The opening song tells you that you're about to hear a tall tale, and not to make too much of it. If you take that attitude, you'll enjoy Posner and Sugg's amiable bluegrass potboiler draped over the bones of Mark Twain's posthumously published story. The plot is one of the basic ones: boy loves girl in small town (a nineteenth-century Deer Lick, Mo.); is framed for murder by a mysterious stranger (who is either from France or Kansas); and is saved in the last reel so that he can marry girl. In this post-modern, self-referential show, the last-minute salvation is a message from Sheriff Rostenkowski from the next county (played by an audience member recruited by the stage manager [Cary Louise Gillett] at intermission) who comes bearing a "wanted" poster with the face of the mysterious Kansan (Scott Greer). If the "mystery" of the title is reduced to a couple of vague references about "the thing" in the past of boy (Hugh Gregory, played by the athletic Ben Dibble), at least the fourth-wall-breaking antics provide an ad-lib means for boy's mom (the underused Sherri L. Edelen) to deal with a bite of peach pie that's gone down the wrong pipe.

As director, Posner keeps things clipping along (the evening clocks in at under two hours) with an onstage costume change in the middle of a last-minute chase scene. He ends one of girl's songs (Mary Gray, sung by Erin Weaver) by having her pulled offstage riding the wheeled bench that she's been sitting on, without waiting for applause. Likewise, composer Posner is economical, reprising the love duet as a song of despair; giving a solo line to the bloody murder victim in the second act opener; using a tango throughout for the French man of mystery's music; and writing a killer minimalist jalilhouse blues solo for Hugh.

Does the book try to wring too much comedy out of the wordplay in "I love Hugh"? Perhaps so.

Weaver maintains breath support, whether she's being slung about by Greer in a tango or scooped into Dibble's arms. And Dan Manning, whose characters function as narrator, supplements Jay Ansill's four-piece acoustic band. He plays a mean harmonica, guitar, triangle, and mandolin.

posted: 7:58:54 AM  

Septime Webre's squad takes on seven short, spiky pieces by women choreographers. Company poster girl Michele Jimenez dances a farewell (she is joining the Dutch National Ballet in the fall) in Helen Pickett's "Trio in White." Studio company members Giselle Alvarez, Corey Landolt, and Jade Payette show promise in "Stearc," set by Jessica Lang on a passage from Béla Bartók''s fourth string quartet. The angular dance is full of splits and floor-slaps, and features the company's well-loved black chairs. Susan Shields' double duet "Uncertain Song," scored by a selection from Marie-Joseph Canteloube's song cycle of the Auvergne, is by far the most lyrical and romantic piece of the evening, calling for some deceptively demanding partnering work for Jared Nelson and Alvarao Palau.

The closing dances of the evening, Jodie Gates's "Minor Loop" and Julia Adam's "Pillow Talk," are the most light-hearted of the evening. The Gates piece watches Brianne Bland and Jason Hartley crawling out of bed in the morning, reluctant to face the day, while Adam's offering takes place after bedtime as four sleepy dancers are trying to get some shuteye. Adam uses a loopy mashup of the "Zorba" theme and "The Orange Blossom Special" for her music; Gates is less well-served by interpolating electronica into a work by Joseph Haydn.

posted: 7:58:27 AM