"The Cat and the Fiddle" is a delightful surprise.  A 70-year-old surprise,
to be sure, but a good one regardless.  San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon
is dedicated to the rediscovery and restaging of forgotten and neglected
musicals, and "Cat" fits the bill to perfection.

The 1931 Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach piece had a good run back then - 400
performances - and the 1934 movie made from it, featuring Jeanette
MacDonald, was also successful.

Kern's gorgeous tunes are not among his most frequently performed, but they
certainly stand up well under the test of time:  "The Night Was Made for
Love," "She Didn't Say Yes," "Poor Pierrot," "One Moment Alone," and more.

And yet, with all that, "Cat" fairly disappeared, and if you see this
fine production - at the Eureka Theater through July 22 only - you won't
understand why.  One negative factor (on Broadway and in US productions)
may be that about one-third of the text is in French, but otherwise, it's
good music, a fair story, a strong second act, engaging, interesting - far
better than many more successful musicals.  It is fresh, sincerely romantic
material, pulled together with a masterful hand.

The difficult romance and even more complicated collaboration between
an American girl and a Romanian composer in Brussels has dynamite lyrics.
Under Barbara Day Turner's music direction and piano accompaniment (with
Brandon Adams) and Greg MacKellan's stage direction, "Cat" comes across
as a tightly organized, eminently entertaining work.

The large cast is headed by competent lead singers, with limited voices
but providing fine musical performances:  Susan Himes Powers is Shirley,
Bill Fahrner is Victor.  The show's most attractive performance comes from
G. Scott Kaufman's Pompineau:  he sings simply, from the heart.  In the
case of Alison Aylers (in the role of the trouble-maker Odette), a far
bigger voice and an intense stage presence overshoot the target; "too
much" is not nearly enough, unlike Kaufman's just-right performance.

Caroline Altman, Narelle Yeo, Catherine Sheldon, David Gunderman, Richard
Wenzel, Sean Sharp and Patrick Leveque (especially) provide a fine ensemble
in the other leading roles.

Check out www.42ndStMoon.com for information, and try to squeeze in the
small theater (twice the size of the company's previous home, but still not
big enough) before the run is over.  "Cat" is worth a couple of visits.

Janos Gereben/SF
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