If you like “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “Guys and Dolls” and “West Side Story,” you should have been in Stephens Auditorium on Thursday night.

With a cast of physical comedic genius, “Bullets over Broadway” had the audience chuckling from start to finish.

Dr. Jane Cox from the ISU Theatre department spoke in the Celebrity Café before the show on Woody Allen’s career, beginning in high school when he sold one-liners like, “It’s the fallen woman who usually gets picked up.”

She also talked about how Allen’s 1994 film “Bullets over Broadway” was a mix of the serious and comedic work he had done previously. It emphasized the struggle between talent and luck, the difference between a successful artist and a man.

Act I

The crowd filled half the main floor and first balcony in the auditorium.

The show began with jazzy, up-tempo music. A man landed on stage with his back to the audience and a large machine gun, creating the words “Bullets over Broadway” in bullet holes on the backdrop. He was chased offstage by police sirens and swirling spot lights that simulated search lights.

It was a loud, high-energy start to the show. A group of scantily clad girls in tiger-patterned leotards opened with the song “Tiger Rag,” promising excellent things for the music in the show: 1920s standards repurposed to fit the script, similar to “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

The showgirls were the first taste of the elaborate costumes William Ivey Long designed for the original Broadway production. There is a reason he has six Tony Awards, and that reason is they were amazing, gorgeous, sophisticated, almost cunning.

Olive Neal, mobster Valenti’s girlfriend, got the first laughs with her lewd delivery and characteristically unskilled but enthusiastic movements.

Olive (Jemma Jane) argues with Valenti that she wants to be a star. This was the first chance the audience had at hearing the Woody Allen script adapted to the stage. Right from the start the new material got laughs, including Olive’s belief that “in Jersey we didn’t have left and right” and Valenti’s description of their anniversary.

“That was when we went to bed, and I fell for you,” he said. “‘Cause you gave me a discount.”

The audience loved it.

Jane played Olive with more maturity than the character deserves, but it brought an interesting dynamic to her relationship with Valenti. Instead of being the spoiled daddy’s girl, she was a complete pain with few privileges. I questioned why, exactly, he was still bothering with this girl – something crucial to the plot, as he funds an entire play on Broadway to make her a star. This Olive Neal was the nagging wife, not the fun girlfriend he can spoil.

The showgirls returned in strategically-wrapped furs and nothing else. The beginning of the show definitely proved that this was not meant for children.

The scene moved to a rooftop party for David Shayne (Michael Williams), his girlfriend Ellen (Hannah Deflumeri) and friends. The ladies wore long handkerchief hemmed skirts and cardigans, with scarves tied in their hair like gypsies. They were discussing art and the future of David’s plays.

William’s comedic delivery fit Woody Allen’s style well, pitching the one liners softly enough the audience almost always caught them. 

Many moments of the first act were foreshadowing for what was to come, including a discussion over what is more valuable: human life or highly esteemed art.

The question over whether you would save a random person or the only existing copy of William Shakespeare’s complete works from a burning building comes directly from Woody Allen’s film, as do the one liners that follow. The audience enjoyed Allen’s material and the Broadway additions equally.

David receives a phone call from his producer Julian Marx, who has found Valenti to back David’s play in exchange for a part for Olive. David is thrilled, and Ellen brings up the prospect of their marriage.

“Marriage is a very serious decision,” he told her. “Like suicide.” 

The stage cleared as the mobsters pirouetted on, Susan Stroman’s first chance to show off her narrative choreography. There were men in suits and hats kicking and spinning and guns everywhere, and it was awe-inspiring.

The first big moment was Jane (Olive) showing off her physical comedy in “The Hot Dog Song.” In a red corset with fringe her hip thrusts and abundant sexual innuendos sent David into a panic (Let’s just say the hot dog and buns had perfectly clear double entendres.). 

“I call it interpretive dancing,” she explained. “Because the audience interprets it one way, and the Catholic Church interprets it another.”

Subtlety will never describe Olive Neal. By the time actual hot dogs appeared onstage, the crowd was laughing uncontrollably.

Mobster Cheech is assigned to guard Olive at rehearsals, despite hating each other, and Julian agrees to get diva Helen Sinclair for the lead to calm David. Helen (Emma Stratton) was introduced to us in a silver glittering robe surrounded by the luxury that would characterize the remainder of the sets. 

Stratton moved like a lioness stalking her prey, crouching a bit; possibly to camouflage her height next to Williams, effectively heightening her drama. At a cross between Yzma from “Emperor’s New Groove” and Cruella DeVille, Stratton created a fascinating character.

Cheech (Jeff Brooks) drove a car onstage while singing “Up A Lazy River.” This is the point when all the retired women around me began to develop a crush on Cheech. His voice was smooth, and convincing enough to look past the execution he was performing. Following the shots, he turned to his buddy and said, “What do you wanna eat?”

