LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING – Episode 3

LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING – Episode 3

(a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

"Let's start at the very beginning/A very good place to start/When you read you begin with A-B-C…"

Today it's the "B" programs' turn:  a slight comedy about young love by Leonard Gershe; a Broadway financial miss about babies, parenthood, and life choices which enjoyed a six-month run in suburban Lincolnshire; a one-woman show starring the incomparable Julie Harris; a laugh-yourself-silly sex farce, two productions of the light-as-air musical that introduced Julie Andrews to Broadway; a monstrously entertaining musicalization of one of my favorite films. Bevvy ready? Let's begin.

BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE – Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

Got this at the theatre.

'

Kipp Osborne had replaced Wendell Burton by the time I saw the show in September.

September, 1970. A recent reread of the play revealed a slight play with broadly drawn characters that wasted every opportunity in the script to be meaningful, or at the very least, more than just sitcom shallow. In 1970, however, I had a completely different opinion. I had turned twenty two weeks earlier, had been to New York for the first time only six weeks earlier, and was still developing my critical faculties. I thought this play about a cute, very cute, blind boy who falls in love, or at least sleeps with, his "kooky" next-door neighbor, and his controlling mom from Scarsdale was funny and moving. Eve Arden, making her overdue entrance at the very end of Act One, played the controlling mom, and, well, she was pretty damn wonderful. Playing a basically unsympathetic character, she found the humor and humanity in Mrs. Baker and turned in a performance that pleased the opening night critics and certainly pleased her audience at the Studebaker. Kipp Osborne as the cute, very cute, blind boy was adorable, and I developed an instant crush. Hey! I was twenty! Cut me some slack! Ellen Endicott-Jones, as the "kooky" next-door neighbor, and Tom Fuccello, as a pretentious theatre director, rounded out the cast. I thought everything was charming. I suspect it would be painful to sit through today. – at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

Butterflies Tidbits: Butterflies Are Free played an impressive 1128 performances on Broadway, opening in October, 1969 and closing in July, 1972. It won a Tony Award for Blythe Danner as the next-door neighbor, and the film version would net Eileen Heckart, as Mrs. Baker, a Supporting Actress Oscar in 1973. For a time, the play was all the rage. Everyone did it, including Waukegan Community Players. Butterflies Are Free would occupy the Studebaker for fifteen weeks, with Gloria Swanson (!!) taking over from Eve Arden for the last two weeks, and continuing with the tour. 

The play is pretty much forgotten today, a once-hot property hopelessly connected to its time. According to its licensor, Samuel French, only three productions are scheduled in North America for the near future. (Actually, I'm surprised there are that many.)

BABY – Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre, Lincolnshire, IL

October, 1986. Baby has a multitude of fans. I am not among them. A financial failure in its brief 1983 Broadway run, it opened in 1986 at Marriott's in-the-round theatre in suburban Lincolnshire under the direction of its original director, lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., wowed the critics (Chicago Tribune critic Richard Christiansen opened his review with, "Don't you dare miss Baby."), and ran for a staggering six months. Maybe I missed something. Seeing the show during its last few weeks, I found it uninvolving, whiny, and annoying. I just didn't care about these couples, and the insinuation that your life wasn't complete without a baby was more than a bit presumptuous. The cast was fine. They worked hard. The Maltby/David Shire score had its moments, including the big, belty, goes-on-too-long "The Story Goes On," which became an audition favorite. Completely heterosexual, I don't think it would play especially well in this era of blended families and same-sex families, and adoption was apparently never an option for these people. I was very glad when it ended. – at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre, Lincolnshire, IL

