At Ford's, a cool '110 in the Shade'

Musicals just don't get a lot smarter or more sensitive than the loping "110 in the Shade" that opened Wednesday at Ford's Theatre. The 1963 show is simple but bighearted, with an underrated score by "The Fantasticks" team of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones that's being gorgeously sung. This sunny, direct production takes a laudable matter-of-fact approach to its racially diverse casting and even has an answer for folks at odds with the story's throwback plot.