Encores! Presents Irma La Douce

Readers of The Jade Sphinx are perhaps weary of hearing about the swelligant series of musical revivals at City Center here in Gotham.  Encores! is simply one of the chief pleasures of living in New York, where the audience is often as interesting, varied and engaging as the show.  Here, musical theater buffs congregate for restagings of little-seen shows with top-notch casts and the finest orchestra performing on Broadway.  The creative minds behind the series are Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman, who have done a superb job of mounting these shows since 1994.

This year’s crop of Encores! productions included the incandescent Little Me and the fetching and moving Most Happy Fella.  They close out the year with a first – a revival of a European musical that is perhaps best known through its US film version – which was, oddly enough, made without music.

Irma La Douce was first performed in Paris in 1956.  It has a score by Marguerite Monnot (1903-1961), with book and lyrics by Alexandre Breffort (1901-1971).  It ran for four years.  It moved to London’s West End in 1958 – where this version, directed by Peter Brook (born 1925), ran for three years.  It was mounted on Broadway by David Merrick (1911-2000) in 1960.  The English adaptation and translation was by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman.  It ran for one year.  (An empiricist might conclude that musicals about prostitutes play better in French.)

Most readers will be familiar with the non-musical film version of 1963, starring Jack Lemmon (1925-2001) and Shirley MacLaine.  The film version shares with most musicals a frenetic energy and a colorful, vibrant bounce, and comes recommended.  (However, Jack Lemmon is often an exhausting screen presence, and is at his most febrile here.  You have been warned.)

The story concerns Irma La Douce, a successful prostitute who lives in Paris. A poor law student, Nestor le Fripé, falls in love with her and is jealous of her clients. In order to keep her for himself, he assumes the disguise of a rich older man, "Oscar," and takes many odd jobs to pay for her. Finally no longer able to sustain his exhausting life, he disposes of his Oscar identity, only to be convicted of murder, and transported to Devil's Island.  He escapes and returns to Paris, where he proves that he is innocent before reuniting with his beloved.

As always, Encores! are wonderfully staged and mounted.  This is the first-ever full set in the series, by John Lee Beatty, and it’s a stunner.  Sadly, the set is really quite the best thing about the show.  The entire production never manages to build momentum, and despite their best efforts, the cast lacks the verve and panache necessary to pull off the show. 

As Irma, Jennifer Bowles sings wonderfully well, but her dancing (more stomping than stepping, really) is lamentable.  Nor does she really have the personality, nor the energy, necessary to stop the show through any of her solo numbers.  Rob McClure, in the dual role of Nestor and Oscar, lacks the comic timing and farcical sense that someone like Christian Borle or Danny Kaye would bring to the role, and leaves little impression.  Indeed, the entire cast is too subdued to electrify the farcical proceedings, and the resulting show just lies there lifelessly.  The one exception is Malcolm Gets, as the bartender, who sings well and plays adroitly.

This lack of energy is the result, in part, of the pedestrian staging by director John Doyle.  It would seem that his idea of bedroom farce is a great deal of running and mugging, without positioning his players in any strategic way around the stage.

The main problem, of course, is the book, by More, Heneker and Norman.  There is a persistent melancholy note, and, more telling, it is never quite as smart as it thinks it is.  It also relies upon the old chestnut of someone not recognizing their disguised lover, not even during sex.  It doesn’t work in Shakespeare, and it hasn’t worked since then.  Worse still, the book never really exploits the comic potential of the material, and the manic qualities inherent in the book devolve into mere whimsy.

An unfortunate end to what was a stellar season at Encores!, but even the best are entitled to an occasional misstep.

Encores! Presents The Most Happy Fella

Once again Encores! at City Center demonstrates that New York is heaven for all musical theater buffs.  Encores! is dedicated to restaging little-seen shows with top-notch casts and the finest orchestra performing on Broadway.  The creative minds behind the series are Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman, who have done a superb job of mounting these shows since 1994.

The first show of the season was the delightful Little Me, which was nearly incandescent in its brilliance.  Could Encores! we wondered, maintain this high level of quality?

