LA Review: 'The Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps & Gowns'

It's graduation day at Springfield High, scant months since the now-legendary capers at the 1958 senior prom. Naturally, the Marvelous Wonderettes are up to their caps and gowns in the thick of impending matriculation. Literally, from their first entrance, humming "Pomp and Circumstance," which gives way to color-coded crinolines (courtesy of costumer Bobby Pearce) and "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N," "The Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps & Gowns" flips its tassels in the audience's direction.

If this new entry in creator-director Roger Bean's jukebox-musical phenomenon shows some franchise seams, the delicious title quartet of triple threats takes top honors. New on board is Jenna Coker-Jones, as green-clad wiseacre Betty Jean. Although Coker-Jones' attack is softer than some predecessors', her Janis Siegel–flavored voice fits musical director Michael Borth's vocal arrangements, and her antic energies are a tickling mix of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Andrea Martin. Misty Cotton returns as de facto ringleader Missy, the apricot-wearing Butterick's maven. Between her soaring vocals and wry characterization—Elinor Donahue on swing-choir overdrive—Cotton hits the role out of the gymnasium (designer Michael Carnahan's forced-perspective set remains a wonder). Whether deploying a xylophone for "Ding Dong" or, in the Act 2 jump to Missy's wedding reception, revealing that even a straight-A teaching assistant will resort to calculations for true love, Cotton continues to be a gift to our theater.

So does fellow "Wonderettes" veteran Bets Malone, whose long-standing relationship to Bean's conception of sweetly ditzy, gum-popping Suzy is akin to that of Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett's camera. Bedecked in blue, endearingly malaprop-ridden, Malone wholly inhabits this character, each shift from breathless elation to broadsided weepiness hilarious, with her singing chops in peak estate. As perpetually libidinous, pink-adorned Cindy Lou, the wonderful Lowe Taylor, who at various times has played all four parts, keeps locating humorous nuances, as when pronouncing "school" as "skewl." Taylor's spontaneity informs the audience-participation tactics, such as scoping out Springfield's new coach, and her warm mezzo and unforced irony are delightful.

The girls' cohesive mastery of a passel of 1950s and '60s standards, from "At the Hop" to "You Keep Me Hangin' On," mandates attendance. Roger Castellano's choreography, less about era comment than serviceable wit, and Bean's direction keep things clipping along. However, devotees may detect a disconcerting whiff of formulaic repetition beneath the schoolyard syllogisms and plot convolutions. The structure is sound, past events smartly referenced in shorthand for newcomers, but the emotional stakes aren't as high as before (or after, as in the "Winter Wonderettes" sequel). The last 20 minutes start to feel thin and jury-rigged.

Still, the theme of longtime friendship again lands, typified by two heartfelt renditions of "May You Always." Overall, this is entertaining froth of a rarefied order. It wouldn't surprise me if "The Marvelous Wonderettes" kept regrouping until the inevitable nursing-home extravaganza, no doubt using their dentures as castanets.

Presented by and at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach. July 7–Aug. 12. Schedule varies. (949) 497-2787 or www.lagunaplayhouse.com.