Brooks was incredibly believable as mobster Cheech, and would have fit right in next to Marlon Brando’s Sky Masterson in “Guys and Dolls,” right down to his gestures, delivery and love of gambling.

The first rehearsal of David’s play introduces us to the highly characterized actors and actresses of David’s world. Eden Brent (Rachel Bahler), who sees a psychiatrist with/for her dog, is the first to arrive.

Warner Purcell (Bradley Zarr) was introduced as the man likely to gain weight the farther into the show we went. He did not disappoint. Zarr’s excellent command of physical comedy created a mix between a hungry, naughty Humpty Dumpty and the chef in Disney’s “Little Mermaid.” He was never without food in his hands, pockets, or mouth – sometimes all three.

Olive frequently wore pink and contrasted against the black, brown and navy of the mobsters and muted colors of everyone else. Helen entered in a black and white Cruella DeVille-esque coat and hat, which she dropped to reveal a similarly colored v-patterned dress.

With everyone onstage at once, it was easy to isolate David as the cute little puppy, excited energy sending him around and around the stage. Only Olive’s painful, telegraphic line recitation brought him down, although the audience loved it, laughter starting and stopping multiple times before she had even finished the bit. Her painful pronunciation of “masochist” pushed everyone over the top.

Helen works to convince David that Cheech’s changes to his play are good. David is too busy slobbering all over himself and her (younger audiences would call it ‘fangirling’) to notice she is manipulating him to write things the way she wants them. David is more preoccupied with the morality of taking Cheech’s words as his own, but Cheech doesn’t mind. When David questions Cheech’s morality, Cheech takes a hard line in another highlight.

The mobsters back Cheech up in “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness if I Do,” a song that lived up to its show-stopper reputation. With fantastic silhouettes, precise, fast arm movements, and amazing syncopation, you can add ‘tap-dancing’ to intimidating gang behavior. The applause lasted long enough to call the show well and truly paused.

At intermission, most audience members around me were talking about the tap-dance number and how attractive and talented Cheech was. A woman in front of me had recognized a few of the songs.

Act II

Police sirens and search lights opened the second act as they had the first. The cast is loving all of the rewrites David has done to his play – rewrites Cheech gave him. 

Cheech is upset that Olive is ruining his play with her lack of talent. After a discussion with David, Cheech takes things into his own hands. We next see him in a car with Olive, singing “Lazy River.” The audience knew what was coming, and laughed.

Olive didn’t go without a fight, crawling back onstage and causing Cheech to yell “Jesus!” before firing several shots. Applause began before he finished the last note of “Lazy River.”

David goes to tell Ellen about Helen, but she beats him to it – she’s having an affair with Flender. David can’t get past the fact its Flender.

“He’s a communist! Worse, he’s a vegetarian!” David said.

Deflumeri had a great vocal belt, but I wanted more from her facially. Her character came off as a wallflower around all the other big personalities. With so few moments, we needed the chemistry to explain their relationship.

To say David goes into a panic is too quaint of a phrase. David has a complete collapse of sanity and gravity. Williams was all over the stage, up and down, working his full physical comedic ability – some students experiencing midterms this week would appreciate whatever energizer he used.

During an argument Williams walked away from Cheech, squealing, across the stage, still squealing, slid down a pole, walked back – all while squealing. The audience loved it, chuckling repeatedly. It’s classic Broadway comedy that speaks to William’s talent that something so easily cliché can still leave an audience laughing.

Unfortunately Valenti is wise to Cheech’s involvement with Olive’s death.  

“He’s in this theater. I can smell his aftershave: moonlight and Iowa City,” Valenti said. In Cyclone territory, that joke was golden.

David is there for Cheech’s death. His parting words are classic Woody Allen – “If there’s an afterlife, keep writing when you aren’t shoveling coal.”

Everything wraps up a little too nicely for those left, including Ellen coming back for David. Their compromise song, “She’s Funny That Way,” had audience members around me singing along. Valenti delivers a feel-good optimism speech about moving on and leads the group in a lullaby (sarcasm) from his mother… “Yes! We Have No Bananas.” The cast danced around, and in the midst of it David went down on one knee in front of Ellen.

While an unusual and rather odd ending, it was pure fun. At one point Rachel Bahler (Eden) sang an entire verse in pig latin. There were even streamers that shot into the audience. The audience gave a standing ovation.

All in all, I enjoyed the show immensely and would see it again. Knowing that some parts of the show were cleaned up, it would be interesting to see the explicit version. The show does justice to Woody Allen’s movie while still including all the best parts of a Broadway musical.