MUSICAL MAYHEM: MY TOP TWENTY-FIVE MUSICALS – Part 15a: THE TOP TEN – #4

MUSICAL MAYHEM: MY TOP TWENTY-FIVE MUSICALS – Part 15a

THE TOP TEN – #4

NOTE: Due to the length of this entry, I'm dividing it into two parts. This is part one of two.

THE ORIGINAL

Groundbreaking. Innovative. Chilling. Thought-provoking. Marvelous. And still, tragically, so very relevant fifty-two years (in 2018) after it first burst onto the New York stage.

# 4: CABARET  – Book by Joe Masteroff, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Cabaret spent the last 11 months of its run at the 1761 seat Broadway Theatre, a theatre about 600 seats larger than the more intimate 1156 seat Broadhurst Theatre where it started out.

The iconic original cast. Note Joel Grey's billing. In my opinion, the four top-billed actors (Sally, Cliff, Schneider, Schultz) are the leads in Cabaret. The Emcee is, and always will be, a supporting role.

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Broadway had never seen anything like it when Cabaret  opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York on November 20, 1966. The critics didn't quite know how to review a show that was a radical departure from musicals prior to this, and certainly didn't know how to react to a leading lady in a musical (Jill Haworth in her only Broadway role) whose vocal abilities were limited. Considering Cabaret's legendary status today, it's worth nothing that the show received favorable, but not across-the-boards raves when it opened. Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, Cabaret was, in a way, a musical with a split personality: part bawdy nightclub fare and part more traditional book musical with all the traditional trimmings of plot, subplot, and romantic interests. Some critics in 1966 had an issue with that. I didn't. What director Harold Prince and choreographer Ron Field accomplished in this groundbreaking production cannot be praised enough. Through his musical staging, Ron Field created a world teetering on the brink of the abyss that would become known as the Third Reich. Director Prince took the traditional book musical elements and added just enough twists and jolts to bring its plot-based characters and situations also to the edge of that coming abyss. Take for example, smooth-talking Ernst and his mysterious trips to Paris, the disturbing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" both as first sung by a group of waiters and then at the engagement party scene that closes Act One in which Nazi armbands make their first appearance, the rock thrown through Herr Schultz's fruit shop window, Sally's unheard-of-in-musicals abortion, the desperation of Cabaret's title song, the devastating regret and resignation in Fraulein Schneider's "What Would You Do?" No, it's not perfect. The original Cabaret skirts around the hedonism of pre-Nazi Berlin and plays it safe by being solidly heterosexual. So heterosexual, in fact, that when it's revealed that the Emcee played one of the kick-line dancers in drag in the number that opened the second act, the audience gasped in shock and then tittered in nervous amusement. (Not the first time drag had made a Broadway appearance, but still not an everyday thing.) "The Telephone Song," though cleverly and delightfully staged and which gave the ensemble a rare moment to shine, isn't really generic to the show. Kander and Ebb gave Herr Schultz a cloyingly saccharine number, "Meeskite," which I've always felt was there only to give the original Schultz, Jack Gilford, more to do. (Even when listening to the original cast album at the tender age of 16, I would usually skip over that number. Bugged the crap out of me then; bugs the crap out of me now.) And, of course, the substitution at the end of "If You Could See Her" of "she isn't a meeskite at all" instead of the original "she wouldn't look Jewish at all" because producer/director Prince was afraid of potentially offending the large Jewish theatre audience. (In the early 70s, Prince, in an interview, stated he regretted his decision and, thankfully, the original lyric has been restored.)

And now, let's travel to Berlin. New Year's Eve, 1929.

"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome/Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret!"

– Shubert Theatre, Chicago

 The fabulous original artwork on the souvenir program. Never surpassed. 

"Meeskite" is mercifully gone. Sadly, so is "Why Should I Wake Up?" and the whimsical, yet pointed, original "The Money Song." I still miss the glorious singing of the waiters when they sing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me." Check out the box about the intermission medley. 