Well, with The Most Happy Fella, they have succeeded beyond wildest expectations.  Fella is everything a Broadway musical should be: tuneful, funny, dramatically sound and, ultimately, moving.  If Little Me was a diverting romp, Fella is a show that will stay with the viewer for years to come.  I cannot recommend it enough.

The original Broadway production of The Most Happy Fella premiered in 1956, with book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser (1910-1969).  It was quite unusual for the time, in that the show did not conform to the standard Broadway musical template – it was more dramatic than comedic, most of the dialogue was sung, and the show dealt with subject matter usually seen in operas rather than musicals.  The story revolved around an older man romancing younger woman, and was based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard (1891-1939). Despite its lack of convention, the original production was a hit, running for 14 months.  (One interesting side-note, the original show was funded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; in fact, her television counterpart went to the show in an episode of I Love Lucy.  Cross marketing is nothing new!)

The Most Happy Fella has narrative conventions somewhat similar to Cyrano.  In San Francisco of 1927, Italian grape farmer Tony Esposito romances a beautiful, younger waitress Rosabella by letter.  When it comes time to send a photo, he instead provides a photo of the younger and more handsome Joe, the farm foreman.  Of course, Rosabella comes to the town and learns that she has been deceived.  Before she can leave, however, Tony is injured in a trucking accident and Rosabella remains to marry the injured man.

Of course, their road to happiness has many complications, including Rosabella’s intermezzo with Joe, interference from Tony’s spinster sister, and community expectations.  But rather than have these conventions resolve in a standard musical-comedy manner, the show has a great deal of dramatic heft.  The setbacks experienced by the characters are very real, and each slight hurts like a physical blow.

The cast, as is usually the case with Encores!, is a Master’s Class in musical theater. Oddly enough, the two leads, Laura Benanti (born 1979) as Rosabella, and Shuler Hensley (born 1967) as Tony, are simply serviceable.  But Cheyenne Jackson (born 1975) as Joe, is luminous.  Gifted with a beautiful voice, good looks and charisma that is palpable, it is a mystery why this fine actor/singer is not a bigger star.  Though his part is smaller, he makes an indelible impression.  It seems as if nothing in the theater is beyond his protean talent.

However, the evening really belongs to Heidi Blickenstaff (born 1971), who plays Cleo, Rosabella’s best friend.  She is a powerhouse, and she galvanizes the show.  Her number Big D (about coming from Dallas) is a showstopper that infuses the second act with verve, adrenalin, and old-fashioned show biz razzmatazz.  Sharing the number with the fetching Jay Armstrong Johnson, as her simpleminded beau, Blickenstaff takes what is already a wonderful show and brings it to a whole other level.  It’s the kind of barnstorming not seen since the days of Ethel Merman or Judy Holliday, and the experience is electrical.  Blickenstaff and Johnson reunite for another number, I Like Everybody, and, once again, the result is magic.  I have now resolved to see anything featuring the dynamic, charismatic Blickenstaff.

Musicals ultimately come down to the quality of their songs, but a show where most of the dialogue is sung presents problems in the production of standards.  But while there may be no timeless tunes on hand, there are many terrific songs.  Joey, Joey, Joey, performed by Jackson, is wonderfully ethereal.  And Standing on the Corner, with Johnson, Ryan Bauer-Walsh and Arlo Hill, is a terrific comedic treat, as is when Zachary James, Bradley Dean and Brian Cali team up for the musical numbers Abbondanza and Benvenuta. 

Loesser was going after something more with Fella; it is an extremely aspirational show, and even when it doesn’t work completely, it is admirably ambitious and nothing less than entertaining.  It harkens back to a time when musicals were more than an existing songbook with a loosely constructed book to hold it all together.  The production is also ambitious for Encores!, with perhaps their largest cast ever and most elaborate settings.  Once again, they prove that musical theater is one of the fine arts.

