'Stop the World': A Technicolor Joy

"Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off" is a well-known musical, a big hit in London and on Broadway in the early 1960s with hit songs in its score. Many people recognize such songs as "What Kind of Fool Am I?" and "Once in a Lifetime," but most have never seen it performed.

The show has not been staged in the Washington area for more than 20 years. So this might be a good time to rush over to McLean's Alden Theatre to see what all the fuss was about, because the Great Falls Players have put this show back on its feet. And those are happy, toe-tapping feet.

It's easy to see why theater companies shy away from staging this. It is almost a one-man show, and there are few performers with the set of talents and the stamina required to carry on almost nonstop for two hours. But area newcomer Russell Maitland, who boasts impressive theatrical credentials, not only makes the show watchable but also brings it to a satisfying, emotional conclusion that makes having to endure 10 minutes of mimes at the opening almost worth it.

"Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off" was considered a breakthrough at its debut in 1961 because of its innovative, free-form approach to telling the story of a callow English office boy named Littlechap. He acquires fame, fortune and power, only to discover he may have wasted his life as the end draws near. Cynicism abounds, men run the world and women are playthings who inconveniently get pregnant and become burdens. Littlechap goes from affair to affair, ignoring his long-suffering wife, Evie, played by Nikki Arbiter-Murphy, and the real love she offers him until it's too late.

The show is quirky because Anthony Newley was quirky. Along with Leslie Bricusse, Newley created the story, music and lyrics. The show was directed by Newley. The show starred Newley. Some may remember Newley as an annoyingly self-absorbed performer who would show up on "The Tonight Show" in the '60s or early '70s. He'd sing with overly theatrical gestures and an out-of-control vibrato that you could have thrown a cat through, if the cat hadn't already fled from the sound. This show is his, through and through.

Newley, who died in 1999, had the cast's faces painted in mime-like makeup and mandated a circus-like backdrop. A female chorus provides pantomime, slapstick comedy and dance borrowed heavily from old-fashioned English music hall routines.

Maitland, playing the Newley role, has to simultaneously perform as a vaudeville-style emcee and a song-and-dance man, tell the story to the audience, handle rigorous songs in character and fill the theater with an oversize presence.

He handles the singing superbly, from rousing anthems "Gonna Build a Mountain" and "Once in a Lifetime" to the lovely duet with Arbiter-Murphy, "Someone Nice Like You."

His voice is wearing out by the time he gets to the poignant "What Kind of Fool Am I?" at the finale, but he more than makes up with the raw emotion he summons.

Arbiter-Murphy is also fun to watch -- she plays Evie and the German, Russian and American women who have flings with Littlechap.

Director Roland Gomez keeps things moving rapidly, filling the stage with constant movement so the early '60s jokes and references are glossed over. The show looks and sounds great. Members of the large female chorus wear colorful costumes that look as though a 1960s Carnaby Street clothier exploded all over them. Joe Gems conducts a lively orchestra tucked away behind the set. Except for the opening number, a truly irritating ditty called "The ABC Song," the music is enjoyable, and you may well like this world, whether it stops or not.

"Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off," performed by the Great Falls Players, concludes this weekend at the Alden Theatre of the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave. Showtime is 8 p.m. tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. Tickets are available at the Alden Theatre box office or by calling Ticketmaster at 703-573-7328. For information, go tohttp://www.gfonline.org.