Performing Arts

IRVING – What becomes a legend? The kind of mink-and-sable treatment that Lyric Stage is giving the fabled 1940 musical Cabin in the Sky .

DARNELL RENEE/Special Contributor

Cabin in the Sky, choreographed by Bruce Wood, flowed with spirited and subtly balanced movement on Saturday.

On Saturday, the Irving company devoted to reviving forgotten musicals, and discovering new ones, opened the first authentic version of this Broadway legend since it made Ethel Waters a star 66 years ago. Lyric even received its first National Endowment for the Arts grant to finance the necessary research.

Composer Vernon Duke – despite the name, a Russian émigré with strong classical training – teamed up with lyricist John Latouche and librettist Lynn Root to create this musical fable for an all-black cast. There's no question the show feels dated. Some of the book scenes, though amusing enough, go on forever. The music is simpler and less integrated into the action than we are used to. But Mr. Duke and Mr. Latouche were a formidable team. A score that contains "Taking a Chance on Love" obviously has a lot going for it.

Petunia (Eleanor T. Threatt in the Waters role) is praying that God won't allow her no-account husband Little Joe (Vince McGill) to die and go to hell. He got shot when he was messing around with Georgia Brown (Crystal Williams). On Joe's deathbed, a heavenly general (Marcus M. Mauldin) and an infernal boss (Wilbur Penn) are contending for his soul.

The story feels like a folk tale, and the music mixes brass chorales with some hot jazz licks. In a lesser production, those devilish voices might tempt you to question whether Cabin in the Sky was worth all the effort to reconstruct it.

But Lyric Stage did not give us a lesser production. The great choreographer George Balanchine staged the original, and Lyric had the brilliant idea of hiring Fort Worth master choreographer Bruce Wood to stage this one as his first music theater project. There's not all that much dancing as such (though when there is, it's magical). But the whole evening flows along on a current of spirited and subtly balanced movement.

All the performers do a great job in the acting department. The women – including Doris Howard, who begins the show with a powerful "Wade in the Water" – have voices to match; the men's singing could use a bit more vim, not to speak of accuracy.

Ms. Threatt manages to repeat Ethel Waters' triumph in a local context. She has had a string of great roles over the last year. This time, though, she sprinkles her fine acting and singing with the pixie dust of star power.

Lyric surrounded Mr. Wood with a design team on the top of its form, too. Wade Giampa's simple drop sets within a series of wooden frames remind you of a high-end children's storybook. Diane Simons put together eye-popping costumes that clarify the show's themes. And Susan A. White's lighting design bathes them in a golden glow that occasionally bursts with white brilliance when the Almighty wants to make a point.

Anybody with an interest in the history of the American musical has to make the pilgrimage to see Cabin in the Sky. It's also good clean fun, despite a few bumps and grinds from Georgia Brown when she's strutting her stuff. Being old-fashioned isn't necessarily such a bad thing, you know.

E-mail ltaitte@dallasnews.com

Through Oct. 21 at Irving Arts Center's Dupree Theater, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving. Runs 140 mins. $23 to $29. 972-594-1904, www.lyricstage.org.