The production is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (born 1962) and it is something special, even for a series and production team that are never less than magnificent.  As with all Encores! productions, the run of the show is extremely limited, and Most Happy Fella ends April 6^th.  You do not want to be one of those unhappy fellas who missed it.

Encores! Presents Little Me

If there is a heaven for theater-lovers, it must be something like a perpetual run of Encores! productions.  Fortunately, there is a bit of heaven-on-earth, as anyone capable of heading to New York can regularly visit City Center to view the Encores! series of musical revivals.  Encores! is dedicated to restaging little-seen shows with top-notch casts and the finest orchestra performing on Broadway.  The creative minds behind the series are Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman, who have done a superb job of mounting these shows since 1994. 

A few years ago City Center was renovated to something approaching its former glory – creating the perfect space to realize every dream you ever had of seeing a Broadway musical.

The first show for the season is a winner – Little Me, with a book by Neil Simon (born 1927), music by Cy Coleman (1929-2004) and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh (1926-1983).  It is based on the novel Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of the Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television by Patrick Dennis (1921-1976).  Readers of this blog will well-remember Dennis as the author of the book and play Mame, a touchstone of personal development for many of our readers.

The original production of the show opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1962, and ran for 257 performances.  The musical was tailored to the talents of television comic Sid Caesar (born 1922), who starred in the television variety program Your Show of Shows, which was written, in part, by young Neil Simon. 

The Dennis novel is a camp classic – Belle Pointrine is a scheming chanteuse who uses and abuses men on her way to money, stardom and social standing.  When Simon set about adapting the material, he envisioned a vehicle for Caesar where he could play Belle’s multiple husbands and lovers.  In addition, he could send up America’s love for celebrities, and the entire genre of Horatio Alger success stories. 

Subsequent revivals of Little Me have changed Simon’s book, but Encores preserves the original in all its delirious glory.  Simon envisions the story as older Belle (played wonderfully by Judy Kaye) telling the story to Dennis himself (played by David Garrison).  The bulk of the play is an extended flashback with younger Belle (the luminous Rachel York) and the various men in her life, all played with gusto and brio by Christian Borle.

Drawing on his experience writing television variety shows, Simon scraps the ideal of a straightforward musical comedy and, instead, creates an extended revue.  This can only work if the material is in the hands of a gifted clown and shtick-meister, and, fortunately, this revival has that in spades with Christian Borle.  We here at The Jade Sphinx enjoyed him greatly as the embryonic Capt. Hook in Peter and the Starcatcher, but nothing prepared us for the unbridled comic invention and energetic tomfoolery on display here.  By turns reminiscent of such farceurs as disparate as Tim Curry, Buster Keaton and Dick Van Dyke, Borle is a powerhouse of comic invention.  His performance is a nonsensical tour-de-force.

Fortunately, he is matched by the beautiful and deeply funny Rachel York.  She gives lie to the common canard that women cease to be sexy when they are funny.  Her singing is terrific and her dancing and slapstick extremely accomplished.

Also worthy of note is the handsome Tony Yazbeck, who sings the show’s only memorable song, I’ve Got Your Number.  Yazbeck shows up only intermittently in the proceedings, but he leaves a strong impression.  More, please.  In addition, Harriet Harris delivers solid comic support, as do Lewis J. Stadlen and Lee Wilkof as brother impresarios.

The dancing is topnotch, with a group of talented and attractive dancers to move the story along and provide able support to the overall zaniness.

In the Encores extended history of wonderful productions, few have matched the sheer fun and manic invention of Little Me.  This is theatrical alchemy of a high order, and the gee-wizardry on display at City Center is a marvel to behold.  The crowd was delighted with this inventive bauble, and it was several hours before your correspondent could stop smiling.

Little Me plays today through Sunday – beg, borrow or steal a ticket.  It is not to be missed.

Encores! Presents On Your Toes

“Can a good man love two women at the same time?”

“Only if he’s very good.”

Metropolitan-area theater buffs have no greater gift than the recurring Encores! series at New York City Center.  Under the artistic direction of Jack Viertel and the musicianship of conductor Rob Berman, Encores! recreates lost Broadway musicals, resurrecting the original book and orchestrations.  If you are interested in Broadway musicals – and you know who you are – Encores! is essential.

