Drat! The Cat! filches lots of laughs

Director Kate Ryan is a bit of sleuth always on the lookout for Broadway’s past gems. Forgotten by time, she has a knack for swishing off the dust and resurrecting solid revivals.

This time around Ryan, founder of Plain Jane Theatre, introduces the Ira Levin-Milton Schafer musical Drat! The Cat!.

Now playing at the Varscona Theatre until Feb. 28, the light on its feet musical throws out any pretence of logic or depth.

This sweet confection, a mix of high and low comedy, is without a doubt one of the breeziest musicals I’ve seen. It’s a daffy take on the golden age of musicals. Just picture the Keystone Cops meet the Pink Panther.

In this tale of 1890s New York, an elusive cat burglar dressed in a slinky body hugging costume purloins priceless diamonds at upper crust parties.

Bob Purefoy, a bumbling street cop, is assigned to the case as “acting detective.” Not exactly steeped in street smarts, the inept cop falls in love with the beautiful thief.

Drat! The Cat! is not exactly innovative musical theatre. It appears to have no underlying great message unless you consider its focus on the greed and larceny of the wealthy.

It’s mainly a fun piece full of the frantic and romantic. And let’s not forget the marvelous songs. Conveying an uplifting joie de vivre, the melodies balance the kooky plot in love songs such as I Like Him, Let’s Go and She Touched Me, a tune that became a hit for Barbra Streisand.

At the heart of this production are the well-calibrated performances of the cast. Melanie Piatocha is Alice Van Guilder, alias the Cat, a sexy minx with a Paris Hilton self-absorption until she meets bumbling Boy Purefoy (Chris W. Cook), the officer appointed to bring the Cat to justice.

They pair up to create a “Holmes and Watson” duo that is particularly humorous considering how manipulative she is and how totally clueless he is. But right from the get-go, the audience knows they are perfectly matched and it’s all about sitting back and watching the pieces fall into place.

Cook is charming as the naÄŹve do-gooder and from the start the audience is rooting for him. Piatocha has terrific vocal prowess and invokes a kittenish charm as she sashays from one disaster to the next.

Kendra Connor as Matilda Van Guilder as the snobbish, hysterical mother invited plenty of guffaws and Tom Edwards as Lucius Van Guilder, the father, strolled through the play in a smoking jacket flipping dollar bills at any inconvenience.

One of the most powerful moments occurs when Conner and Edwards sing the duet It’s Your Fault after Alice runs away with Bob. Their comical venom scratching beneath Victorian politeness presents one of the funniest moments in the play.

Jason Hardwick as Malthus the butler is one of those exceptionally talented character actors who generates laughs just by rolling a cart across a stage. And in his second roles as Mallet, chief of detectives, he brings a delightful cartoonish element of police incompetence to his role.

Kirstin Piehl as Kate Purefoy, Bob’s mother, swings into her role with a captivating Irish accent that places her in the lower class and Mike Zimmerman, superintendant of police just magnifies bureaucratic ineptitude.

Drat! The Cat! is chockfull of clever, catchy songs and platinum acting. Be prepared to suspend your beliefs and you’ll have a fun, enlightening evening.