Properly speaking, Harlequin Productions' Sixties Kicks isn't musical theater, it's a concert. Five talented young people backed by a killer five-piece rock band sing 37 hits of the 1960s. I'm not a music critic, but I don't have to be Lester Bangs to give a thumbs-up to the source material.

The cast and band are rock solid.  Brad Schrandt, for example, plays keyboards, flute and saxophone, all in the same act.  Alison Monda is fully committed as usual, roaring through "Magic Bus" and "House of the Rising Sun."  Monda's fiancé Matthew Posner works his Daltrey chops on "Won't Get Fooled Again" - and his Act II costume makes him look unnervingly like '70s icon Freddie Prinze.  (Note to Gen-Y readers:  I'm referring to Freddie Prinze Jr.'s father, a comedian who starred on a sitcom called Chico and the Man.)  Fellow Oklahoman Kate Dinsmore has a knack for hippie ballads.  (Note to Linda Whitney: Why in the Haight didn't you give Dinsmore a Nancy Sinatra number in Act I?)  But the emotional highlight of the show, for me and other Lennon-McCartney idolaters, is Antonia Darlene's gospel rendition of "Let It Be."  I wiped away tears.

Read the full review here.

Sixties Kicks

Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31, 8 p.m. $12-$38,
Harlequin Productions, 204 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia
360.786.0151, harlequinproductions.org