The third and final production of this, their 20^th season, is On Your Toes, with music by Richard Rogers (1902-1979) and lyrics by Lorenz Hart (1895-1943).  It is, in many ways, an atypical show for the Encores! team – unlike most musicals which rely upon dialog or lyrics to tell the story, On Your Toes delivers much of the narrative through dance.  To meet that challenge, director and choreographer Warren Carlyle has altered the usual stage-reading format and delivered a fully-rendered, toe-tapping Broadway show.  The effect is stunning.

On Your Toes will run for only seven performances, from May 8^th through the 12^th.  On Your Toes is guest-conducted by Encores! founding music director Rob Fisher and the "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet, originally choreographed by George Balanchine (1904-1983) is staged by Susan Pilarre, who served as a Ballet Mistress of the show's 1983 Broadway Revival.

The story is simple: Phil Dolan (the radiant Dalton Harrod playing him young, and Shonn Wiley playing him as an adult) is a third generation vaudeville hoofer.  He is sent to school and eventually becomes a music professor.  Through a series of musical-comedy riffs, he ends us presenting his jazz ballet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, under the auspices of the prestigious, conservative Russian Ballet, romancing both a student (Kelli Barrett) and a temperamental Russian ballerina (Irina Dvorovenko) along the way.  We also get gangsters, ballet-managing socialites and peppy school kids eager to make it in show business.

As is often the case in pop musicals, one of the core conceits is “High Culture” and “Popular Culture” colliding, with Pop Culture proving to be of great value after all.  This was a frequent trope during the Great Depression, when our national popular culture was actually viable, intelligent, energetic, optimistic and communal.  Sadly, the whole idea would be preposterous in this, the final decades of our once thriving culture.

One Your Toes had an interesting gestation in that it was originally intended as a film vehicle for the incandescent Fred Astaire (1899-1987), who rejected the idea.  Astaire thought the convergence of popular dance and ballet too highbrow for film audiences, and also thought that the dowdy professor would be too great a change in his screen image.  Rogers and Hart quickly converted the idea to a Broadway show, where it starred Ray Bolger (1904-1987) in 1936 – giving him a great success. 

What can be said about the Encores! production of On Your Toes other than it is a sheer distillation of joy?  From its opening number – the energetic Two-a-Day For Keith (where Dalton Harrod, who unfortunately disappears for the rest of the show shines magnificently), to the closing Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet (which is filled with both beautiful dance and knock-about comedy), the show is a consistent delight.  Never has Encores! dared so extensive an undertaking; this is a Broadway show in all-but-name.

The cast is uniformly excellent.  Christine Baranski, as socialite and ballet manager Polly Porterfield, is a hoot, adding a bit of New York sophistication and savvy to a showy, supporting part.  Barrett, as girlfriend Frankie Frayne, has a wonderful voice and terrific style – one can only hope that one day an entire show will be built around her.  Irina Dvorovenko as spoiled ballerina Vera Baronova has all the choice lines, and speaks them with such relish I often thought she were tasting them.  Joaquín De Luz, as the lead ballet dancer and jealous rival, dances beautifully and plays comedy with a sure hand – he is a great treat.  Perhaps the one weak link in the cast was Shonn Wiley as the adult Dolan – he is a terrific comic actor, a good dance and adequate singer; one only wishes someone more dynamic took the lead.

If at all possible, do not miss One Your Toes.

Encores! Production of It's A Bird ... It's A Plane ... It's Superman

Our discussion of the 80^th anniversary of Doc Savage last week naturally brought up the subject of his successor, Superman.  So it was not without irony that this week Encores! has revived the little-known musical comedy It’s a Bird … It’s A Plane … It’s Superman, which originally debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theater on March 29, 1966.  (The Alvin would be home to a genuine Broadway megahit also based on a comics character in the next decade with Annie.)