THE BELLE OF AMHERST – Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

THE BELLE OF AMHERST – Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

March, 1976. Tryout. I must confess that I just don't get poetry. I read it and it's all a jumble to me. Someone reads it aloud, and my ears shut down. My brain and ears simply can't or don't want to process it. It's really the same with Shakespeare. The minute someone starts doing something Shakespearean, my brain, and ears, turn off. I know. Shocking, especially from a Theatre major/English minor, but there you have it. So going into the Studebaker, I really had very little knowledge or exposure to the play's subject, the esteemed poet Emity Dickinson. For me, the draw for this one-woman show was the incomparable Julie Harris, playing the beloved poetess, and smart folks beat tracks to see Julie Harris. Linda Winer of the Chicago Tribune found the show merely "pleasant" and decried the superficiality of the evening overall and the generous skirting around the documented facts in Dickinson's admittedly unusual life. She even went so far as to say "If I may add one more presumption to an evening full of them, I think Dickinson would have left at the intermission." Wow. Harsh. Sorry, Ms. Winer, but I loved the performance. Like I said before, the reason for my being there was Julie Harris, and Harris did not disappoint. She was charming, she was succinct, she commanded the stage with that ease that genuine stars possess. On the stunning set by H.R. Poindexter, she was the effortless and vibrant hostess, and we were her lucky guests. I was exposed to more Dickinson poems than I'd been exposed to before or since, for that matter, and with Harris doing the reciting, my brain and ears paid attention. I was enchanted. The packed house was as well. – at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

Julie Notes: Julie Harris was a versatile, always-working and in-demand actor, winning five Tony Awards and three Emmy Awards, appearing in countless Broadway productions in addition to her many contributions in television and film (The Member of the Wedding, I Am a Camera, East of Eden, Hamlet, The Haunting and many more). Her sole foray into musical theatre was in 1965's Skyscraper, where she demonstrated a limited voice that somehow managed to put across her numbers. She appeared in both hits (Forty Carats, A Shot in the Dark, I Am a Camera, The Member of the Wedding, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little) and flops (Voices, Break a Leg, Lucifer's Child). One of her five Tony Awards was for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst.

BOEING-BOEING – Longacre Theatre, New York

May, 2008. Not a microphone in sight and very few missed words. And I was in the last row of the orchestra. Kudos to the cast!  No easy task in this 20,000-words-per-minute deliciously irreverent and delightfully politically-incorrect sex farce. This play about an American playboy in Paris keeping a stable of three "air hostesses" during Paris layovers requires pitch-perfect staging and, possibly even more importantly, pitch-perfect acting. With one surprising exception, Boeing-Boeing ticked all the right boxes. Matthew Warchus kept everything jetting along at jet stream speed. Gina Gershon, playing an Alitalia hostess, Kathryn Hahn, playing a TWA hostess, and especially Mary McCormack, both terrifying and divine as a Lufthansa hostess, were all wonderfully stereotypical and hilarious, but also added just the right amount of substance to keep them from becoming cartoons. Bradley Whitford demonstrated surprising comic chops as the frazzled Paris playboy trying to keep his harem from discovering each other. Mark Rylance, who would win a well-deserved Tony for his performance as Whitford's BFF from Wisconsin, and his inspired lunacy kept the packed house at the Longacre in paroxysms of laughter. The one exception mentioned earlier was Christine Baranski's muddy performance as the household French maid. She got her share of laughs, but it often seemed forced, and I believe the thick French accent got in the way of her usual impeccable timing. The choreographed curtain call courtesy of Kathleen Marshall kept the fun going right up to the very last minute. At about 2 hours 45 minutes, the show could use a trim of about fifteen minutes and, typically for farces, the setup was a bit slow, but neither is a bad tradeoff for an evening of unrelenting glee. I loved it. – at the Longacre Theatre, New York

Gina, Kathryn, and Mary: I want to give another round of applause for the three ladies who graced the Longacre stage as Bernard's girlfriends. I am a huge fan of Gina Gershon. In my opinion, she was the finest Sally Bowles I've seen. Plus she starred in Showgirls, and let's all admit it, who isn't a fan of that awful, yet wonderfully entertaining,  film. I'll see her in anything. Kathryn Hahn was a glory to behold when she erupted upon suspecting that Bernard was not hers alone. And what can I say about Mary McCormack's dominatrix-inspired Teutonic treasure as Gretchen, the Lufthansa girl? The audience laughed with delight every time she marched across the stage like someone who'd just as soon eat you as look at you. And who didn't enjoy her in In Plain Sight? Brava, ladies, brava!

