Theatrical lighting is striking twice for Cheo Bourne. Just a few seasons ago, the 26-year-old actor — who hails from Fields Corner — shared in the local premiere of an envelope-pushing show-namely “Jerry Springer the Opera.”
“ ‘Jerry Springer’ was very much out there,” Bourne said about the recent take-off on the controversial television talk show and its outspoken host. “The audience was very integral to that one.”
Now he is enjoying a similar opportunity with the Hub premiere of the recent Tony Award- nominated musical “Xanadu” — and once again with SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts. “The audience is very important here, too,” he noted.
In this case, Bourne explained, the reactions of theatergoers give the cast valuable insight. “We learn what jokes are being tweaked,” Bourne said. “The jokes never go completely over everyone’s head.”
Audience members who studied the famous 19th century poem “Kubla Khan” about a “pleasure dome” at the title Chinese ruler’s summer capital Xanadu will quickly discover that the musical “Xanadu” is based on a forgettable 1980 movie starring Olivia Newton John and not on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s verse.
”It’s a really bad movie that became a very good musical,” he offered.” Bourne is clearly a fan of playwright Douglas Carter Beane, the author of the “The Little Dog Laughed” and the musical’s adaptation.
Describing the Tony Award- nominated book, he said, “The piece is so smartly written. He (Beane) pretty much pokes fun at everything.”
Beane cleverly parodies “Xanadu” the movie. Quite simply, the film tells how an ancient Greek muse inspires a struggling Venice Beach artist named Sonny and a 1940’s clarinetist turned real estate power named Danny Maguire to open a roller-skating disco nightclub in Los Angeles. Sonny eventually persuades Maguire that a run-down theater he holds can be transformed into a glitzy and appealing roller disco club. Beane’ book for the musical plays up the silliness of the movie with amusing parody and exaggeration of characters and plot. The show’s text also cleverly adds a conflict between Clio, the muse in question — who calls herself Kira when disguised as a mortal — and her eight siblings.
Led by scheming Melpomene and Calliope, the sister muses who are jealous of Kira’s inspiration of Sonny, cause Kira to fall in love with mortal Sonny and create a bit of art herself. Love with a mortal and creating one’s own art are both no-nos for a muse.
More intrigue follows as she incurs the wrath of Zeus, the muses’ father. In a text that satirizes the movie as well as the big budget 1981 fantasy film “Clash of Titans,” Beane not only skewers musicals drawn from movies and recent musical fare in general but also questions what passes for creativity, romanticism and even love.
Bourne spoke of the book’s multiple pleasures: playing a number of characters, roller skating on the specially reconfigured Roberts Theatre stage space and singing the hits from the movie — essentially the film’s one real virtue-with fellow cast members.
Calling muse Thalia his favorite role, he said he also particularly enjoyed playing clarinetist Young Danny, whose muse in the 1940’s bore a striking resemblance to Kira, played by Micaela Donovan “It was sort of nice to play Micaela’s lover ( the muse’s Young Danny in the show’s 1940’s flashback section) as a young man. “ Referring to the book, he admitted, “I really love the number where we help Sonny remake the theater (to fulfill Sonny’s roller disco club dream).”
As an actor with substantial Hub credits — “Passing Strange “ and “Hot Mikado” ( New Repertory Theatre) and “Harriet Jacobs” (Underground Railway Theatre) among others, Bourne calls Boston “my home” though he currently resides in Brooklyn. “Hopefully in my dream world,” he said. ”I’ll be working here.”
The 80’s roller disco nightclub of the 2007 Broadway musical Xanadu is a far cry from the “stately pleasure dome” envisioned by Coleridge in his famed poem “ Kubla Khan.”
The Lynne –Farrar music may derive from the film, but the first-rate SpeakEasy cast deliver such hits as “Magic” and “Have You Never Been Mellow” as exuberantly as if the score possessed the originality of the Beane book. Artistic director Paul Daigneault has put the show’s hilarious mixture of Greek mythology and modern mayhem in a striking partial round — credit designer Crystal Tiala — that should make the audience feel by turns like fellow adventurers and disco patrons.
Gail Astrid Buckley has clothed the mythological muses and such singular creatures as one-eyed Cyclops and snake-wreathed Medusa with sublime attention to hilarity and quirkiness. Karen Perlow’s nuanced lighting complements the fantasy and romance at the heart of the musical.
Daigneault has succeeded as well with his cast as with his design team. Ryan Overberg has the right combination of naivete and determination as artist and would be disco creator Sonny.
McCaela Donovan brings winning cockiness to muse Clio and charm to her mortal incarnation as Kira. They imbue their duet on “Suddenly” with real chemistry. Shana Dirik as Malpomene and especially Kathy St. George as Calliope are standout sibling menaces.
Robert Saoud catches both realtor Maguire’s domineering presence and Zeus’ rage about Clio’s romance. Cheo Bourne is a hoot as Cyclops, and Patrick Connolly makes a very amusing Centaur.
Boston Conservatory masters graduate Kami Rushell Smith and Val Sullivan bring the right 40’s and 80’s vocal stylings to “Dancin.”
Ultimately Zeus champions true love and the ability to create and share art. Disco haters and Beane fans alike will be dancing in their seats at Speak Easy Stage’s rollicking “Xanadu.”
Xanadu the Musical, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Roberts Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through June 9th. 617-933-8600 or bostontheatrescene.com.