The original show had music by Charles Strouse (born 1928) and lyrics by Lee Adams (born 1924), with a book by David Newman (1937-2003) and Robert Benton (born 1932).  Newman would be one of the many collaborators on the first big-budget Superman film starring Christopher Reeve (1952-2004) in 1978, though how much of his material made it into the final film is a question still disputed.  It’s a Bird … It’s A Plane … It’s Superman opened to mostly positive reviews, but was not a box office hit, closing after only 129 performances. 

The original production starred Jack Cassidy (1927-1976) as one of the main antagonists, Max Mencken, as well as Bob Holiday (born 1932) as Superman and Patricia Marand (1934-2008) as Lois Lane.  Cassidy and Marand would be nominated for Tony Awards, as would Michael O'Sullivan, who played the other antagonist.

The show pits Superman against two rivals, the evil Dr. Abner Sedgwick, multiple loser of the Nobel Peace Prize, who seeks to destroy the Man of Steel, and Max Mencken, a Daily Planet columnist who resents the adulation Superman richly deserves.

In a wonderful bit of psychology, Dr. Sedgwick realizes that it is not we who need Superman, but Superman who needs us.  While he is dedicated solely to doing good (as evidenced by his opening number, Doing Good), it is our adulation that the orphan from Krypton secretly craves.

The revival, starring Edward Watts as Superman, Will Swenson as Mencken, Jenny Powers as Lois Lane, David Pittu as Sedgwick and Alli Muazey as Mencken’s secretary, Sydney, will run in New York’s City Center from March 20^th to the 24^th as part of the Encores! series of musical revivals.  Encores! is dedicated to restaging little-seen shows with top-notch casts and the finest orchestra performing on Broadway.  The creative minds behind the series are Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman, who have done a superb job of mounting these shows since 1994.  City Center has also been recently renovated to an approximation of its original glory, creating a near-perfect experience for musical buffs.

Before looking at the Encores! revival, a word or two about the show itself.  Not every crackerjack musical finds its audience, and this was certainly true of It’s a Bird… The book is witty and the songs are tuneful and fun.  The score was written at a curious time for the Broadway musical: the Great American Songbook was gasping its last, and show tunes were trying to bridge the gap between sophisticated, adult music and the stuff consumed by more demanding teenagers.

Fortunately, Strouse and Adams shot for a hip, jazzy idiom that still had Broadway razzmatazz without descending into sock hop kitsch.  If ever a show cried out for a full-scale revival, it is this one.  Perhaps if the upcoming Superman film, Man of Steel, is a success, some enterprising impresario would consider it.

Encores! has done a fabulous job with the revival, and the loving attention to all things Superman is evident in the City Center lobby itself: man-size screens play the original Max Fleischer Superman animated cartoons, as well as display Superman drawings by celebrated comics artist Curt Swan.  (Watts’ Clark Kent suit is a wonderful evocation of artist Swan’s mid-60s business attire.)

The score was meticulously recreated – originally, roadshows and touring companies used a score considerably scaled down.  Encores! found the original orchestrations, and Rob Berman does a fabulous job with the orchestra.

The show is designed with a distinct Mad Men sensibility; and with the Daily Planet office romances the choice is perfectly sound. (One could only wish for a period Superman film – any period from the 30s to the 60s!)  The direction, by John Rando, maintains a zippy pace and finds just the right note between musical comedy and actual sentiment.

There are several excellent numbers in the First Act, including the show-stopping You’ve Got Possibilities, where Sydney tries to seduce Clark Kent.  Mencken, a Brylcreem-ed narcissist to put any hipster to shame, has a wonderful song of self-adoration with The Woman for the Man; and We Don’t Matter at All, performed by Adam Monley as scientist Jim Morgan, temporary love interest to Lois Lane, is particularly sweet.

Many musicals lose steam with the Second Act, but It’s a Bird… actually improves after the interval.  Mencken sings a gloating song at Superman’s downfall, So Long, Big Guy, and Swenson delivers the number with spirited élan.   His later duet with Pittu’s Sedgwick, You’ve Got What I Need, brought forth riotous applause and Watts’ lament The Strongest Man in the World was alternately sweet, funny, and heartbreaking.  And Mauzey has the best number of the Second Act with Ooh, Do You Love You – handing her the two show-stopping numbers in the musical.

