Serena Brook and Danny McHugh Photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography

You are likely familiar with the classic 1952 MGM movie musical directed by Stanley Donen, which starred Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and launched Debbie Reynolds into a starry career. You are less likely to have seen the stage production based on that movie, though it's been around for a while. It premiered in 1983 at the Palladium in London where it was a big hit, running two years, no doubt abetted by the casting of English musical theatre darling Tommy Steele as Don Lockwood, the Gene Kelly role.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green adapted their screenplay for the stage. Songs from the movie by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed made the transfer as well. In fact, many of Brown and Freed's songs used in the movie had been written in the 1920s and 1930 for other properties. It was Freed's conceit in the early 1950s, when he ran a major production unit at MGM, to pull those old songs together as the basis for a new movie musical. Thus, Singin' in the Rain might qualify as one of the first "jukebox musicals."

The show opened on Broadway in 1985 with far less positive results than in London. It ran for under a year and even at that, the theater was usually just half full. Whether the timing was wrong for the show to be embraced in the states, or the casting was off (it lacked a big name on par with Steele), or enlisting Twyla Tharp to direct and choreograph (a brilliant artist, but one whose sensibilities might have been wrong for this show), it sputtered out. There have been several major revivals in the England, and a 2015 hit production in Paris was rumored to transfer to Broadway, but failed to do so. The show pops up in regional, community and school productions, but certainly is not something one thinks of when conjuring names of triumphant stage musicals.

After my evening in thrall of Singin' in the Rain, at Artistry, I have to wonder, why not? Oh, I know all the reasons it failed to ignite, but clearly there has always been immense potential here, and Artistry's production directed by Kelli Foster Warden, who co-choreographed with Danny McHugh, is living proof.

The story is utter fluff, of course, though anchored to a real cultural phenomenon, the transition from silent to talking movies. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are top-ranked Hollywood stars who appear together as lovers in silent moves, bringing them legions of fans. The publicity mill has promoted the notion that their romance is not an act, and the two are a hot item off-screen. Lena, not the brightest bulb, has come to believe this publicity, though in truth Don can barely stand her.

When The Jazz Singer comes out, silent movies are done-for, and Don and Lina must learn to make talkies. The problem is Lena's screechy voice and horrible diction. She looks stunning on screen, but her voice is another story. As it happens, Don has recently met and fallen in love with aspiring actress Kathy Selden. Kathy has a beautiful voice, so a plot is hatched to have Kathy dub Lina's lines. While they are at it, why not have Don, who is tired of swashbuckling, go back to his vaudeville roots and turn the movie into a musical? So, what if The Dueling Cavalier is set in the French Revolution? Egged on by Don's best friend and former vaudeville partner Cosmo Brown, they create a tap-dancing, glittery, musically ebullient movie–all with Kathy speaking and singing the lines as Lina mouths them for the cameras. Can they actually pull this off? All I will say is that the show ends with a beautifully romantic Hollywood ending, followed by the finale you could have predicted but wouldn't want to miss.

For the romantic leads, Artistry has cast two performers making their Artistry debut, as well as, far as I can tell, their Minnesota debut. Danny McHugh, with national tour and cruise show credits, is a marvelous Don Lockwood–smooth, sincere, ingratiating, a top-flight singer, and a beautifully graceful dancer, at once relaxed and precise. His leaps and turns do justice to the show's Gene Kelly origins. Brittany Mendoza-Peña, with a trunkful of credits in Colorado, brings her tremendous talent to sing and dance with elegance as Kathy Selden. She endows Kathy with the spunk to make her an apt sparring partner to McHugh's Don. When the gloves come off and romance is in the air, the two have a chemistry that makes us believe they mean it when they proclaim in song, "You Are My Lucky Star."

Armando Harlow Ronconi is no stranger to Artistry, having stolen the show as Ogie in last Spring's Waitress. He does more of the same here, exhibiting great song and dance chops and comedic energy throughout the show, and is absolutely fabulous in "Make 'Em Laugh." In a few numbers he and McHugh show their stuff as vaudeville hoofers, impressing us early on in "Fit as a Fiddle" and later, wowing us in the silly "Moses Supposes," a song that Comden and Green, with Roger Edens, wrote for the movie that serves no logical purpose other than to provide this opportunity for terrific tap-dancing–reason enough, I think you'll agree.

