Dining Chicago

Live Dalmations pose with fakes in a scene from “The 101 Dalmations Musical” now playing in Chicago.

“Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil, if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will….”

Was there ever a scarier, freakier villain than Cruella de Vil? The scrawny, witchy society dame determined to make dog-skin coats out of Dalmatian puppies is scarier than ever in “The 101 Dalmatians Musical,” playing in a short run at Cadillac Palace Theatre in the Loop, but not in a good way. As she screeches and lurches around the stage, Sara Gettelfinger is a sight to frighten anyone.

Not that the lurching is her fault. The conceit of this ill-conceived show is that the dogs are played by regular-sized people in spotted outfits, so Director Jerry Zaks has made all the people playing humans larger than life by putting them up on stilts. The resulting dog-people aren’t very doggish and the humans are like nothing on earth.

The pop-tinged score, by Styx singer Dennis DeYoung, is almost completely forgettable, the exceptions being “Hail to the Chef,” a bouncy food song crooned by Cruella to the dogsitting cook while her henchmen make off with the pups, and a recurring reggae number, “Be a Little Bit Braver,” heartening the canines on their long journey of rescue.

This production, adapted BT McNicholl, is based on the original plot from Dodie Smith’s charming novel, “The 101 Dalmations,” rather than relying on the familiar, 1961, animated Disney film, so the memorable song by Mel Leven, quoted above, doesn’t figure. Nor do the warm characters of either book or animation. Beyond Cruella, everyone, human or canine, in this play is insipid, and far more cartoonlike than those of the cartoon.

Four adults, ten kids, 15 real Dalmatians and a few dummy dogs and puppets portray the 101 canines of the title, but not very well. The kids do some acrobatics and jumping-jacks-style dance numbers, sweet but rather like an elementary-school pageant. The puppetry simulating the puppy pack could have been done much better.

Most disappointing, the live dogs, cute as they are, appear on stage only in brief, tantalizing glimpses, rarely more than one or two at a time and never interact with people, either dog-people or humankind. At the finale, the real dogs alternate on stage in short intervals performing three minutes of cute tricks that’s the saving business of the whole show. But by then, the attention span of all the kids in the audience is long gone.

If you want a charming show about Dalmatians, rent the Disney movie. If you want to see live dogs, the International Kennel Club Cluster of Dog Shows is coming up Feb. 27 and 18 at McCormick Place Lakeside; tickets are $17 and kids get in free. That’s a far better bargain than $85 for orchestra seats for this dog of a show.