'On The Town': Glowing Revival of Iconic Musical and a Star Turn for Its Choreographer

A star is born and another is honored in spirit in the glowing first-rate revival of On The Town at the Lyric Theatre. 

To begin with there is, of course, Leonard Bernstein’s score and Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s lyrics – all pure gold. Pretty much anyone who is familiar with Broadway musical theater will recognize at least some of the songs: the jaunty I Can Cook, Too, the soulful Lonely Town, the wistful Some Other Time, and the quintessential ode to the Big Apple, New York, New York (a helluva town!). There is not a clunker in the bunch, a rather remarkable accomplishment given that this was the trio’s very first Broadway show.

Now a new star arrives with a bang as On The Town continues its tradition of “firsts.” This is Joshua Bergasse’s first Broadway stint as choreographer, and from the looks of things, he has the chops to rise to the top of the heap among his peers. He uses every number to tell a carefully crafted story, and while he graciously tips his hat to the 1944 musical’s original choreographer, the sublimely brilliant Jerome Robbins, he decidedly puts his own stamp on things. The second act’s outstanding ballet sequence, in particular, is beautifully staged and beautifully danced by two of the show’s stars, Tony Yazbeck and Megan Fairchild, who happens to be principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. 
    

On The Town takes a cue from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, which opened on Broadway the previous year, by starting not with an overture, but with a single singer. In this case, the singer is Phillip Boykin, who does a splendid job playing several supporting characters throughout the production. He gets the ball rolling with the sleepy early-morning work song, I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet, which he begins in his booming bass while approaching the stage from one of the aisles. As he sings, the lights get brighter onstage, marking the rising of the sun. The music then makes a jolting upturn in tempo, as three sailors come down the gangplank and launch into New York, New York. It’s a helluva way to start this wonderful musical, setting the tone as the city leaps headlong into action. 

Yazbeck plays Gabey, one of the triumvirate of sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City. He and his buddies, Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and Ozzie (Clyde Alves) are determined to make the most of their time, with the ultimate goal of hooking up with a willing gal before they have to return to their ship. It isn’t long before Chip meets up with Hildy (Alysha Umphress), a cabby who is determined to get him to forget about sightseeing and “come up to my place.”  Ozzie, too, quickly finds his partner in Claire (Elizabeth Stanley), a libidinous anthropologist. The two of them meet cute in the Museum of Natural History, where they launch into the brilliantly staged Carried Away, featuring, among other things, a dancing dinosaur skeleton. 

That leaves Gabey, who has set his sights on Ivy Smith (Ms. Fairchild), whose picture he spots on a poster of “Miss Turnstiles” in a promotional campaign for New York’s subway system. Will Gabey and Ivy get together? Will the guys avoid being arrested?  Need you ask?

There is truly little by way of a plot to On The Town. It’s basically a series of set pieces, each of which features one of the show’s marvelous songs. John Rando directs with a strong sense of style that captures both the silliness and the underlying sense of uncertainty and the preciousness of fleeing time felt by the characters during wartime. Ms. Umphress and Ms. Stanley bring a grand giddiness to their performances, and Mssrs. Yazbeck, Johnson, and Alves are full of charm and personality.  

Adding another level to the comic wackiness is Jackie Hoffman, who seems to have been given free rein to go over the top as she plays multiple parts, each nuttier than the previous ones.  My favorite is a bit about two different nightclub singers, each of whom starts to sing a torch song of miserable heartbreak until they are cut off by Gabey’s friends who are trying to cheer him up. 

Everything about the production works to sweep the audience into its embrace. Beowolf Boritt’s set and projection design are utter perfection, with a color scheme that seems inspired by all 133 Crayola crayons. And the full orchestra (so rare these days) under James Moore’s musical direction is a real joy to listen to. This revival of On The Town is a true gem, honoring a musical deserving of every bit of love that has been bestowed upon it.

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‘Little Me’: A Fun-Time Romp from Encores!

Little Me, the 1962 Neil Simon/Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh musical, is probably not a rare undervalued masterpiece that needs to be lovingly restored to appreciate its true worth. But the current joyful production by Encores! is as welcome as a cup of hot chocolate laced with whipped cream during these snowy, icy, sleety, bitterly cold days and dreary nights that have been the hallmark of this winter in New York. 

Little Me is a laugh-filled show with TV sketch comedy roots (Simon famously launched his career writing skits for Sid Caesar, who starred in the original Broadway production) and a tuneful score, with music by Coleman and lyrics by Leigh. 

The story unfolds through the frame of depicting the writing of the memoirs of the fictional stage, screen, and television star Belle Poitrine, as told to “Patrick Dennis,” the pen name of the author of the book on which the musical is based (as well as the author of the more highly successful Auntie Mame).   

But even though Belle’s life story provides the shape for the show, the musical rises or falls on the strength of the male lead, who portrays 7 different men in Belle’s life, most of whom die before the end. 

With the Encores! production, we are most fortunate in that the shoulders on whom this task falls belong to Christian Borle, who has a keen and mischievous sense of comic timing reminiscent of Groucho Marx or Charlie Chaplin (this was even truer of Borle’s performance as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher). 

Borle runs on and off the stage, going through quick costume and personality changes throughout the entire show. (This includes the requisite gag where he has to “ad lib” a cover-up for an incomplete change in appearance). The best of these characterizations is that of Fred Poitrine, the terribly nearsighted and socially inept World War I doughboy, who endearingly sings “Real Live Girl” to Belle, and marries her just in time to legitimize the ensuing birth of her daughter before he marches off to his untimely death by paper cut. 

As good as Borle is, this is far from a one-person show, which boasts wonderful performances from the entire cast, including Rachel York as the young Belle; the marvelous Judy Kaye as the older Belle; Tony Yazbeck as George, the boy-next-door turned hotshot nightclub owner (he delivers a terrific “I’ve Got Your Number”); Harriet Harris as the snobbish mother of Noble, Belle’s one true love; and Lee Wilkof and Lewis J. Stadlen as Belle’s agents, the Buchsbaum brothers. Stadlen, who most recently appeared with Nathan Lane in The Nance, is another theatrical stalwart who took the world by storm when he gloriously pulled off the multiple-roles acting feat by playing five characters in the acclaimed 1974 revival of Candide.   

This production also boasts outstanding work by the singers and dancers of the chorus.  And might I add, the choreography by Joshua Bergasse is so creative it is a wonder to me he has not become a major Broadway fixture. 

With Little Me, Encores! is entering its 21^st year of producing short-term revivals of Broadway musicals, and it almost seems to top itself year after year.  Minimalist set designs have become increasingly clever (the sinking of The Gigantic in Little Me could give Titanic: The Musical a run for its money at the concert production at Avery Fisher Hall later this month), and the eschewing of script-in-hand performances by the cast is becoming more and more de rigueur. 

A shout-out to director John Rando and music director Rob Berman, as well as to everyone involved with this production.  They should all join Belle in raising a glass and singing:  Here’s to us, my darling my dear/Here’s to us tonight!

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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.


Feel free to tell your friends about this blog, and to
share your own theater stories by posting a comment.