December, 1968; January, 1969. Making an extended stop at the Shubert, the First National Company of Cabaret was a dazzling replica of the still-playing Broadway original. I was completely mad for Melissa Hart. She was a tart, big-voiced Sally, all brass and sass, and ultimately tragic. You left the theatre with the distinct feeling that, for her, life would never be a cabaret, old chum. Signe Hasso and Leo Fuchs were excellent as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz (What are their first names? Does anyone know?) Charles Abbott made for an appropriately creepy Emcee. I had a crush on handsome Gene Rupert who played Cliff. Catherine Gaffigan and David Rounds were nicely villainy as Frl. Kost and Ernst. When the mirror swung down to reveal the audience during "Willkommen," well, this eighteen-year-old boy practically wet his pants. It was all just Too. Fucking. Awesome! So awesome, in fact, I saw it a month later on a weekend trip home from school. – at the Shubert Theatre, Chicago

THE PARENTS COME TO THE CABARET: In 1968, I took my parents to see Cabaret at the Shubert as their Christmas present. It was the first professional show for both of them. We schlepped up to the Shubert's Second Balcony, something I could do with ease back then and settled into our seats in the first row. Unsure what my parents' reaction would be, especially my dad's who grew up in southern/central Illinois, not exactly a haven for the fine arts, I was delighted when they told me afterwards that they loved it. Huh. Wow. Lesson: don't underestimate your parents. They may surprise you when you least expect it. (For the record, my down-home dad was crazy about The Wiz when we saw a touring company during a stopover in Milwaukee. Who knew I had a hip dad?)

THE STARS OF CABARET: Above-title stars Signe Hasso and Leo Fuchs were not exactly box-office names, but both had distinguished careers in theatre prior to leading the First National Company. Born in Sweden, Hasso was an acclaimed actress in America, Europe, and especially in Scandinavia. Fuchs was born in Poland and began his career at the age of five, distinguished himself in his native Poland, and became a staple on television and the stage. Melissa Hart became a Chicago favorite with this performance and subsequent performances in the Windy City, especially during the tour of Promises, Promises and the Forum Theatre's production of Company. She was Barbara Harris' standby during The Apple Tree, Mary Tyler Moore's standby during the aborted Breakfast at Tiffany's, played Sally on Broadway during Cabaret's final weeks, won a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the short-lived Georgy, starred in numerous regional productions, and resides in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area where she remains active in theatre and teaches voice and conducts master classes. She last appeared on Broadway in 1997. Gene Rupert would later play the lead in Broadway's Promises, Promises, a performance I saw from the first row of the Shubert Theatre, and would appear in Jean Kerr's Finishing Touches on Broadway and on tour, which included a stop at the Studebaker Theatre. He appeared in television's Ryan's Hope, and, sadly, died in 1979 at the age of 48. David Rounds achieved his greatest fame in Morning's at Seven winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He died at 53 in 1983.

REVIEWER POLICE: The Chicago Tribune's William Leonard reviewed Cabaret, writing that "Never did a chorus line comprise a horsier set of girls than the homely, heavy-legged dames who kick through the coarse choreography." Uh…what? Wow. Can you say totally unacceptable? Yet, in 1966, gay men were called fags in reviews, male reviewers gushed over female physical attributes, and sexism and misogyny, overt and subtle, were the order of the day. Here's the kicker, though. Despite the homophobia, sexism, and misgogyny, for the most part, the men doing the reviewing (there weren't many women reviewers back then), knew their theatre, knew what made a show great, knew what made a show terrible, and relayed that information to their readers, unlike some reviewers/bloggers today who only have a vague idea what theatre is about.

– Stroud Auditorium, Normal, IL 

One of my most prized posters.

