearances during the show. Despite less-than-ideal circumstances, Zena proves to be an irresistible attention grabber, a real cabaret charismatic.

P-I Theater Critic Joe Adcock can be reached at 206-448-8369 or joeadcock@seattle-pi.com

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