THE BOY FRIEND

 – Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

November, 1970. In September, 1954, Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, a silly, tuneful, affectionate spoof of Roaring 20s musicals, with book, music, and lyrics by Sandy Wilson. She played an English schoolgirl at a French finishing school. Her next Broadway role would be as an English flower girl in a little musical called My Fair Lady. And the rest, as they say, is history. In 1970, The Boy Friend made a return to Broadway, this time starring Judy Carne in the Julie Andrews role, best known back then as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In's "sock-it-to-me" girl. Widely dismissed by the critics, it would close after a short, unprofitable run. The physical production and some of the original cast would soldier on in a tour of the show, starring Tony winner and popular singer, Anna Maria Alberghetti. Alberghetti sang well, though seemed a bit too old to be playing a young girl just out of her teens. Priscilla Lopez as Maisie stole the show with her energy and dancing prowess. She would go on later to become the original Diana Morales in A Chorus Line and introduce "What I Did for Love," and a few years later would win a Tony Award for A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine. I love the music, so I was pretty much a happy camper, but William Leonard of the Chicago Tribune was less than enthusiastic and felt the production was heavy-handed, killing the gentleness of the show. Whatever. I had a good time. – at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

Tidbits: My ticket stub says I was at the penultimate performance of the tour. The show was originally scheduled for a five-week run in Chicago. It lasted two. As early as that Monday, it was advertising running through November 28. On Tuesday, November 3, the following short notice appeared in the Chicago Tribune offering no reasons, just the basic facts:

The Broadway show ended in July, so the tour was very short indeed, and I'm sure very unprofitable.  In 1971, director Ken Russell would direct a film version based on the musical, starring Twiggy, Tommy Tune, and Christopher Gable. It was an odd film, not quite The Boy Friend, yet not quite not The Boy Friend. I'm rather fond of it.

– Chicago Theatre, Chicago

November, 2005. Thirty-five years after The Boy Friend played its abbreviated run at Chicago's Studebaker Theatre, the show returned to Chicago in a Broadway-bound (??...it was never quite made clear about the show's intentions) production of the show, this time directed by its legendary original star, Julie Andrews. Now, Ms. Andrews is one of the truly great entertainers of our times, but, sadly, her talents do not extend to her directorial skills, if the DOA production that arrived at the Chicago Theatre was any indication. This was just an unfortunate train wreck from start to finish. There was no style, no attempt at either playing the fluff honestly or playing it with broad, ironic winks. Even the score, of which I am a huge fan, didn't seem as sparkly and fun. A shame, too, since this was somewhat of a family affair. This particular staging started out at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, where Andrews' daughter, Emma Walton, was a Director of Education and Programming for Young Audiences at the time, and Andrews' ex-husband and Emma's father, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning designer, Tony Walton, designed the sets and costumes. For whatever reason, however, this show, which should be lighter than air, remained firmly on the ground. It looked cheap, like an underfunded bus-and-truck tour. It never connected with its audience. It was flat and uninteresting. Its venue, the 3600 seat Chicago Theatre, was far too large for this musical. The Wednesday night audience was very sparse, with many, many completely empty rows of seats on the Chicago's massive main floor. We were in the 10th row center, and there were empty seats in our row. The audience response was merely polite, the production lost a number of folks at the interval, and it was all just sad. – at the Chicago Theatre, Chicago

