Steven Grant Douglas and Katie Postotnik
Special Effects Outshine “Ghost”
By Skip Sheffield
“Ghost” is the kind of musical in which the special effects
outshine the human characters.
“Ghost The Musical” runs through May 11 at Broward Center
in Fort Lauderdale.
“Ghost” is based on the hit 1990 movie of the same name. The
movie was fired by the intense chemistry of Demi Moore as a sexy potter and
Patrick Swayze as an even sexier banker who is tragically murdered early in the
story, to come back as a crime-solving ghost. Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for her comic
performance as the fake medium Oda Mae.
The good news about this national touring production is that
Carla Stewart as Oda Mae is even better than Whoopi Goldberg. She is prettier,
funnier, and she has a powerful singing voice, showcased in “Are You a Believer?”
in what was a non-singing role.
Bruce Joel Rubin also won an Oscar for his screenplay of
“Ghost,” and his book and lyrics form the stage show as well. The problem is that
there is not a whole lot of substance to the story. Sam Wheat (Steven Grant
Douglas) is murdered in the apartment of Molly Jenson (Katie Postonik) by a
seemingly random burglar named Willie Lopez (Fernando Contreras).
Sam’s ghostly form is immediately transferred to a kind of
waiting room purgatory, exemplified by the song “You Gotta Let Go.”
The songs, by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard are pleasant and
serviceable, but none is as good as “Unchained Melody,” which provided the
dramatic and romantic backdrop to the movie as well as the play. The song was
written in 1955 for an obscure prison movie and became a No. 1 hit for the
Righteous Brothers, the version used in the movie, in 1965. It has since become
one of the most-recorded songs of the 20th century.
Sam’s ghostly state is artfully enhanced by a blue
spotlight, which follows the actor through his every move. Steven Grant
Douglas has a powerful tenor voice, paired with Katie Postotnik’s beautiful
soprano.
Katie Postonik is a physical opposite of brunette,
brown-eyed, statuesque Demi Moore. She is tiny, doll-like, with curly blond
hair and blue eyes. She is gorgeous to look at, but the heat that was generated
between Moore
and Swayze far surpasses what we feel here.
Robby Haltiwanger has the somewhat thankless role of Sam’s
treacherous best friend and bank colleague Carl Bruner, whose villainy is what
causes the tragedy.
Special effects abound in the show, with characters seeming
to levitate, and in Sam’s case fade away and disappear through a door.
“Ghost The Musical”
is one of the lesser successful transitions from screen to stage, but this
company gives their all, and that’s all they can do.
Tickets are $34.50-$74.50. Call 954-462-0222 or go to www.browardcenter.org.
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