Crooners put on dreamy dinner show

When Janeen Teal was a little girl in the 1950s, she used to hide in her brother’s room and listen to the golden hits of Patti Page on the hi-fi. As did a lot of little girls, Teal played “The Tennessee Waltz” or “Changing Partners” and swelled with young dreams of love.

But Teal isn’t hiding any more. With local trio The Memphis Belles (Pat Cummings, Darlene Mogul, and Penny Weinstein) and sax man Norm Vincent, Teal is crooning out her dream in those old-time favorites in “Sweethearts: A Tribute to the Women of the 50s,” playing two weekends, and accompanied by dinner, at the Greenhouse Restaurant.

The third original musical revu under the auspices of Teal Blue Productions (formerly Janeen Teal Enterprises), this Teal deal is seriously sweet. It’s like “sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at supper time” meets “lipstick on your collar” and goes “crazy for you” all in one night. To a canned recording, mixed by the voraciously musical Vincent, the Sweethearts pay homage to Patti Page, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, The McGuire Sisters, and every high-school girl who ever fell in love with the football captain.

Twenty-five numbers delivered in two 45-minute sets will send Bangor audiences into rounds of clapping and tapping. And for those who lived through the days when these winsome songs first hit the charts, there are sure to be a deluge of memories.

The Memphis Belles bring big harmonies and that threesome richness to center stage and to the backup doo-wops. The blend in “Sincerely” is truly weighty, particularly because of Mogul’s effortlessly toothsome voice.

But each one of these choristers is a diva in her own right. For instance, Weinstein captures the twang of Cline — and, in some phrases, the gutsiness of Ethel Merman — in the mellifluous “Crazy” and the tough-but-vulnerable “Walkin’ After Midnight.”

With full-face pouts and finger-waving threats, Mogul shames her man with “Lipstick on Your Collar.” In “Who’s Sorry Now” and “Where the Boys Are,” she booms beautifully as any Connie Francis imitator would.

The most surprising performance of the evening comes from Cummings, whose ethereal presence takes a bashing with her “Little Miss Dynamite” revivalist singing in “One Step at a Time” and the get-down-and-get-funky “Kansas City.” For those who are used to seeing Cummings in dramatic roles, this is a new side of her talents, and one she should definitely let show more often.

Although the Memphis Belles have a good thing going on musically, their act needs the on-stage aptitude of Teal to carry the show. Although her operatic training sounds misplaced in some of the backups, she’s right-on when the mike is in her hand and she’s singing from the heart. Teal has a smooth night-club kind of voice, and it works in this dreamy show. She gets to sing her two Page favorites, as well as moony versions of “Cross Over the Bridge,” “Old Cape Cod” and a corny, but cute, medley of “Doggie in the Window” and “Mockingbird Hill.”

Unfortunately, the group performs to pre-recorded music, and the show suffers from the redundant backbeats and irritating exactness of synthesized music. Thankfully, Vincent chimes in on the saxophone, flute, and clarinet throughout, but he can’t fully make up for the spontaneity and excitement of a live ensemble.

“Sweethearts” will be performed with dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the show at 8 p.m. Oct. 24, and 29-31 at the Greenhouse Restaurant in Bangor. For tickets, call 945-4040.