The Plays Under Revue

A high degree of theatrical staging differentiates “The World Goes Round” from typical revues. This compilation of show tunes from the enduring Broadway musical team of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb sports opportunities for creative contexts to give the songs more stand-alone impact--opportunities director Bonnie Hellman has seized with relish and considerable success in an impressively performed revival for Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.

Situated against a Manhattan skyline, the show’s melting-pot backdrop reinforces the different facets of humanity reflected in songs drawn from diverse Kander & Ebb projects, ranging from the familiar (“Cabaret,” “Chicago,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman”) to the obscure (“Flora, the Red Menace,” “The Rink”).

Rich thematic associations are explored through juxtaposition. After leading off a segment on lost love with “My Coloring Book” (a song written for Barbra Streisand), Kelli Maguire lingers onstage to become the object of diametrically opposite male responses--Michael G. Hawkins’ self-serving denial (“I Don’t Remember You”) and Danny Bolero’s obsessional wallowing (“Sometimes a Day Goes By [When I Don’t Think of You]”)--culminating in a duet between the two. A similar construction weaves a trio on a more hopeful theme of new relationships, Hawkins’ “We Can Make It,” Maguire’s “Maybe This Time,” and Linda Kerns’ “Isn’t This Better.”

Sometimes the performers adopt more specific characters to deliver the songs--Cindy Robinson’s gigolo-hungry nympho savoring “Arthur in the Afternoon,” Hawkins’ haunted Needle Park junkie crooning “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at the moon, or Bolero’s homeless man panhandling his way through “Mr. Cellophane.”

By their very specificity, these conceits throw into sharp relief some of the possibilities as well as the limitations of a revue format. While they lend more immediate drama to the numbers, they do so at the risk of clashing with the original contexts. In “Chicago,” Mr. Cellophane was not a destitute bum, he was the heroine’s cuckolded doormat husband.

Repurposing the songs can strengthen unfamiliar material, but the better one remembers a particular one, the more glaring the artifice. Ironically, the most overtly stage-worthy tune--”Money, Money” from “Cabaret”--proves one of the least effective in the revue context, while the innovative transformations of “Cabaret” (five-part harmony), “All That Jazz” and “New York, New York” (in multiple languages) and choreographically linked “Only Love,” “Marry Me” and “When It All Comes True” work spectacularly well.

The transformational choices having been made, the cast turns in masterful, committed renditions, with complementary singing styles that ensure coverage of the full range of material.

Acoustical improvements at the Rubicon--including both the live orchestra alcove and the miking and sound system--show notable progress to making the venue as worthy for musicals as for dramatic plays.

* “The World Goes Round,” Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Wednesdays through Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 24. $20-$35. (805) 667-2900. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.