Maine State Music Theatre closes its 60th season with “Singing in the Rain,” a classic musical based on the classic 1952 film. This stage production is a multi-faceted buffet of high-quality entertainment. For the audience, it’s two hours of delightful, colorful, mesmerizing, joy-inducing, kinetic artistic stimuli. Like a living, breathing kaleidoscope.

One moment red-carpet glamour, the next vaudevillian humor, romance, slapstick, followed by a breathtaking dance number. With a backdrop of the era of moviemaking during transition from silent films to “talkies,” there are hysterical and well-crafted video sequences peppering the performance. “Singing in the Rain” includes top-notch songs including “Good Morning,” “Make ‘em Laugh,” “Moses Supposes,” “Broadway Melody” and the iconic title number. The principal cast includes Nicolas Dromard as Don Lockwood, Brian Shepard as Cosmo Brown, Kate Fahrner as Kathy Selden, Kim Sava as Lina Lamont, David Girolmo as R.F. Simpson, and Andy Kindig as Roscoe Dexter.

 

 

MSMT veterans Charis Leos and Glenn Anderson also make appearances. The lead cast is made up of talented, triple-threat performers. The performance of Dromard must be the stage equivalent of running a half marathon. The level of conditioning and stamina required to pull off the role Gene Kelly created cannot be overstated. Dromard accomplished it with charm and grace.

While Marc Robin does his usual stellar job of direction, it’s his choreography that, yet again, makes me swoon. This is — true to the movie — a major dance production and, while there are several styles of dance throughout which create a lovely texture to the action, tap is king. Not a few token moments of tap to placate the audience, the show features long scenes of tap solo, in pairs and in groups. Tap on the stage, tap on furniture, tap in water, probably tap in the air. So much giddy-making tap. Yes, tap in water. They indeed make it rain on the MSMT stage.

 

 

Another major component of “Singing in the Rain” is the costuming. Costume designer and MSMT costume rental coordinator Travis Grant did a magnificent job with this show. From over-the-top ensembles for “Beautiful Girls” to Kathy’s stylishly subtle dresses, his choices of color, fabric and line are on the mark. Before the show, Travis told me about a section with around 100 costume changes for leads and chorus. One of the changes lasts 4 1/2 minutes, the rest are shorter — some much shorter. When pressed for a total, Grant said there are “more than 300 costume looks in the whole show!”

The section of the show with 100 changes is also about the time I thought “essentially Act II is one long amazing finale.” Truly, there is such energy and color and singing and dancing in those connected scenes that you feel like they must be coming to the end, but it’s still just the middle. It’s a huge amount of entertainment for an audience that more than gets its money’s worth. I wish I had space to recognize each of the 100 or so staff, volunteers, musicians, technicians and performers who make this happen.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MSMT / ROGER S. DUNCAN

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MSMT / ROGER S. DUNCAN

Prior to curtain, Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark announced next season’s amazing lineup. The main stage productions begin with two shows never before produced at MSMT, “Sophisticated Ladies” and “Treasure Island.” In the third slot is “Hello Dolly” with Leos in the lead role, followed by a show which has not been on the MSMT stage since 1961, “The Wizard of Oz.” “Singing in the Rain” runs through Aug. 25. Tickets are available online at msmt.org, at (207) 725-8769, or the Pickard Theater Box

Office at 1 Bath Road, Brunswick.

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