Nice Work If You Can Get It impresses with direction, music, choreography and a powerful cast.

In one of its most impressive self-produced productions to date, the Lone Tree Performing Arts Center production of Nice Work If You Can Get It features impeccable technical details with a splendid cast and a powerhouse artistic trio consisting of Director Kate Gleason, Choreographer Christopher Page-Sanders and Music Director Alec Steinhorn.

While the material itself is a bolted-together jumble of a screwball comedy book with songs from George and Ira Gershwin — and some more ideas borrowed from Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse — Nice Work mostly comes across as something from the golden age of musicals. Clocking in at nearly three hours with nearly 30 musical numbers, the show, which premiered on Broadway in 2012, is a bit over-stuffed yet doesn’t bog down under Gleason’s tight direction.

Leading the action is the husband-wife team of Marco Alberto Robinson and Adriane Leigh Robinson — last seen lighting up the stage together in this spring’s Arvada Center production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Marco plays Jimmy Winter — a featherbrained wealthy playboy (á la Bertie from Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories) and Adriane is Billie Bendix, a tough-cookie bootlegger looking for a place to hide 200 cases of gin from the authorities. (The action is set in 1927 during prohibition.)

When they bump into each other after the raucous opening number depicting Jimmy’s bachelor party (“Sweet and Lowdown”), he mentions his mother’s never-used spare mansion on Long Island. Billie hears only “storage space,” and sets out with her partners Cookie McGee (Shabazz Green) and Duke Mahoney (Brian Davis) to fill up the basement with hooch.

What could go wrong? For starters, Jimmy shows up at the house with his new bride, Eileen Evergreen (a hilarious Elise Frances Daniells). Thinking ahead, Cookie has put on a butler’s outfit in case they’re seen and is forced to pretend he’s a house servant for the rest of the show.

The entire plot is based on such mistaken identities, outright lies and misunderstandings that lead to a final few scenes more or less tying the whole thing up. Formulaic though it may be, Nice Work benefits from its borrowing of a bunch of great songs from the Gershwin playbook such as the title tune, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” (aka the potato-potata song) and a barn-burner duet with the Robinsons of “S’ Wonderful.”

Kevin Nelson’s impressive set | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

Technically flawless

With so many moving parts to this show, a glitch here and there on opening night might be expected. But the technical details all came off without a hitch, leaving the audience to focus solely on the wealth of great performances. Max Silverman’s sound design is particularly noteworthy, with a perfect mix that made every line clear against the live orchestra. Kevin Nelson’s scenic design is equally impressive, with large, elaborate set pieces that moved in and out with nary a bump (kudos also to the stage management by Erock.)

The 14-piece band, conducted by Steinhorn, was remarkably good. It’s so often the case with local musicals that the band is the weak link, but here the musicians all shine as an ensemble, whipping through the exhaustive repertoire of musical numbers.

Taking full advantage of the large cast and Lone Tree’s expansive stage, Page-Sanders’ choreography is far-flung and inventive. Full-cast numbers have the expected mass coordination to get everyone moving in the same direction, but Page-Sanders also throws in a lot of freelancing on the edges — individual performers doing lifts, splits and jumps to make it all the more interesting. While these capitalize on the youthful cast’s athleticism, the smaller numbers with just two dancers are also well realized and unique.

L-R: Elise Francis Daniells, Larry Cahn, Jennifer DeDominici, Shabazz Green and Adriane Leigh Robinson in ‘Nice Work If You Can Get It.’ | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

Well-chosen cast

Back to the Robinsons, it’s a genuine treat to see a husband-wife team with such well-matched talents portray a couple falling in love. This is an ideal role for Marco, who’s displayed his comedic chops in the aforementioned Gentleman’s Guide and in The 39 Steps at the Denver Center — not to mention in Waitress at Arvada. And Adriane is more than his match, with a standout singing voice and good handle on Billie’s brassy demeanor.

And Gleason has many more strong hands to play cast-wise. Shabazz Green is a great fit for Cookie McGee, juggling the character’s real identity as a thug with the need to act like the butler in a fancy beach house. The other sidekick, Duke, has a secondary story with Jeannie (Fairin Moon Hightower), and the both bring a lot to the roles despite me questioning why the story is there in the first place.

More props go to Larry Cahn as the senator, Jennifer DeDominici as the temperance-mad anti-booze crusader and Carter Edward Smith as the hapless Chief Berry.

Despite clocking in at nearly three hours — at least 30 minutes longer than I’d wish — Nice Work If You Can Get It succeeds on the strength of its outstanding creative team and talented cast. Gleason, Page-Sanders and Steinhorn have crafted a polished production that elevates somewhat creaky source material into an entertaining evening of musical theatre. The Robinsons’ chemistry alone is worth the price of admission, and the technical excellence on display demonstrates how far Lone Tree has come as a producing organization.

Brian Davis and Fairin Moon Hightower | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

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