Darien Crago (Ginger Rogers) and Jeremy Benton (Fred Astaire).
Photos by John Vecchiolla

                            by Eugene Paul

If you were ungallant enough to compare the star original, Ginger Rogers, to her enactor, Darien Crago, star of the current bio-musical Backwards in High Heels, you’d end up with our silver screen favorite winning big in the hair category and the current, live portrayer winning in every other capacity, dance, voice, smile, appeal, dimples, charm, grace. Well, okay, of course, wardrobe.  Ginger wins in a country mile on wardrobe. Hollywood was a killer in those days. But otherwise, Darien Crago is so much more gifted in every way you sometimes wonder watching her why Ginger Rogers really ever made it.   And make it she did, even the Oscar for acting, against fierce competition.  We just don’t know if Darien has acting chops, not yet, anyway.  This musical is all about the wonderful songs and some top notch dancing, an absolutely amiable evening’s entertainment for a dinner theatre, but hardly a reason to go out of your way, intrigued by a title.

The title says it all, even to the chip on Ginger’s shoulder, the chip that drove her, the chip, in essence, that made her. The title says that she was the secondary partner in couples dancing and that even though her partner was Fred Astaire, a dancing genius, she had to be damn better because she was doing all he did only harder, backwards, and in high heels.  It’s a joke, of course.  He did far more.  He made them  “Fred and Ginger”.  Ginger never danced in films with anyone else.  It would have been too revealing. The cigar chomping bosses knew what they were doing.

But Darien, she can dance the pants off anyone.  She is a full partner to Jeremy Benton, the director and choreographer of the show and a helluva dancer.  He plays Fred Astaire.  Now, that’s a challenge.  And without the support of the superb wardrobe Hollywood made sure they gave to Fred.  Always wondered how he looked so smooth doing those impossible things.

This is, however, Ginger’s show and the creators, Lynette Barkley and Christopher McGovern have their hands full in spite of the blessings of Gershwin and Berlin.  And such blessings!  “Fascinatin’ Rhythm”, “They All Laughed”, “A Fine Romance”, “Embraceable You”, “Change Partners”, “Shall We Dance”, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and more and more, all vitally needed, all expertly performed by our WBT company, because – Ginger’s story is not only thin, it is also familiar in its bits and pieces and none of the bits and pieces developable because they are so familiar.  McGovern, who wrote the book, couldn’t make Lela Rogers, Ginger’s mother, and key, anything more than a pale, genteel copy of Rose, the demonic stage mother of Gypsy. Ginger’s rebellion against her mother is the basis of the show, and Gypsy did it better and did it first, high heels or no.

 Darien Crago (Ginger Rogers) and Avital Asuleen (Marlene Dietrich) and company

There are vague undercurrents of red neck, cracker background that could have given this show a jolt of original grit, put a spark and some ginger in Ginger but everything’s been scrimmed, softened, hung on the singing and dancing built around sure fire songs.

Avital Asuleen (center as Ethel Merman) and ensemble

And Names.  Name dropping with lots of power names if you have a long enough memory.  Director Benton has had to have the steely nerve to have members of his cast impersonate Ethel Merman, Hermes Pan, Lew Ayres, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich among others, as called for in McGovern’s chronicles of Ginger’s life, no doubt all first dropped and  imported from her autobiography of the same title. Even though it’s an impossible task the WBT troupers, unfortunately, never back off. Avital Asuleen, Jacob ben Widmar, Matt Gibson, Sebastian Goldberg, Ryan Steer, hang in there.  Erika Amato plays Lela Rogers diffidently, Heidi Giarlo is responsible for costumes and we won’t talk about hair. Ginger rubbed elbows at the highest levels in the old days.  Underneath it all, however, despite her Oscar, she was the hardscrabble kid who was lucky lucky lucky to be actually doing it backwards and in high heels.

Darien Crago (center as Ginger Rogers) and ensemble perform “We’re In The Money”.

Backwards in High Heels. At Westchester Broadway Theatre, Elmsford, NY. Tickets: Dinner and show: $56-$84. 914-592-2222. Thru Sept 20.