Serena Brook, straight from a star turn earlier this summer in Matt and Ben, is treasure as Lina Lamont, convincing us of her vanity and having a comic feast with the character. Lina comes across as dim-witted, though she may be just crafty enough to figure out how to get the upper hand. A song added to a 2012 English production gives her a sole musical moment. That song is "What's Wrong With Me" from a forgotten show called Mean Girls (no, not the Tina Fey property). Brook delivers it with sass and conceit. Artistry stalwart Wendy Short-Hayes plays film producer R.F. Simpson with unflappable brio. Every production I traced shows this character played by a male; in Short-Hayes' performance, R.F could be a male or not, and it makes no difference, which in my mind is just the ticket.

Singin' in the Rain delivers a package of great performances, fast-paced staging, terrific choreography that includes tap, a waltz, precision dancing, ballet, and more. The physical production is gorgeous, with Sarah Bahr's set and costume designs, Jeff Brown's lighting design, and Britt Hilton's hair and make-up bowling me over. The costumes run the gamut from Bourbon royalty for the silent movie bits to razzle-dazzle flapper get-ups. Let's not forget that this is Singin' in the Rain, and that means rain coming down on stage so Don Lockwood can slosh his feet in the puddles while singing, elated with love, the title song.

The show has the aura of a golden age musical in having a bona fide stage curtain, rather than having the audience look upon the set as they are being seated, and the orchestra in a pit, rather than perched on stage as has been Artistry's practice. As for that orchestra, Jason Hansen's orchestrations for those old songs provide plenty of pizzazz. The nine-member orchestra plays well, but their sound is somewhat erratic, coming on a bit overwrought in the first notes of the overture, and occasionally overshadowing the singers.

If I could change just one thing in this production, aside from tweaking the sound a bit, it would be to add close-ups to the footage of the silent movies that Don and Lina star in. These black and white films, in projections designed by Jim Eischen, look the part of silent movies, with their stilted staging and melodramatic poses. However, there are no cuts to close-ups. Every silent movie I have ever seen includes close-ups of the actors speaking–more aptly, declaiming–before their words appear on a dialogue card. With everything done so right in this production, that one detail momentarily broke the spell.

But next thing I knew, I was back under the enchantment of singing, dancing, joking, emoting, and forgetting my troubles for a few hours because the world beholds such sublime enjoyments as this. As the song says, "what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again."

Singin' in the Rain runs through August 31, 2025, at Artistry, Schneider Theater, Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 West Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington MN. For tickets and information, please call 952-563-8375 or visit artistrymn.org.

Book: Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based upon their screenplay for the MGM motion picture Singin' in the Rain; Music and Lyrics: Nacio Herb Brown an Arthur Freed; Additional Lyrics: Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Additional Music: Roger Edens; Director: Kelli Foster Warder; Associate Director: Caleb Michael; Music Director and Conductor: Sanford Moore; Choreography: Danny McHugh and Kelli Foster Warder; Scenic and Costume Design: Sarah Bahr; Props Design: Katie Phillips; Lighting Design: Jeff Brown Sound Design: Richard Graham and Katherine Horowitz; Hair and Makeup Design: Britt Hilton; Projection Design: Jim Eischen; Intimacy Coordinator: Sophie Peyton; Director of Production: Katie Phillips; Technical Director: Will Rafferty; Stage Manager: Ajah Williams; Assistant Stage Manager: Austin Schoenfelder.

Cast: Serena Brook (Lina Lamont/ensemble), Gabrielle Dominique (Zelda Zanders/ensemble), Lynnea Doublette (Dora Bailey/ensemble), Chloe Lou Erickson (student ensemble), Aliya Grace (ensemble), Julie Hatlestad (ensemble), Max Kile (ensemble), Xan Mattek (ensemble), Danny McHugh (Don Lockwood), Brittany Mendoza-Peña (Kathy Seldon), Emma Nelson (student ensemble), Anna Novak (ensemble),, Armando Harlow Ronconi (Cosmo Brown/ensemble), Sam Sanderson (ensemble), Wendy Short-Hays (R.F. Simpson/ensemble), Ben Siglin (ensemble).