BEETLEJUICE – Winter Garden Theatre, New York

September, 2019. You'd never know that Dana Steingold was filling in for the usual actor in the key role of Lydia. She was that good. Alex Brightman took on the iconic title character and made it his own in a hysterical performance. Leslie Kritzer was deliciously over-the-top as Delia. Adam Dannheisser was a stalwart Charles. New cast member David Josefsberg and always-good Kerry Butler were endearing as Adam and Barbara. The book and score got the job done with style and professionalism, but it was the set and all the other tech goodies that gave the show its atmospheric pizzazz. Faithful to the film, one of my favorites, there were moments when the show slowed down and actually was, dare I say it?, touching. Sixth row center seats courtesy of TKTS. Sadly many empty seats in the orchestra for the Wednesday matinee. Pure entertainment. We smiled and laughed and applauded…a lot. We had a blast. – at  the Winter Garden Theatre, New York

RIP Beetlejuice: A steady box office earner, Beetlejuice built up steam slowly, but consistently, until it was selling out, or close to it, during its final months. It had been originally scheduled to close on June 6, 2020 to make way for a fall production of The Music Man. Theatre websites lit up with indignation. Why did Beetlejuice have to lose its theatre and close? Why couldn't the producers of The Music Man find another theatre? The "official" excuse given was that the show dipped below its "stop clause" early in the run, and the Shuberts, owner of the Winter Garden, used that as its reason. Total bullshit. In my opinion, the real reason is this: the Winter Garden is prime property. It has a large orchestra section, where loads of overpriced "premium" seats can be sold. It has a very high-priced leading man. It will cost a lot to produce and a lot to keep it running every week. The show can make more money at the Winter Garden than at a lot of other theatres. And that's important, since once the two leads, Hugh Jackman and, to a lesser extent, Sutton Foster, leave the show, one can safely assume the box office will suffer. So it's all about money. It's always about money. It's all about producer greed. Always. Then COVID-19 hit, Broadway shut down, and when the closure was extended to June 7, the day after Beetlejuice's announced closing, the producers officially closed the show. So sad, since Beetlejuice didn't try to be anything except a show that would give its audience a grand time. It was slick, it was funny, it was tuneful, it was professional, and I loved it and talked it up to everyone.There have been rumors that the show could reopen at another theatre once Broadway reopens for business, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Remember, it's all about money. It's all about producer greed. Always.

That's it for now. Stay at home! Social distancing! Be safe!

© 2020 Jeffrey Geddes

LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING – Episode 2

LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING – Episode 2

(a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

"Let's start at the very beginning/A very good place to start/When you read you begin with A-B-C…"

I grabbed a lot from the "A" pile, so here's some more "A"-level memories. Today's theatrical recollections include: a rarely done Paul Zindel play, a much-anticipated musical that should have been better than it was, a Cole Porter classic, Margo Channing and Eve Harrington together at last onstage, and a storefront production of one of my favorite musicals. Let's start.

AND MISS REARDON DRINKS A LITTLE – Civic Theatre, Chicago

 Different program covers and different publisher.

January, 1972; March, 1972. Paul Zindel's and Miss Reardon drinks a little (letter case as indicated on the program), while a financial hit in its 1971 Broadway run despite a short run of 108 performances, is one of those plays that didn't age well. It's a play about three sisters, all educators: one an alcoholic, one mentally unstable and accused of molesting a male student, and one a cold, calculating ice queen who drops in on her family after years of no contact when the family matriarch dies . Pretty grim and hardly the stuff comedies are made of, yet Zindel packed his play with enough zingers to rival Neil Simon. (Interestingly, Neil Simon's seriously-flawed, yet fascinating, The Gingerbread Lady, also about an alcoholic lady, opened in the same season on Broadway. It, however, did not make its money back.) I reread the play a few years back to see if it might be suitable for the theatre company that Bob works with. It still had the laugh lines, but Zindel never successfully married the kitchen-sink type drama with the comedy, and it read a bit like a hot mess. In fact my 21st century opinion of the play is in line with what the Chicago Tribune's William Leonard wrote, and I quote, "Slapstick and tragedy work at cross purposes in And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little…But if Paul Zindel…thought he could make the customers both laugh and cry, it doesn't seem to have worked out that way." Having said that, though, the 21-year-old Jeff thought the play was quite dandy, and the performances of Sandy Dennis, Betty Garrett, and DeAnn Mears were powerful. I mean, seriously, Sandy Dennis and Betty Garrett? C'mon!! I liked it so much I saw it twice. Apparently Chicago audiences liked it despite the lukewarm reviews, for the show, originally scheduled for a four-week run, extended and closed after an eight-week run. Zindel's plays, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, are rarely done today. – at the Civic Theatre, Chicago

THE ADDAMS FAMILY – Oriental Theatre, Chicago

Full-page ad.

