"Platinum Dreams"

Platinum Dream Don’t Come True

Platinum Dreams
Directed by Joseph Hayward
York Theater Company
150 E 76th St.
Opened March 8, 2025
For tickets visit https://yorktheatre.org/
Closes March 16, 2025
Reviewed by Paulanne Simmons March 9, 2025

Photo by Carol Rosegg

The first production of York Theatre’s Spring 2025 “New2NY” series is Platinum Dreams, a three hander about Lila Halliday, a 1940s movie star and singer planning to stage a comeback with the help of record producer Jamie Stiles (Jovan E’Sean). This doesn’t seem to be a particularly new idea and unfortunately book writer Stevie Holland adds nothing special to it.

Just when Lila is getting used to the idea that she may have to let go of the past, in walks rock star Dan Hardin (Conor Ryan), who manages to seduce Lila, even though she knows Dan and Jamie were once a couple. Even worse, it’s pretty obvious Dan (aka Danger) is more attracted to Lila’s dress and former home (which he lives in) than the woman in the flesh.

On the other hand, Gary William Friedman (music) and William Holt (lyrics) have contributed a lively score that includes traditional rock and roll, lots of power ballads, a little bit of the blues and even a touch of Latin sound. And the cast members all have voices to do the score justice. Sadly, most of the songs do not advance the plot, as they are delivered by characters alone on the stage, singing to themselves or commenting on what has just happened.

When it comes to acting, the actors are not quite so convincing. Holland and Ryan have about as much chemistry as cold mashed potatoes and yesterday’s meatloaf. Admittedly the show is only 70 minutes long, so there isn’t much time for plot or character development. And a staged reading doesn’t give director Joseph Hayward much opportunity to fill in the gaps. But the cast doesn’t do much even with the material it has.

At times the musical reveals too much too soon. Why did we need to know that Dan is really gay so we couldn’t have taken his relationship with Lila seriously? Even worse, why did Lila need to know this as well, so she shouldn’t have taken the relationship seriously? Even a well-worn story like this one could have some surprises.

At other times the musical reveals too little or too much by expository dialogue rather than what’s happening onstage. We know little about Lila other than that she was once a diva, and almost nothing about Jamie and Dan‘s relationship, how it worked and when and why it stopped working.

Platinum Dreams is, in fact, a new musical with a long history. It was originally called Sunset and had its world premiere in 1977 at the Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo, NY. It had a book by Louis LaRusso II and a score by Holt and Friedman. It was directed by Tommy Tunes. When the show moved to Broadway in 1978 it was renamed Platinum, and this time it had a book by Holt and Bruce Vilanch. It closed after 33 performances.

But the musical refused to die. A revised version of the original Sunset was presented off-Broadway at the Village Gage in November 1983. In August 2010, a revised version of Platinum played at the New York International Fringe Festival.

The things is… those songs are just so damned good! But good songs alone do not make a good musical. Normally, I’d say the creators should go back to the drawing board and try to produce a better book. But after all these years, it might be better to forget about the musical and get those songs performed by talented recording and cabaret artists.