PRINCE OF BROADWAY: Channel Surfing for Musical Theater Buffs

There is a deep engulfing sinkhole at the heart of Prince of Broadway, an evening of excerpts from 16 musicals that have been produced or directed by Hal Prince - recipient of 21 Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a National Medal of the Arts - in the course of a stellar career that is now in its seventh decade. 

Unfortunately, and rather significantly, the chasm at the core of the proceedings bears the name of the great Mr. Prince himself, who, despite the fact that he has co-directed this production, appears to be missing in action.  

For all its good intentions, the lumpish Prince of Broadway that opened last week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is the equivalent of channel surfing for Broadway musical theater buffs. It is all randomness and disconnect as it caroms from one brief encounter to the next, touching down lightly on far too many of the shows in which Mr. Prince had a hand between 1954 (The Pajama Game) and 1998 (Parade).  

Let's begin where most musicals start, with the overture. Composer Jason Robert Brown, whose own show, Parade, has its brief moment in the spotlight, serves as the production's arranger, orchestrator, and music supervisor. Talk about channel surfing, this overture spews forth bits and pieces of 17 different songs within a couple of minutes. That's fine if you're up to the challenge of a rapid-fire round of Name That Tune; otherwise, not so much. Conveniently, in the program, there is a cheat sheet identifying all of the numbers that are spat out in the overture, which even references a couple from shows that are never again referred to in the production itself (Flora the Red Menace, On the Twentieth Century, and Zorba).  

OK.  So that's just the overture.  But the same approach pretty much defines the overall production, in which a game but decidedly overwhelmed cast is hauled out to perform number after number after number -  37 of them from shows that Mr. Prince was involved with, plus another that Mr. Brown wrote for this production. Mind you, these are not grouped chronologically nor thematically, and there is only the barest of attempts to provide any sort of context. 

As Tevye sings in "If I Were A Rich Man" from the Prince-produced Fiddler on the Roof - performed here by Chuck Cooper - this poses problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes. You might just as well put your iPod on "shuffle" mode and let 'er rip. 

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So, what works?

• Tony Yazbeck does an exceptionally fine dance routine as part of his rock-solid performance of "The Right Girl" from Follies. This is truly the highlight of the show, a breathtaking feat (literally; how on earth can he manage to sing and tear up the stage with that amazing dancing, without an oxygen tank at hand?). Choreography credit to Susan Stroman, who serves as the production's co-director.   

• Janet Dacal and Michael Xavier exude charm by the bucketful in what is the best overall self-contained set piece, "You've Got Possibilities"  from It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman.  Here is one place where the singing, choreography (Ms. Stroman again), costumes by William Ivey Long, and the brightly colored comic book of a scenic design by Beowolf Boritt come together with just the right mix to give a sense of what the actual show itself would look like. 

•  I also liked the segment from Company, which is suggestive of he look of the original production and includes an explosive performance of "Ladies Who Lunch" by Emily Skinner.

• Also successful is the relatively lengthy segment from Cabaret, which includes four separate numbers. Brandon Uranowitz as the Emcee and, especially, Karen Ziemba as Freulein Schneider, do particularly well with their songs by effectively inhabiting their respective characters.

  













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The bottom line:  

a. Prince of Broadway is ambitiously filled with an avalanche of ideas that rarely come to life. There's too much material. Pick and choose, people; pick and choose. And use your production dollars on the best costumes, scenic design, and whatever else it would take to give us a real sense of what it must have been like to be in the audience when these shows made their debuts - preferably highlighting more of those that haven't been revived over the years. It's been done successfully before with other compilation shows, most notably Jerome Robbins' Broadway from 1989. I can still recall brilliant performances from West Side Story and On The Town that brought these shows fully to life through carefully designed excerpts. That production, by the way, was directed by the man whose work was being featured.   

b.  Add some serious narration that will give us a sense of Hal Prince as a producer and/or director: "Here's what I was trying to do with Cabaret." "Here's how I collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on Follies." "Here's what a producer does." I'm not looking for a series of lengthy lectures, just some context for each of the shows that are being highlighted. Here is one case where the theatrical truism of "show, don't tell" has been overplayed.  

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‘Superman,’ ‘Donnybrook,’ and ‘Happy Birthday': Splendid Revivals Brighten A Lackluster Season

While we are waiting for the damp wood of the 2012-2013 theater season to catch fire, I would like to send a shout-out to a trio of delightful shows from the past that are currently on tap in revivals.

The first of these, It’s A Bird…It’s A Plane…It’s Superman!, unfortunately ends tonight at City Center after a brief but glorious run as part of the Encores! series of semi-staged presentations of seldom-seen musicals.