Like most adaptions of comic book superheroes, the only problem with the show is the central character, Superman.  As is often the case, most film and play adaptations cannot really come to grips with the central superhero, and they become mere cyphers.  However, the upside of this is that it often means that the villains and other supporting characters are deliciously over-written and over-played, and the stellar support from Swenson (who is simply magnificent), Pittu and Mauzey (who is pure Broadway dynamite) deliver the goods.

The staging is endlessly inventive.  Rather than trying to create the impossible, they suggest it.  Superman flies in a glorious cardboard cutout while the cast reacts in awe – trust me, it works!  In the Second Act, an entire sequence takes place with cast members standing before comic book panels, complete with dialog boxes.  Needless to say, the show ends with the prophetic words, To Be Continued, and we can only hope.

It’s a Bird … It’s A Plane … It’s Superman is one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve had at Encores!, and is a treat for Broadway lovers, Superman fans, or anyone who, at heart, thinks they can fly.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Envy lucky Gothamites who can regularly visit New York’s City Center to view the Encores! series of musical revivals.  Encores! is dedicated to restaging little-seen shows with top-notch casts and the finest orchestra performing on Broadway.  The creative minds behind the series are Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman, who have done a superb job of mounting these shows since 1994.  Added sauce is the fact that City Center has recently been renovated to something like its former glory.  In short, the best way to describe Encores! is that it is a distillation of every dream you ever had of seeing a Broadway musical, and really delivering on that promise.  It is rare that I have a more enjoyable night at the theater.

As Viertel said last night in his brief pre-curtain remarks, the proof a good musical is that it works as an aphrodisiac.  Surely few shows better fit that bill than 1949’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin, and adapted for the stage by Anita Loos from her own novel with an able assist from Joseph Fields. 

Briefly, showgirls Dorothy Shaw (Rachel York) and Lorelei Lee (Megan Hilty) set sail on the Ile de France, leaving behind Lee’s fiancée, button-king Gus Esmond, Jr. (Clarke Thorell).  Also on board are aging Lothario Sir Francis Beekman (Simon Jones), his wife, Lady Phyllis (Sandra Shipley) and Philadelphia millionairess Mrs. Ella Spofford (Deborah Rush) and her son, Henry (Aaron Lazar).  Needless to say, there will be shipboard shenanigans, terrific songs and fleet-footed dancing, and comedy both high and low.

The original Broadway cast included Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee (and you probably remember Marilyn Monroe in film version), and while no one in the cast has that kind of star power, Hilty delivers a lusty, busty and deftly comedic performance.  She labors perhaps too much under the ghost of Monroe – the original performance by Channing indicates that there is more than one way to play the part – but it is possible that audiences now would accept nothing less than Monroe-lite.  For all the imitation, though, Hilty does manage to incorporate her own comic sensibilities to the role.

York, as Shaw, has less incandescent wattage than Hilty, but she does manage to do something different with the part.  No mere Jane Russell knockoff, Shaw imbues her part with that hard-bitten cynicism associated with flappers.  Shaw also has the best dance number in the show, bar none, I Love What I’m Doing, danced with a bevy of shirtless Olympians.  These dancers, who cavort throughout the show in a variety of guises, carry much of the action on their muscular shoulders.

Kudos, too, to the indefatigable, peerless clown Simon Jones.  His number, It’s Delightful Down in Chile, performed with Hilty, is a comic treat.  Other songs include I’m Just a Little Girl from Little Rock (complete with three encores), the paean to Americana Homesick, and You Say You Care.

The orchestration of Styne’s score was another highlight of the evening, and the chorus provided a tuneful accompaniment to the action.

