Pretty cute 'Dalmatians'

Cruella de Vil likes things red and hot. Her city house is painted in a palette that suggests both blood and fire. At her country escape -- Hell Hall -- she keeps the thermostat on "scorch." As played with delicious relish by Rachel York, this villainess gives off sparks in "The 101 Dalmatians," the yappy, snappy musical that premiered Tuesday night at Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre.

A crackling electricity courses through each scene that York enters (and what screeching ruckuses her entrances are). The Drama Desk-winning performer and some live, oh-so-cute Dalmatians are the highlights of a show that alternately sizzles and slows.

"Dalmatians" is a well known property, thanks to several film versions that have come from Dodie Smith's 1956 children's novel. This adaptation by B.T. McNicholl, who also wrote lyrics with composer Dennis DeYoung of Styx fame, hews closely to the book. It tells the story of Pongo (James Ludwig) and Missus Pongo (Catia Ojeda), a London-dwelling dog couple whose pups are snatched by Cruella's henchmen in a comically brilliant scene. She has literal designs on their skins -- for coats, hats and gloves. The dogs want to rescue their offspring from the character with the outrageous skunk-colored coif.

"Dalmatians" is given a traditional staging by director Jerry Zaks, who has won Tonys for "Six Degrees of Separation," "The House of Blue Leaves," "Lend Me a Tenor" and "Guys and Dolls." Scenes are vividly imagined, from the slanted design to the spot-accented lighting, all of which creates an inverted dogs' world where humans are pets.

The challenges with the show do not arise from the fact that it is told from the canine perspective, although humans walk around clumsily on stilts. They arise from the confusion of the anthropomorphism that the show uses. Pongo, played affably by Ludwig, sings about being a "man." The pups, played by a bevy of adorable children, sing about being "kids."

Given the thin material, the musical feels overlong at two hours, 35 minutes. It is as if the creative team felt it necessary to give big numbers to each character, even those who are not developed enough for us to care about. Wet nurse Perdita (Julie Foldesi), who lost her own pups and husband, gets a solo turn. Her ballad, "One True Love," is pretty but comes out of nowhere.

Ditto for "Having the Crime of Our Lives," by Cruella's henchmen Jasper and Jinx (Michael Thomas Holmes and Robert Anthony Jones). It's a cute, playful number that sends up a pop song but does not really serve the show.

The music, by DeYoung, has a pop-rock sensibility that borders on the derivative. There are lots of obvious, end-stopped rhymes to the libretto. But I was charmed by "Hot" and "Hail to the Chef," two of Cruella's stand-out numbers, as well as the show's reggae-lite anthem, "Be a Little Bit Braver."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390