This is part of an ongoing series of theater reviews of local high school productions, written by high school students, that will appear on AnnArbor.com. This week, Pioneer High School's Daniel Mozurkewich (see bio at end of story) reviews Greenhills Upper School's production of the musical "Wonderful Town," which ran this past weekend.

Greenhills’ production of “Wonderful Town” last weekend provided many laughs and some good fun, but it remained flawed in several aspects of production.

“Wonderful Town” is a musical that premiered on Broadway in 1953, going on to win the Tony Award that year for best musical. It tells the story of 2 sisters, Eileen and Ruth Sherwood, who move to New York City to try and succeed as an actor and a writer, respectively.

The script, by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, hearkens from a time when character development and plot took a backseat to comedic sequences and musical numbers. The score, by the legendary Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, does little to advance the plot or embody the characters, but still shines in its cleverness and charm. There are plenty of catchy and enjoyable numbers that clearly demonstrate Bernstein’s genius. The acting was a mixed bag in this production. There seemed to be varying levels of commitment and dedication among the company, which was evident in the opening number, where half of the ensemble was engaged and alive, and the other half seemed to be lost onstage.

This also manifested itself in the singing, with many of the group numbers feeling jumbled musically or lacking in vocal energy. The leads all clearly had talent, but sometimes the casting wasn’t spot on.

Highlights among the cast included McKenna Kring as Ruth Sherwood and Diana Rosenzweig as Eileen Sherwood, with Kring bringing a comic strength to her role as the older sibling, and Rosenzweig portraying a believable, ditzy young beauty. James Chamness lent an amazing baritone voice to the role of Robert Baker (Ruth’s love interest), and it was easy to imagine that he was several years older. Tom McClure was strong as the sailor Frank Lippencott and Anica Presley was natural on stage as the frustrated fiancée of a football player named Wreck, played by Jordyn Geiger.

However, there were some directorial problems that haunted this “Wonderful Town.” Emily Wilson-Tobin did an impressive job with blocking, but the pacing of the show was off. On Friday night, the show ran 3 hours — much too long for any modern audience’s attention span for a piece of this type. There were scenes that could have been shortened or played at a faster pace to keep the show flowing, and at least a half hour could be taken off the show in some way or another. Christina Sears-Etter’s choreography also felt weak and lacking in energy or excitement, not helped by the overcrowding on Greenhills' small stage.

Technical elements were also flawed. The set was dynamic in the indoor scenes, but flat for the streets of Greenwich Village. The paint job looked incomplete and sometimes messy. Microphone issues were also common. However, the biggest problem was that the scene changes stuck out like sore thumbs in that they were not fluid and often left stagehands in the light fixing signs or adjusting set pieces.

Despite the production flaws, however, there were still many pleasures to be found in this production. The script had a zany, nonsensical quality that often led to laughs just based on the outrageousness of the plot. Highlights of the show included the songs “Ohio” and “A Little Bit in Love” (both featuring great comic performances by the female leads); a sequence involving a series of vignettes based on Ruth Sherwood’s short stories and acted out hilariously by actors from the ensemble; the absurd act 1 finale “Conga”; “My Darlin’ Eileen,” performed by a group of love-struck Irish policemen; and “It’s Love,” showcasing Chamness’s stellar vocals.

Overall, “Wonderful Town” provided a lot of laughs and some great songs, but the production ran too long and could have used more consistent commitment and stronger technical elements.

Daniel Mozurkewich is a senior at Pioneer High School. He acts extensively with Pioneer Theatre Guild, and he hopes to pursue a career in acting. He has also written and directed plays for PTG's annual "Student Productions", worked on Lights Crew for "FutureStars," and served as President of the Guild for one semester.

The aim of AnnArbor.com's student-review program is to recognize, and provide more coverage for, the accomplished theatrical work that's happening in our schools while also providing opportunities for student writers with an interest in arts criticism. To encourage objectivity, our student writers will always review shows from schools other than their own. To learn more about the student-review program, contact Jenn McKee at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546.