An Encores! show is not always a sure bet; sometimes there is a very good reason why a musical has pretty much disappeared since it originally saw the light of day.  But when everything comes together—as has happened with this mounting of Superman—the result is a feast for the famished musical theater-goer.

If you are reading this, it is likely you are aware of the praise that has been heaped upon Superman, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams.  I can only add my own voice to the glowing reviews, along with the hope that this show will find a post-Encores! life elsewhere, possibly at an Off Broadway house.  One sign of hope:  Sitting two rows in front of me was Hal Prince, who had directed the original.  Might he be thinking of making another go of it? 

The decade of the 1960s was a busy time for the team of Strouse and Adams, with Bye Bye Birdie (1960) and Golden Boy (1964), both of which had successful runs (607 and 568 performances, respectively), as well as the problematic All American (1962, 80 performances) and It’s A Bird…It’s A Plane…It’s Superman! (1966, 129 performances).

Superman was generally well received by the critics at the time, and it garnered Tony nominations for three of its cast members, but it simply did not catch on.

Others who are better at 20-20 hindsight than I have speculated that the show, based as it was on a comic book, was not clear as to whether its target audience was children or grownups.  However, Broadway had already seen a successful production of Li’l Abner a decade earlier, and  Annie and Spider-Man:  Turn Off The Dark would not have trouble finding audiences down the road. So, Superman's lack of success remains a mystery.

As it happens, I saw the 1966 Superman and enjoyed it immensely.  The original cast recording has been a favorite ever since—due in no small part to the wonderful and intricate orchestrations by Eddie Sauter.  Sauter had been the musical arranger for Benny Goodman and also orchestrated a number of Broadway shows, including another of my favorites, The Apple Tree, which appeared the same year as Superman. 

Whatever else you get from an Encores! event, you are guaranteed a full orchestra, playing the original orchestrations.  And with Superman, the orchestra, under the direction of Rob Berman, has never sounded better. 

But the joys to be found in this production did not begin and end with the orchestra.  Everything came together like magic.  The cast was uniformly strong, starting with Edward Watts and Jenny Powers in the lead roles of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and Will Swenson and David Pittu as the chief villains.  Mr. Pittu was marvelous in the role of the resentful ten-time Nobel prize-losing physicist, and when he and Mr. Swenson performed their duet, “You’ve Got What I Need,” in front of a curtain of shimmering streamers, it was pure comic bliss.  I don’t remember seeing such a grand pas de deux between two men since Harvey Fierstein and Dick Latessa tripped the light fantastic in Hairspray. 

Kudos to director John Rando, and, indeed, to everyone involved.  Everything from the bright comic book set design (John Lee Beatty is identified as the scenic consultant), to the lighting (Ken Billington), to the costumes (Paul Tazewell), to the just-right ‘60s-style choreography (Joshua Bergasse) was spot-on perfection.

Encores! shows are produced with very limited rehearsal time and a very tight budget.  One expects to see cast members clutching and referring to their scripts, and, even occasionally dropping a lyric or missing a note.  I saw Superman at its very first public performance, an invited dress rehearsal, and there was not a script to be seen or miscue to be heard.  Indeed, at the very end, Mr. Watts celebrated on behalf of the entire cast by grabbing a half dozen copies of the script and tossing them into the air in a well-earned gesture of triumph.

This is one Encores! show that deserves an encore.

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Even if you missed Superman during its short run, you still have time to catch two other shows from the past that are having impressive revivals.

Dee-lightful is the word for The Irish Rep’s presentation of the 1961 Johnny Burke musical, Donnybrook!, which, like Superman, has lived on via its original cast recording.  Thanks to director Charlotte Moore;  to James Noone, a miracle worker of a set designer, who has done amazing things with the postage stamp of a stage; and to solid performances by a talented ensemble of actors.  Donnybrook! is a charmer of a show.

Finally, I’d like to call attention to another wonderful revival, Happy Birthday, written by Anita Loos and originally seen on Broadway in 1946.  TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, is offering up a first-rate production of this romantic comedy about a demure librarian (a splendid Mary Bacon) who lets down her hair and finds the man of her dreams at the friendliest bar this side of Cheers.  

As is true of Superman and Donnybrook, the production of Happy Birthday (now on view at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre) represents a labor of love by all involved—from the great set design, to the period music, to the direction, to every one of the performances.  Hats off to TACT, which last year gave us a top-notch revival of Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers, for putting together another winner.   

So here’s a question for all of you Broadway nabobs out there.  If Encores! and The Irish Rep and TACT can manage to put on first-class shows on shoestring budgets, why on earth has this been such a lackluster season on the Great White Way???  Just wondering.


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