November, 1969. The Entertainment Board of Illinois State University, where I was going to school at the time, brought in popular entertainers of the day and, usually, a touring show or two. Under the auspices of the Entertainment Board, the bus-and-truck company of Cabaret swung through Normal for a two-performance Sunday. By happy coincidence, my parents were driving me back to Normal following the Thanksgiving break, and by even happier coincidence, they wanted to see the show again, too, so we went to the 2:30 matinee. Back then, the "A" bus-and-truck companies were all Equity and the quality was often as good as what you'd see in the fully-produced tours. With the original creative team on board, but adapted for quick, often daily, load-ins and strikes, and with direction and choreography by Hal Prince and Ron Field, this had the look and feel of the version I saw at the Shubert a year earlier. The cast size was slightly smaller, the Kit Kat Klub Kittens were reduced from four to three, and I remember lots of wagons being used to expedite scene changes, but the iconic mirror was there, and with a cast of superb professionals, the show was in excellent hands. Leading the cast as Sally Bowles was Tandy Cronyn, daughter of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. And, yes, she was quite marvelous. Jay Fox, a native of neighboring Bloomington and an alumnus of Bloomington's Illinois Wesleyan University, was an appropriately sleazy Emcee. – at Stroud Auditorium, Normal, IL

Sidebar: Stroud Auditorium would certainly not be anyone's first, second, or even third choice to house a musical of any size, let alone one the size of Cabaret. Primarily used as the auditorium for University High School (U-High), one of the lab schools associated with ISU, Stroud was rarely used for touring shows. (FYI, ISU, the oldest public university in Illinois, was called Illinois State Normal University until 1965, known and renowned for its teacher training programs. Today, it is also noted for having a highly-regarded theatre department.) Stroud, then and now, is an oddly designed venue, sort of thrust, but not really, with a huge space between the stage and the first row of audience seating. I don't remember, but the orchestra could have been there. When I was at ISU, touring plays were usually done at the traditionally-designed, but musty, Capen Auditorium in Edwards Hall, and touring musicals and concerts were usually performed on a portable stage set up in the Horton Field House. Cast, musicians, and tech staff for B&T companies deserve kudos for their ability to adapt to venues that frequently are not even remotely ideal.

Reviewer's Notebook: In its after-the-fact review of Cabaret, The  Pantagraph, the daily paper for the Bloomington-Normal area, justifiably made a big deal out of hometown boy Jay Fox's performance. In fact, he was almost the only actor in the show named in the review. Tandy Cronyn got this: "Oh, yes, Tandy Cronyn, the daughter of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, is the leading female and she is impressive…" The review was very positive, but had this curious assessment: "If you ever get a chance to see Cabaret…, you should do so. It has a sparkle, a charm about it that leaves one feeling good when he leaves the theater…" What show is reviewer Tony Holloway talking about? "Leaves one feeling good." Seriously, Tony? The Nazis are gaining in power, Sally has an abortion, and things are looking bleak for all involved, and you left the theatre feeling good? Were you at Hello, Dolly! and didn't know it? Different strokes, I guess, but I just have never thought of Cabaret as a feel-good show.

Some snaps from the Hasso/Fuchs/Hart Cabaret:

Some final thoughts…

Cabaret the film is not Cabaret the musical. Though sharing the same source material and composer/lyricist, they have different dramatic thrusts, with the film discarding or radically reducing some characters and adding others. It won a slew of Oscars and is beloved by many. I'm not among them. I admire the professionalism, some of Bob Fosse's imagery and directorial touches are masterful and memorable, and the new characters and storyline are well-done, but, overall, I find it calculated and a showcase for the miscast Minnelli rather than a showcase for the material. Minnelli's Sally is just too good a singer and just too charismatic a performer to be even remotely believable as a struggling singer in a third-rate Berlin dive. She wasn't Sally Bowles; she was Liza. Or more accurately, she was one of Minnelli's patented wounded-bird characters, like those in The Sterile Cuckoo and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. I saw the film not too long ago after a period of twenty years or so, and it was a chore for me to get through it. Ah, well.

