Here in Passamaquoddy, the community theatre puts on some excellent stuff.  We work hard to keep everyone informed and nobody misses a show.  Today we’re looking at one of the shows that ran for a short time. This was, of course “Dick Tracy starring in Diamond Double Cross”.  Before arriving in town it had played at the Theater of the Stars in the Disney/MGM studios from June 1990 until Sept. 1991.  People in Passamaquoddy will remember that nobody in town could find any paint in primary colors for six months as they were all bought out by the set designers.

The show ran just over 20 minutes and included variations on a few of the songs featured in the Warren Beatty film “Dick Tracy”.  Plot wise, we meet “Big Boy Caprice” and his cohorts in crime, “Flat Top” and “Mumbles” as they plan a diamond heist.  But the heist gets confused and nobody know for sure what happened to the diamond.  Time for

“Calling Dick Tracy”.

Say that over and over again.  His sleuthing brings him into the company of the dangerous “Breathless Mahoney”.  Through song and dance, our yellow coated detective solves the crime and even proposes to his longtime girlfriend “Tess Trueheart”.  The diamond was stolen by a villainess wearing a cigarette girl costume and a brown wig to cover her bald head…  Yeah, nobody in the audience figured that one out either, especially since the cigarette girl only took to the stage for brief moments.

The show was entertaining but, like the film, didn’t cater to the youth of the day.  Face it, Dick Tracy harkened back to another time that may as well be the Jurassic period as far as kids are concerned. Kids grew restless and didn’t stick for the finale.  But the musical arrangements were pretty impressive for a “theme park” show, as were the colorful, moving set pieces.  One clever design allowed for Breathless Mahoney to run across the New York skyline, up to scale the larger buildings, down for the small.

We all remember the Diamond Double Cross fondly, even with its short run.  Like most shows put on in the theme parks, compressing it to a reasonable “attraction” length, takes away time needed to build tension and character growth beyond 1 dimension. Disney may have been trying hard to redefine their newest park as more adult fare with the show.  That didn’t last very long… neither did the show.

If you search for “On the Boards” in the right column, you’ll access other theatre reviews.