December, 2009. Preview. Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth above the title. A trio of Broadway stalwarts sharing "starring" status (Terrence Mann, Carolee Carmello, Kevin Chamberlain). A comic favorite (Jackie Hoffman). Two up-and-rising youngsters (Krysta Rodriguez, Wesley Taylor). Beloved characters from cartoons, TV, and film as the source material. The anticipation was high; so were the expectations. How could it miss? And yet, and yet, it did. Oh, it wasn't a disaster by any means. That actually may have been preferable. Instead it was, well, mediocre. Professional and glitzy, with enough Addams family references to make us boomers happy (finger snaps, iconic poses, etc.), the show overall lacked the wicked and subversive wit of the cartoons, the TV series, and the two films. Stars Lane and Neuwirth brought their star charisma, but neither seemed like they were having much fun with these deliciously over-the-top roles made famous by John Astin and Carolyn Jones on TV and especially Raul Julia and Angelica Huston on film. And someone please explain to me why you would cast a dancer with Neuwirth's creds, and then give her sinfully little to dance? The plot was contrived, but it gave Carolee Carmello a chance to blast the show skyward for its only real moment during the evening with her "Waiting" during the excellent "Full Disclosure" segment which closed Act One. Terrence Mann, poor guy, had an unfortunate and perplexing encounter that bordered on sexual with a tentacled creature that went on for far too long. Kevin Chamberlain's Uncle Fester wanted to talk about love, and he did...endlessly.  Even the ever reliable Jackie Hoffman was pushing too hard, trying her best to put across the meh material. No one was terrible; nothing was poorly executed. It just sat there. Considering the talent involved, that was as surprising as it was sad. – at the Oriental Theatre, Chicago

Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh (snap, snap): The Chicago critics and bloggers were a mixed bag, but, if theatreinchicago.com is to be believed (6 Highly Recommended; 6 Recommended; 2 Somewhat Recommended) mainly positive in their assessment of the musical. Changes were made, the original directors were replaced by Jerry Zaks, but kept their directorial credit, and the show opened on Broadway to almost unanimous pans. (Link to the Variety review….https://variety.com/2010/legit/reviews/the-addams-family-1117942554/) As in Chicago, the show did seriously good box office, largely, I assume, on the bring-in-the-money power of Nathan Lane and, to a lesser extent, Bebe Neuwirth. Without those two leads, the show's finances faltered and it closed in the red after a respectable run of 35 previews and 722 performances. Since then, The Addams Family has been extensively reworked, went on a successful 15-month tour, and has been a popular choice for amateur/school groups. Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh (snap, snap)!

ANYTHING GOES

– Stephen Sondheim Theatre, New York

August, 2011. Ethel Merman is said to have quipped that Anything Goes is about "a girl on a boat." Short, sweet, and in this case, absolutely correct. The triple-threat talents of the delicious Sutton Foster were on ample display in this mostly-satisfying version of this Cole Porter classic. When the show stuck to its, frankly, ridiculous plot and sang and danced, it worked. When it tried to be a "book" musical, it was not as successful. The cast was loaded with Grade-A talent: John McMartin, who should have been declared a National Theatre Treasure years ago; Joel Grey, impishly delightful as Moonface Martin; Kelly Bishop, the original Tony-winning Sheila of A Chorus Line; Walter Charles, a terrific Albin in the tour of La Cage aux Folles when it played Chicago; Adam Godley, Laura Osnes, Jessica Stone, and a polished Josh Franklin filling in for Colin Donnell as Billy Crocker. Not to diminish the talents of any of these folks, Sutton Foster was the reason to see this. Her huge, warm smile with an effervescence that would challenge the best champagne anchored the proceedings. No surprise when she won the Tony for Leading Actress in a Musical at the 2011 Tonys. And big applause to those fabulous men and women in the pit! – at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Chicago