The original production of Cabaret would run for 1165 performances. It won eight Tony Awards, including the all-important Best Musical award. It spawned several national companies and quickly became a staple in regional and amateur theatre. The 1968 London company played a more modest engagement of 336 performances and starred Judi Dench, yes, that Judi Dench, as Sally Bowles. (The original London cast album is a stunner!) A revised version of the original, once again directed by Harold Prince and staged by Ron Field, opened in 1987 for a short, disappointing run, this time featuring Tony and Oscar-winner Joel Grey above the title. Jump ahead eleven years. In 1998, nearly thirty-two years after its Broadway premiere, a stunning revival of Cabaret would once again set the theatre world on its collective ear, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything old is new again. See part two…

© 2018 Jeffrey Geddes

ALPHABET SOUP (7) - FEATURING A RANDOM LETTER OF THE ALPHABET AND SOME SHOWS THAT BEGIN WITH THAT LETTER

ALPHABET SOUP (7) -

FEATURING A RANDOM LETTER OF THE ALPHABET AND SOME SHOWS THAT BEGIN WITH THAT LETTER

Happy 2016! For the first post of the new year, I thought I'd go to my blue London coffee mug and pick a letter and select the first few shows from that letter's pile of programs.

To kick off the new year, today's letter is ….

F

Here's some of what "F" has to offer… two all-but-forgotten plays and and two pre-Broadway tryouts. Let's begin.

FINISHING TOUCHES – Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

Way back then, it was no problem scurrying up to the upper reaches of the top balcony.

March, 1974. Jean Kerr was an Erma Bombeck-like essayist (or was Erma Bombeck a Jean Kerr-like essayist?) whose essays and books about her family and suburban life were like Bombeck's, but infused with a homey, but knowing, sophistication. Her most famous book, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, was adapted for the dated, but still very funny film of the same name starring Doris Day and David Niven. She was the wife of renowned theatre critic, Walter Kerr. As a playwright, her biggest hit was Mary, Mary which ran for over 1500 performances and for quite a while was the longest-running non-musical Broadway production. In Jean Kerr's world, nothing terribly heavy or serious happens. Oh, heavy and serious things threaten to occur, more or less, but with a few well-placed gags, those heavy and serious things disappear in audience laughter. A devout Catholic, she pretty-much toed the Church line, which makes her plays today play as dated, even a bit unbelievably naïve, period pieces. It's sort of like watching early Neil Simon. You still laugh, but perhaps not as often as you did when the work was new. In Finishing Touches, Kerr takes us to the well-designed home (courtesy of Ben Edwards) of the Cooper family. Mr. Cooper is a college professor suffering from a case of mid-life crises and student infatuation. Mrs. Cooper, his faithful and stalwart wife, in a bit of retaliation, dallies with the idea of having an affair with their handsome neighbor. The eldest son, a college senior, brings home his actress girlfriend and, the parents, not pleased that he's, gasp, slept with the lass, forbid that sort of activity in their house. No affairs happen, of course, because in a Jean Kerr play that sort of thing just isn't done, and everything ends happily and the audience leaves feeling satisfied. Directed by Joseph Anthony and featuring several of the original Broadway cast, I laughed a lot and was charmed by the performances given by celebrated stage/film/television actress Barbara Bel Geddes (in a body of work that included an Academy Award nomination and creating the role of Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, she is, somewhat perversely, best-known for her Emmy-winning role as Miss Ellie in the television soap, Dallas), Robert ("Twelve O'Clock High") Lansing, Gene Rupert and the wonderful Jill O'Hara. Never a smash hit, and perhaps too wholesome for 1973 New York audiences, the show did much better on the road. I liked it; I can't see anyone doing it today. – at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago

From the Six Degrees of Separation Department: Gene Rupert appeared in the New York company of Promises, Promises with Jenny O'Hara, Jill's older sister. Jill O'Hara created the role that her sister played opposite Rupert, introduced "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" to the world, and won a Tony nomination in the process. I saw Jill in PP at the Muny in St. Louis and a year or so earlier had seen Rupert as Cliff Bradshaw in the national tour of Cabaret at Chicago's Shubert.  Want more? Janis Paige was Doris Day's nemesis in the film Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Janis Paige created the role of Babe Williams in The Pajama Game on Broadway. Doris Day played the role in the film. I'm not making this stuff up.

