There is something tragically pathetic about the televised reunion of Pete Bartel and Keely Stevens. Once the darlings of a generation, these former stars of TV and radio have been reduced to hawking off-brand shampoo and singing songs of yesteryear in hopes of reviving their comatose solo careers. The flashing APPLAUSE sign above the studio soundstage speaks volumes: the Pete ’n’ Keely Reunion Show is nothing but canned nostalgia for a bygone era that nobody particularly mourns.Yet once the cameras begin to roll, that flashing sign quickly becomes unnecessary. Never have pathetic and hopeless seemed so purely comical as in “Pete ’n’ Keely,” James Hindman’s staged send-up of 70s-era television variety shows. And rarely has such fine musical theater been wrought in this part of the world as the current production mounted by Whitefish’s Alpine Theatre Project. If you’ve never heard of Pete and Keely, don’t worry; they’re a fictional couple, styled loosely after famous show-biz combos you never hear about anymore: the Smothers Brothers, Donnie and Marie, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the casts of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch.”This is “This is Spinal Tap” for the Sonny and Cher generation.

“Pete ’n’ Keely” was neither a smash hit nor a failure when it debuted at New York’s John Houseman Theater in 2000. The play ran for only three months; but its reception by audiences and critics was positive enough to spawn an original cast recording, several revival productions, and two Drama Desk award nominations. Critics were divided on the play’s merits, with the New York Times calling it “loopy and overbearing ... shameless kitsch,” while New York Magazine cheered its “stylishness and charm (that) few if any of today’s big Broadway musicals can begin to match.”Both assessments seem true in light of this new production, a faithful, colorful, no-expense-spared restaging that even features the original costumes created for the New York premiere by legendary designer Bob Mackie (the man responsible for Cher’s legendarily outrageous costumes over the past four decades). The whole thing is kitschy and goofy, extravagant and spirited - a great summertime diversion that won’t change your life, but certainly will make you laugh.

The production stars David Naughton, a TV and film actor best-known for his lead performance in “An American Werewolf in London”; and Elizabeth Ward Land, a Broadway actress whose credits include “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and the national tour of “Les Miserables.” With a vampy swagger and gleaming smile under a flaming red bouffant, Land fits her part perfectly; the fact that hints of middle age peek through her glamorous form-fitting costumes only add to the rightness of her casting. The same is even truer of Naughton’s Pete: graying at the fringes, slightly rounded at the middle, he goes through the motions without feeling the emotions of this antiquated music that even he seems tired of.

From the moment the estranged couple appears on stage, it’s clear that this reunion won’t go smoothly. Keely walks over Pete’s lines repeatedly, and the two seem to dance around one another rather than with each other as they croon through a series of hilariously overbaked oldie-goldie medleys, hurling barbs at each other all the while.During commercial breaks, all hell breaks loose; at one point, Keely even flees the set, leading to a hilariously awkward interlude in which Pete must keep the show rolling along without her.

Boasting a golden laser-beam of a voice and a brash enthusiasm that only barely conceals her underlying vulnerability, Land fully inhabits this shell of a superstar. Naughton, by comparison, seems rather disengaged from the role of Pete. While Keely sings, his eyes seem distant, as if he is waiting for his next cue. When that cue comes, he occasionally misses the point. “All I could do was stare at her snapping fingers, which I found strangely erotic,” he tells us about the couple’s first encounter - all the while gazing not at Keely’s snapping fingers, but into her eyes. Perhaps his disengagement is intentional; after all, he doesn’t want to fall for those snapping fingers again. But of course, in the end, he does. When the inevitable happens and the couple finds reconciliation, it comes all too quickly and for no apparent reason. This is, ultimately, made-for-TV make-up after the break-up, sponsored by Swell Shampoo. “If Swell can get the tangles out of our lives,” notes Keely near the show’s end, “just think what it can do for your hair.”

One thing’s sure: “Pete ’n’ Keely” will do wonders for your mood. Any quibbles about the production must be taken in context: This is, without question, the most ambitious, professional, and fully realized theatrical production currently on stage in this part of the country.

That’s something to sing about.

--Joe Nickell, The Missoulian, July 2008

David Naughton and Liz Ward Land

Pete n Keely

Alpine Theatre Project 2008