text: SOUND OF SILENCE IS MISSING FROM SIMON - Sun Sentinel
  SOUND OF SILENCE IS MISSING FROM SIMON
  A little silence would be therapeutic at the Atlantis Playhouse, where a musical revue called The Sounds of Simon blisters eardrums with a scalding rendition of what, until now, the world thought were nice little melancholy pop ballads from Paul Simon.
  Atlantis producer-director Gary Waldman, who piled on the decibels for the hit musical The Life, had better singers last summer and fall who could find ways to float their voices over the thundering sound. This Simon quintet is often swamped by the tooth-rattling sound mix.
  That mix distorts nearly the entire songbook on tap in the 90-minute show, two dozen titles, many from Simon's early vocal partnership with Art Garfunkel. Paeans and dirges -- from Scarborough Fair, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Sound of Silence and Old Friends to The Boxer and Some Folk's Lives Roll Easy -- are mingled among Me & Julio Down by the School Yard, I Am a Rock and You Can Call Me Al.
  The tunes are strung together without narration, though each gets a general thematic setting. There's also some effort to present them in an order that bridges the themes without having to devise special transitions -- in this case, bridges over troubled waters.
  The instrumental tracks range from solo acoustic-style piano to rock band rhythm and percussion to full orchestral trappings, few of which have the natural appeal and color of Phil Hinton and Waldman's vocal arrangements. The show's principal failure is that those lyrical treatments are so devastatingly mugged.
  Lead singer Don Febbraio, dressed in army-issue Woodland Camo BDU's and frequently confined to a wheelchair, paints a sad-sack lyrical portrait of Simon's moodier folk anthems. He and Kenney M. Green had the sturdiest voices at the performance reviewed, able to move between the ballads and screamers without sacrificing much in the way of timbre. The others -- Waldman, Abby Lynn Pantalone and Kimberly Dawn Smith -- struggled with phlegmy throats and wandering pitch.
  While the vocal arrangements are interesting, the show is front loaded with dominant male vocals in backup as well as solo roles. Neither Pantalone or Smith is used for significant complement or contrast until well after the music is steeped in monochromatic testosterone.
  Smith gets only one good solo turn, her half of a duet to Old Friends with Waldman.
  Pantalone conveys operatic tragedy during Dangling Conversation and uses Some Folk's Lives as a coup de grace. However, Waldman's direction vividly portrays her as a junkie in both numbers, wrecking the fragile emotions in each moment.
  Jack Zink can be reached at jzink@sun-sentinel.com
  Musical revue, through Feb. 20 at Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach. Shows 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $26.50, $29. Call 561-304-3212, 800-690-1863.