FATHER'S DAY – Ivanhoe Theatre, Chicago

November, 1973. I don't know what motivated producer George Keathley to mount a production of Oliver Hailey's 1971 one-performance Broadway flop, Father's Day, at the Ivanhoe, and I'm sure by the time the endeavor was over, he was wondering that exact thing. I know what motivated me…the opportunity to see Chita Rivera for the first time. Mind you, this is 1973 Chita Rivera, already a bankable star, but not yet the iconic legend she is today. In fact, her program bio states, "Miss Rivera looks forward to the new musical Chicago being written especially for her and co-star Gwen Verdon…," a show that would premiere some 18 months later. Broadway flop or not, Time magazine's T.E. Kalem, usually an astute critic, chose it as one of the year's ten best plays. Here's the thing, though. I remember nothing about this play. Zero. Nada. Zip. And for a production, that's not good because it means it was neither good enough nor awful enough to register in the memory bank. William Leonard's review in the Chicago Tribune implied that it was predictable and messy. And despite Mr. Leonard's claim re: directorship of the play, the program doesn't list a director. Anywhere. Not on the credits page, not in the bios. You know the thing didn't direct itself, but when a director doesn't want it known that he/she was responsible for the goings-on onstage, well, that implies it was indeed a very rough haul to opening night. According to Chita Rivera's webpage, she considered Father's Day an "exquisite experience in the theater" and based on the success (??) of the Ivanhoe engagement, was produced to better reviews and a longer run off-Broadway in 1979. I'll take your word for it, Chita. Lest it be thought that Mr. Hailey was a hack, he achieved great success as a writer for television and wrote for several leading series of the day. He just couldn't crack the playwriting code and all three of his Broadway tries were one-performance wonders. Samuel French holds the rights, if anyone's interested. – at the Ivanhoe Theatre, Chicago

FOUR ON A GARDEN – Palace Theatre, Milwaukee

I love it when I find intact old-school tickets.

My first visit to 1776 was in Milwaukee and Uihlein Hall. Hair was coming to the Palace and Gloria Swanson was ready for her closeup in the innocuous Butterflies Are Free, a wildly popular show back then.

An undated picture of the Palace's interior. I suspect this was taken during the theatre's heyday as a movie palace. I don't remember it being this grand.

The original poster co-starring Barry Nelson. The design tells you nothing about the show, but implies Channing will be playing an older Lorelei Lee.

December, 1970. Well, shades of Plaza Suite, but, instead of taking place in a hotel suite, the (in)action of the Broadway-bound Abe Burrows' adaptation of a work by French théâtre de boulevard masters Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy (Cactus Flower, Forty Carats) took place in a garden apartment in Manhattan. And it was Four on a Garden in name only. Somewhere along the way from New Haven, where the tryout started, to Milwaukee's Palace Theatre, one of the playlets got dropped, presumably for rewrites and other such tryout-y things, and the title really should have been Three on a Garden. The missing playlet would be restored in time for its New York opening a few weeks after the Milwaukee run. Four, three, it didn't really matter. The show was a dog. And this was a play that had Oliver Smith and Martin Aronstein and William McHone on the design team, Abe Burrows as the director, David Merrick as the producer and Carol Channing and Sid Caesar as its stars. How could this go wrong? Well, for starters, the play just wasn't funny. Oh, there were funny, very funny, bits and bobs throughout the evening, but anything remotely humorous was due to the comedic skills of Channing and Caesar, who both could wring a laugh out of a stone. The two stars both worked their asses off and used every trick in their considerable arsenals to breathe some life into the proceedings and we loved them for it, but it was like beating the proverbial dead horse. No amount of comic genius or star presence could save this despite the skill and professionalism of the folks involved. It looked great and was directed with a crisp pace, but it was a lost cause. Broadway vet George S. Irving was in the cast, though I can't remember him. Also, a young Tom Lee Jones (now known as Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones) who back then was very hot. I do remember him. The Milwaukee critics loved Channing and Caesar, hated the play. I pretty much felt the same way. – at the Palace Theatre, Milwaukee

Meanderings and related Garden thoughts:

 o The Palace Theatre was demolished in 1974 to make way for a hotel.