– Cahn Auditorium (Music Theater Works), Evanston, IL 

August, 2018. And then there was this version. Erica Evans, the singular Equity member in the cast, played Reno Sweeney and blared everything out with no attempt at subtlety or variance in delivery. It was just loud. When she wasn't singing, loudly, she was doing her damnedest, and loudly so, to channel Ethel Merman, all volume and brass and no interpretation, instead of giving us her take on the role.  I blame director Rudy Hogenmiller for that. The production's costumes were fine, but the scenic elements looked cheap. Low point of the afternoon was during the second act when the wagon representing the brig failed to roll down to its spot and both actors in the scene stayed where they were!! No apparent realization that they weren't where they were supposed to be and adjust accordingly, so the whole scene was played upstage. Amateur stuff. The orchestra was excellent, as always with Music Theater Works. Glad we had a Goldstar comp for this. – at the Cahn Auditorium, Evanston, IL

And then there was this production: In the spring of 2019, a colleague of Bob's was the musical director of a production of Anything Goes at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and invited us to the closing performance. We were blown away! The exuberance and talent on display were amazing. The dance numbers were superb. If you didn't notice how young the actors were, you'd've thought you were at a professional Equity production. This beat the socks off of the Evanston production.

ALL ABOUT EVE – Noel Coward Theatre, London

May, 2019. Director Ivo van Hove pulled many A View from the Bridge and Network staging tricks out of his toolbox, which resulted in a "Been there, seen it, Ivo" production. Actually, I found van Hove's staging overall on the unimpressive side. And seriously, Ivo, was it absolutely necessary to see Margo puke in the toilet via video screen during the party scene? What did you promise Gillian Anderson for her to agree to this? This was a slavish homage to the film, though interestingly the program stated source material also included Mary Orr's excellent play version, The Wisdom of Eve. Gillian Anderson, as Margo, apparently was directed to imitate Bette Davis' vocal cadences and attitude, resulting in a professional, competent performance, but not an exciting or fresh one, and I love Gillian Anderson, so this was disappointing. Lily James fared better as Eve, but for my money, the best thing in this high-priced and, frankly, over-priced show was Monica Dolan's engaging and spirited Karen Richards. Enjoyed it; didn't faint over it. Rent the film. - at the Noel Coward Theatre, London

BONUS SHOW (because it was mistakenly filed under "A")

110 IN THE SHADE – Theater Wit (BoHo Theatre), Chicago

November, 2018. 110 in the Shade is one of my top ten favorite musicals. The book sometimes creaks, but the score by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt is one of the musical theatre's glories. Unfortunately, BoHo Theatre's production was a somewhat indifferent affair and was at its best with the performances of the Curry men, which, frankly, shouldn't be the case. The vocals were serviceable throughout, but never soared. "Rain Song" should thrill; it didn't. "Old Maid" should be the act one emotional peak; it was mostly screeching with a soupçon of interpretation. File was underplayed and on the dull side. Starbuck was not very charismatic and lacked the sexual energy essential to the role. Lizzie was either loud or angry, often both, which made her not very likeable. In fact, I wanted to shout at her to stop her whining. The direction was often aimless, and the limited choreography was just sad. This was the second local production of a musical in my top ten that I'd seen that disappointed. (Porchlight's overrated Gypsy was the previous week.) The bloggers all seemed to faint over the leading lady's vocals. Guess they like their songs loud and unfocused. Wish I'd skipped this. - at Theater Wit, Chicago

And with that, I'll close another edition of Remembrances of Performances Past. Social distancing! Do it. Stay at home!

© 2020 Jeffrey Geddes