Young and Groovy in Swinging London
'Café a Go Go'
Café a Go Go

Time is on the side of Café a Go Go. The time is not just the era it evokes - the mid-1960's of swinging London, with the Beatles ascendant, with Twiggy and Justin de Villeneuve as the J.Lo and Ben of their day, of women in A-line shifts and men in Nehru jackets and frilled shirts.

The time that solidifies the crowd-pleasing appeal of this modest, charming musical is found in its depiction of the generation-spanning rites of teenagers on a Saturday night, contending with the opposite sex, self-doubt, self-definition and first love.

Written, directed and staged musically by creators identified in the program only as the Heather Brothers, this midsummer night's diversion was first presented in London in 1990. Now, with two of its producers (the brothers Joe and Dan Corcoran) listing Tony n' Tina's Wedding among their credits, it is running in a theater named for the show, at 221 West 46th Street. In this basement nightclub setting, patrons can buy drinks while listening to the Beatlelike rhythms of a lively four-member band and to more than 30 songs from an attractive cast and occasionally becoming part of the action themselves.

Set in a nightclub in 1966, Café a Go Go has eight young men and women playing teenagers and one older man, Vin Adinolfi as Eric, the tough but tender club owner who enforces the rules, dispenses avuncular advice and comments on behavior as he remembers his own youth from the lofty vantage point of 40.

The plot focuses on three 17-year-olds. One is the innocent, unconfident Rick, well played and sung by Zachary Gilman, whose attention will eventually focus on sweet Sharon (Jasika Nicole Pruitt). The second is the conceited, womanizing Gary (Wade Fisher), whose cute girlfriend, Sue (Jessica Cannon), deserves better. The last is the mischievous Eddie (John-Mark McGaha), who bets his pals and Eric that before the night ends, he and the dismissive, strong-willed beauty known as Bridget the Frigid (Stacie May Hassler) will become more intimate.

Much of the fun of Café a Go Go comes from listening to songs and watching behavior that deals with primped girls waiting to be asked to dance; boys trying their pickup lines, laments for virginities retained and lost, the buxom Sue's yearning for a figure like Twiggy's, and boys' problems with drink, visible tumescence, an inability to communicate feelings and their willingness to tell self-serving lies.

Eric refers to the cafe as "one of life's great finishing schools." Whether one graduated from Cafe a Go Go in London in 1966 or elsewhere in any decade, this good-humored show skillfully revisits the joys and embarrassments of adolescence.

LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company