As would be the case with any revival of the show, much of it boils down to the performance of the signature number, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.  This ditty is perhaps one of the greatest bits of comic poetry to be found in the Great American Songbook: 

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental

But diamonds are a girl's best friend

A kiss may be grand... but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat

Or help you at the automat

Men grow cold as girls grow old

And we all lose our charms in the end

But square cut or pear shape these rocks don't lose their shape

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Hilty delivers the number with oomph to spare, and I promise that you will leave the theater humming the number to yourself.

If there is any complaint with Gentlemen, it has nothing to do with the Encores! superlative revival.  Rather, it is that one of the grace notes of classic Broadway musicals is a sweetness too often missing from contemporary life.  This sweetness goes far in bringing satisfaction and even, if I may, a touch of the sublime.  Gentlemen has wit and brass, but there is a touch of cynicism at its core that somehow makes it, for your correspondent, less than perfect.

Gentleman only runs from May 9^th to the 13^th.  Tickets are available at: http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionnew.aspx?performancenumber=5973.  You owe it to yourself to go.

Pipe Dream Plays Encores! at New York City Center

New Yorkers actively engaged with the splendors of the Great American Songbook could do no better than making a regular pilgrimage to New York’s City Center for the Encores! series of musical revivals.  Encores! is dedicated to presenting rarely revived or otherwise little-known musicals complete with full book and score.  Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman have done a wonderful service for theater-lovers and anyone interested in our musical heritage.  Encores! has played at City Center since 1994 and your correspondent has had more enjoyable nights at the theater in this venue than through any other in the city.  The recently renovated City Center is a glorious site, and to see classic musicals in this space is one of the privileges of living in the city.

The second show for the 2012 season is Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s little-seen (and littler appreciated) Pipe Dream, which originally opened in 1955.  It was their seventh show and a monumental flop.  Rodgers and Hammerstein had originally conceived of a stellar cast including Henry Fonda and, possibly, Julie Andrews or Janet Leigh.  These plans never came to fruition and the show’s eventual cast, including Helen Traubel and William Johnson, later came to believe the show was cursed.

Part of the original problem must have been the source material – John Steinbeck’s short novel Sweet Thursday, his sequel to Cannery Row.  Though it has the charm of being the only Broadway musical about a marine biologist and a prostitute, the original devastating reviews destroyed any hopes of a national tour or London production. 

So how does the new Encores! production play?  In three words: it’s just great.

Briefly: Doc, a marine biologist, lives his life free and happy.  He spends a great deal of time with his friends, beachcomber Mac and not-too-bright sidekick Hazel (actually a man with a woman’s name – his mother was not too bright, either).  He also spends a great deal of time with the prostitutes at Fauna’s house of ill repute.

Into his life comes Suzy, down on her luck.  Though she also ends up in Fauna’s house, she challenges Doc to be more than he is.  Eventually, they both grow into more ambitious and connected people, and fall in love.

Never a fan of the Rodgers and Hammerstein corpus, I must confess that this was the first time I’ve found a score of theirs to be … jaunty.  Writing about beach bums and loose women seem to have liberated their staid sensibilities, and both create a score that is bouncy, loose and fun.  The song Sweet Thursday has all the pizazz of a classic 1930s jazz number, and Thinkin’ is certainly the finest comic song in their repertoire.  Also terrific The Next Time it Happens and All At Once You Love Her, simply their most lilting first act closer.  One cannot but help think that a more ‘respectable’ show would’ve elevated several of these numbers into standards.

The cast is uniformly fine, with particular standouts being Tom Wopat and Leslie Uggams.  Wopat, once one of Broadway’s most trustworthy leading men, seems to be comfortably seguing into character parts and Uggams has a certain glamour that makes her compulsively watchable.  Television star Will Chase, as the hero Doc, is an extremely pleasing and handsome presence, and Laura Osnes sings Suzy with a warm and lilting grace.  Also effective is Stephen Wallem in the one-note role of Hazel – he manages to make what could be an annoying caricature a true comic turn.

It seems impossible that a show that features a reenactment of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in a whorehouse could be one of the sweetest things on Broadway, but that happens to be the case.  Kudos to the Encores! team for reviving this little-known show – this limited engagement is highly recommended!