THE genre peaked more than a half-century ago, but for some reason film noir continues to inspire an endless number of parodies.
“Adrift in Macao” – the new musical by Christopher Durang (book and lyrics) and Peter Melnick (music) that opened Tuesday night at Primary Stages – shows that we may well have reached the saturation point.
Set in 1952 China, “Macao” features the usual suspects: a cynical nightclub owner (Will Swenson), a platinum-blond femmefatale (Rachel de Benedet), an expatriate American (Alan Campbell) looking for the mysterious Mr. McGuffin, a wacky chorus girl (Michele Ragusa) and, of course, an “inscrutable Asian” (Orville Mendoza). A Trenchcoat Chorus provides both background singing and ambience.
That the characters have names like Rick Shaw and Tempura should clue you in to the antic tone of Durang’s book, where the dialogue runs along the order of: “See you soon, I hope,” one of the men says to the blonde, who responds, “Well, it’s a small cast.”
A little of this sort of tired, self-reflexive humor goes a long way (although, this being Durang, there are also some admittedly funny one-liners), proof that the piece’s evolution from the originally envisioned 20 minutes to the current 90-minute production wasn’t such a hot idea.
Fortunately, Melnick, a grandson of Richard Rodgers (he’s Adam Guettel’s cousin), has contributed some very catchy melodies to the score, including the title tune and the climactic number and sing-along, “Ticky Ticky Tock,” which may take several days to be dislodged from your brain.
Director Sheryl Kaller keeps things moving at a sprightly pace, and the performers seem to have fun lampooning their iconic inspirations. Best of all is Mendoza’s Tempura (“Because I have been battered by life”), who, by evening’s end, reinvents himself in some amusingly surprising ways.
ADRIFT IN MACAO
59E 59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St.; (212) 279-4200. Through March 4.