Lawson Taitte

IRVING – If Dallas theater were a baseball team, it would have a very deep bench.

MARK ROGERS/Special Contributor

Brian Gonzales (center), with Noelle Stanley (left) and Megan Woodall, is a commanding presence in the lead role.

On Saturday, Lyric Stage opened Fiorello!, which tied The Sound of Music for the best-musical Tony Award in 1960 and nabbed a Pulitzer Prize to boot. A show about a New York mayor is bound to be full of middle-aged political types, always difficult roles to fill. Cheryl Denson has cast the show not just adequately but exuberantly. It makes you proud.

In a way, it's hard to see what all the fuss was about with Fiorello! Local politics 1,500 miles and 75 years removed are hard to care much about, and Jerome Weidman and George Abbott's book seems conventional after all this time.

We witness Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a crusading but irascible lawyer, burst into politics, go off to war, lose an election and then try again. He neglects the wife he loves and ignores the secretary who loves him.

The songs by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, who went on to write Fiddler on the Roof, are never less than entertaining, but never more than that. The only tune that got much airplay when the show was new was "Little Tin Box" – like a "Gee, Officer Krupke" for cynical pols – but it takes a long, long memory to recall even that one.

Lyric Stage's production values are minimal here, but all the acting and most of the singing in this Fiorello! are first-rate. There's only one ringer on the team, and we can still count him as a Texan. Brian Gonzales, who went off to New York a couple of years ago and made good, returns to make a commanding LaGuardia, almost too lovable for the role.

His henchmen are just swell. Doug Jackson always burns up the stage in comic roles like Fiorello's legal sidekick, Morris. As Ben, the ward boss and LaGuardia's main adviser, Mark Oristano strikes just the right note, at once ironic and avuncular.

The double love story is probably the show's most conventional element. Noelle Stanley makes the clichéd role of the secretary pining for her boss fresher and more appealing than you'd think possible, and Megan Woodall as her pal who moves up in the world will put you in mind of Judy Holliday. Unfortunately, Connie Kegg as Fiorello's bride has pitch problems that jeopardize the show's two sweetest ballads.

Musicals buffs have to see Fiorello!, for the strong performances as well as for the opportunity of seeing a rarity. It might not be the best way, however, to convince the skeptical that musicals are really cool after all.

Through Oct. 25 at Irving Arts Center's Dupree Theater. Runs 170 min. $23 to $30. 972-252- 2787, www.lyricstage.org.

ARCHIVES: Search for more stories on this and other topics | Search Tips

SUBSCRIBE: Get The Dallas Morning News delivered to your home