[For the remainder of the year, my San Jose and Peninsula theater reviews will be posted on Talkin’ Broadway with only introductions to those reviews on this site]. Please continue to https://talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj294.html for full review.

Serious music buffs know Jacques Offenbach for his final, unfinished but revered and oft-performed work, the episodic fantasy opera The Tales of Hoffmann.  But in France, he is renowned as the king of operetta with 98 to his credit.  Among his most enduring and endearing is La Vie Parisienne, offered in a well-produced and rousing English language version by Pocket Opera, with its opening at Berkeley’s Hillside Club.

Like most operettas, the storyline by librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy is fanciful.  As Artistic Director Nicolas A. Garcia notes, “Dramatic, it ain’t,” though charming and funny it is.  Parisian dandies Gardefeu (Andrew Metzger) and Bobinet (Justin Baptista) vie for the affection of demi-mondaine Metella (Phoebe Dinga), but when they see her at the train station with another man, the suitors turn to another quarry.  An arriving Swedish baron’s wife (Madison Hatten) appeals, and the baron’s (Jonathan Spencer) wayward ways provide the opportunity for Gardefeu to spirit the baroness away.

The silly subterfuge involves representing Gardefeu’s apartment, where the honored guests will stay, as an overflow of the Grand Hotel, where they are booked.  Dalliances ensue, but in the end, the old alliances are reaffirmed.  Although the plot and humor build slowly, Acts 3 and 4 after intermission redeem the work.  Overall, the artists exude charm and sing the 19^th century French pop music with verve.

Offenbach’s music doesn’t possess the sweep of his more serious efforts, but it is lively throughout.  Some of the songs highlight loopy repetition like “frou, frou, toc, toc” or goofy topics like whether boots or gloves are more important to fashion.  The latter is sung by Frick the bootmaker (Michael Mendelsohn) and Gabrielle the glovemaker (Marla Kavanaugh), whose subplot is totally superfluous, but they are pleasing performers, so all is forgiven….. Continue at TalkinBroadway.com .