On a clear day, Melissa Errico, as the song says, outshines every star. On a cloudy one; well, it just doesn’t make any difference. The girl is luminescent. As Daisy Gamble, the unemployed chain smoker who will try anything, including hypnosis, Errico is kooky, earnest, adorable. As Melinda, Daisy’s former English self, who’s revealed through regression therapy, she’s stately, passionate, determined. The fact that Dr. Mark Bruckner (Stephen Bogardus), Daisy’s psychiatrist, falls hard for Melinda is the story upon which their plotline hinges. This is a much pared-down version of the 1965 quirky hit musical. The partially visible five piece orchestra is accompanied by a cheery ensemble of eight singers who assume different roles throughout the play. One of them is Warren, who was originally Daisy’s boyfriend. “Wait Till We’re Sixty-five” was his signature number, now a plea from the group for Daisy to find a stable job. Likewise, the intro to “S.S. Bernard Cohn,” which mentions his name, has been cut. Warren is not missed, nor is a full set; watercolor projections and a few pieces of furniture do just fine. Certainly, there are several “huh?” moments in the show. How the heck does Dr. Bruckner manage to enter Daisy’s regression, and if he could save Melinda from drowning, then what? Forget about it. You just have to give in and accept the ESP and telekinesis aspects of the fantasy; don’t ask why no one in Daisy’s past has been astonished by her incredible powers. One thing that’s never in question is the chemistry that Errico has onstage with John Cudia, the hunk with the dazzling voice who plays Melinda’s rat of a husband. She’s pledged to the proper but dull Hubert, to whom her father has agreed to pay a dowry including two houses and forty horses. But Melinda falls for the painter Edward Moncrief, and who wouldn’t? He’s outrageously sexy, and beyond handsome with his floppy Hugh Grant hair, and a fetching outfit of puffy shirt (hello, “Seinfeld”), patterned vest, and tight fawn pants. He’s like Nathan Fillion with a mustache and goatee, and when he sings “She Wasn’t You,” the temperature in the theater rises by several degrees. Costumes are very much a part of maintaining willing suspension of disbelief in this production. We first see Daisy in jammies, hair curlers, and a shower cap. We know at once that she’s unpretentious, more interested in the flowers she keeps on her roof deck than in her looks. In her little girl dress with flats and a small pink plastic purse, she’s no match for suave Dr. Bruckner, the hypnotist. He’s a silver fox, tweedy, slightly rumpled, buttoned up, complete with tie clip. Daisy falls under his spell immediately. When she appears as aristocratic Melinda Welles, an heiress in the late 18th century, she’s clad in a bonnet and a cream-colored coat which is trimmed in collar and cuffs of fine white fur. There is no doubt of her station in life. In Act Two, Daisy accidentally turns on Mark’s tape recorder, and discovers her arch rival for his affection is herself, as elegant Melinda. At this point, Errico tackles the question “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” and very nearly blows the walls out of the little theater. Power plus heart plus major chops equals a moment the audience will long remember. When Mark finally figures out that it’s Daisy he wants, he implores her in song and telepathically “Come Back to Me.” Daisy can’t resist, and they have their happy ending. It really does seem that for the two of them, and for the enthusiastic audience, that the notion “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” might just be true.