 o Carol Channing is one of those performers who more or less owes their entire career to a signature role. In Channing's case, it was two signature roles: Lorelei Lee and Dolly Levi. Four on a Garden was only Channing's second non-musical role on Broadway, the first was a forgotten flop long before Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. After the quick closing of Garden, Channing went back to more familiar, and safer, fare, reprising Lorelei Lee in a "new" version of Blondes called Lorelei (it was entertaining, but not terribly good and Channing was far too old to be playing the role) and bringing Dolly! back to Broadway in two revivals. But just because she built her career on two roles, it would be foolish to underestimate Channing's talents. She's justly acclaimed for her razor-sharp timing, her inimitable voice that can go from basso profondo to squeaky soprano in two seconds flat, and for her dead-on impressions. She could read the phone book and have you weak from laughter. (And before anyone starts on about her role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, her performance was a mix of Lorelei Lee and Dolly Levi. I felt she was wrong for the part and the Academy Award nomination was her consolation prize for the loss of the film of Hello, Dolly! to the woefully miscast Barbra Streisand.) Carol Channing is old-school pro and she's earned her legendary status.

o Four on the Garden started off in New Haven with Barry Nelson as the male lead. By the time the show reached Pittsburgh, one week before the Milwaukee engagement, he was out of the show, either by choice or by request, and replaced by Sid Caesar.

o Four on the Garden arrived in New York immediately following Milwaukee's run. It played a very long preview period, opened to terrible reviews and closed after a short, unprofitable run. I tried reading the play a few years ago and couldn't get through it.

FIRST WIVES CLUB – Oriental Theatre, Chicago

The oddly-designed marquee.

An audience survey form which I diplomatically did not fill out.

See what I mean? What is with this design? This inattention to detail was, sadly, present throughout the production.

February, 2015. On its second pre-Broadway shakedown, "First Wives Club" was definitely not ready for Broadway and needed to return to the musical hospital for some more surgery. Stat! The three talented leading ladies, Faith Prince, Carmen Cusack and Christine Sherrill, deserved a better book, a better director, and, most importantly, a better score. Loaded with either power ballads that all sound alike and ear-splittingly amplified or filler songs that were just not good, the show, remarkably, and in spite of itself, was entertaining and enjoyable. The book by Linda Bloodworth Thomason often reminded me of an episode of "Designing Women" and sometimes pushed too hard for a laugh. Sorry, Linda, no laugh track in the theatre. The choreography by David Connolly was not terribly inspired and was still being executed with some trepidation by the mostly extraneous ensemble. (Not their fault; there was just no real reason for them to be there.) The husbands were all professional and competent, but forgettable. Patrick Richwood as the gay BFF was cringe-worthy…all stereotype and offensive; the type of portrayal I thought died a long time ago. The first act was definitely better than the second. The second started off with an embarrassingly bad production number and things sort of lurched towards the finale from there. Missing and greatly missed was the movie's iconic finale of "You Don't Own Me." Final thoughts: For the most part, this was fun and one should never miss the opportunity to see Faith Prince chew some scenery. The modestly-sized audience seemed to enjoy it, though there was a fair share of interval departees. Is it Broadway material? No. Could it do well in regional and amateur theatre circles? Absolutely. - at the Oriental Theatre, Chicago

Sidebar: The show's logo/marquee confused me. One of the wives appeared to be African-American, yet the wives in Chicago were all very white and, with one exception, so was the rest of the cast. Odd design. However, on further research, I may have solved the mystery. The show had its first tryout in the summer of 2009 at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park and starred Barbara Walsh, Karen Ziemba and Sheryl Lee Ralph, hence the design with two Caucasian and one African-American first wives.  The male leads, such as they are in this show, included Brad Oscar, John Dossett and Sam Harris. The Chicago casting, while using talented folks indeed, was, with the exception of Prince, less "starry" than the San Diego cast. My question to the producers is this…you spent all this money mounting another production of a show that didn't get terribly good reviews the first time out, but you couldn't spend a few lousy bucks to redo the logo? Really?

Next week…a BONUS Alphabet Soup featuring "F"!!. See you soon!

© 2016 Jeffrey Geddes