City of Angels - rollicking fun

The current show at Lyric Stage, running through May, is City of Angels, a musical comedy which pokes fun at both Hollywood and the "noir" genre while entertaining the audience. The play includes a "play within a play," which sounds complex but works well. A writer of hard-boiled detective novels is in Hollywood on contract to turn one of his novels into a screen play. We see the ex-cop private eye solving a disappearance and attempted murder while lamenting his lost love and breaking the case in a series of scenes. Simultaneously we see the Hollywood big shot producer/director insisting the writer change the story line to be more "Hollywood." We see all the stereotypes of syncophantic hangers-on, starlets and crooners buzzing around the producer. There are affairs, marital spats and reconciliations. All this with a finely-sung set of lyrics and a great band barely seen behind a curtain. Most of the cast play two roles - one in the "real" Hollywood and another in the detective story, and this works. Most are familiar faces in the Boston theatre scene, and all have adequate if not great singing voices. Go see it!