The Broadway Musicals of 1978 by Matthew Murray

Last-minute cast substitutions might occasionally raise eyebrows. But at last night's "The Broadway Musicals of 1978," this season's final entry in Scott Siegel's Broadway by the Year series at Town Hall, the only thing raised was the level of excitement.

Felicia Finley (currently being underutilized eight times a week in the Broadway production of The Wedding Singer) became ill yesterday afternoon and was thus unable to perform "Honeysuckle Rose" from Ain't Misbehavin' as originally scheduled. Her replacement: Mary Bond Davis, who creator-host Siegel explained had performed in the show on four continents. After strutting to stage center, with square shoulders and towering confidence that made her dwarf both the standing bass and its player (Tom Hubbard, of the omnipresent Ross Patterson's Little Big Band) she would be "playing" opposite, she brought down the house singing the gently spicy ballad -- unamplified, yet crystal clear -- as though it had been written just for her.

While watching this miraculous mating of singer and song, one wasn't left so much wondering why Finley hadn't shown up, but why Davis hadn't been assigned the song in the first place. Sadly, in terms of the other questions raised by the concert, that one was miniscule in its importance. Better ones:

* Why was a full third of the evening (eight songs out of 24) devoted to songs that had neither been written for the Broadway stage, nor written in 1978?

* Why were there two dire numbers from the one-performance flop A Broadway Musical, one from the five-performance flop Angel, and five from the 24-performance flop Working, while no potentially more interesting songs from the 33-performance flop Platinum or the 48-performance flop King of Hearts?

* Why did "special guest star" Carolee Carmello sing Ballroom's powerful anthem about settling, "Fifty Percent," when she's too young and luminous to convince us that she'd ever have to?

* Why was the usually side-splitting Christine Pedi denied every opportunity to be funny by being assigned "It's an Art" (the repetitive waitress's quip from Working) and "I Rise Again" (from On the Twentieth Century), two songs for which she's far from ideally suited?

* Why was Nancy Opel so uncomfortable with the lyrics to Working's "Just a Housewife" that she apparently had to read them from crib notes, and why did she belt her way through most of Twentieth Century's pseudo-operatic "Never"?

* Why were Seán Martin Hingston and Joyce Chittick forced by director Bryan Batt and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler into a painfully unfunny faux-disco routine of Ballroom's "More of the Same" that made Chittick's "Steam Heat" from Kathleen Marshall's pathetic Pajama Game revival look like Balanchine?

In fairness, a few vague highlights grabbed the attention in a more positive way: Davis and Tony winner Chuck Cooper singing "Ain't Misbehavin" (again unamplified) with a gloriously saucy back-and-forth that finished the first act on a hot note; if Noah Racey, returning to the stage following a devastating injury, did far too much inexplicable tapping to "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now" from Ain't Misbehavin' at least he's always fun to watch; Opel, Pedi, Lari White (late of Ring of Fire), and Julie Garnyé stunned with their revolutionary "stand-and-sing" approach to "Hard Candy Christmas" from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; and Garnyé scored the show's sole pre-planned triumph with her titanic rendition of "Lullaby From Baby to Baby" from Elizabeth Swados's Runaways. And Siegel's always-wry commentary about the year, as well as certain surprise guests in the audience (the creative team of Whorehouse, Stephen Schwartz, and even Marge Champion), helped create a comfortable, familial atmosphere that made the evening as much about celebrating our recent heritage as other Broadway by the Year entries pay tribute to our more distant past.

But with so much filler from the likes of Ain't Misbehavin' and Eubie!, that's more or less what The Broadway Musicals of 1978 felt like anyway. It never seemed that we were experiencing a cross-section of a unique year as much as being given a demonstration of what has led so many pundits to proclaim the death of the American musical. Still, there are worse things: An evening comprised solely of songs from A Broadway Musical springs immediately to mind.

Posted by Matthew Murray on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 6:21 AM | Item Link

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The Broadway Musicals of 1956 by Matthew Murray

A new entry in the "Broadway by the Year" series is always worthy of celebration -- at least temporarily. Each installment of Scott Siegel's series at The Town Hall (now in its sixth season) showcases the highest highs of Broadway past and present, along with, sadly, the commensurate lows.

The latest, "The Broadway Musicals of 1956," held on Monday night, was no exception. From the sublime stylings of two-time Tony nominee Marc Kudisch on songs like "If I Had My Druthers" (Li'l Abner) and "My Heart Is So Full of You" (from The Most Happy Fella, sumptuously sung unamplified with the evening's director, Emily Skinner) to the sexy comedy of singer-dancer Rachelle Rak in Mr. Wonderful's "I'm Available" (a number introduced by Chita Rivera), the show was always at its strongest when stressing the songs' inherent theatricality without going over the top.

But under the rather broad direction, such moments were generally the exception rather than the rule. While an occasional bright flame of a number would melt Skinner's staging cheese (such as the opener, The Most Happy Fella's "Standing On the Corner," sung in flawless three-part harmony by Devin Richards, Brandon Cutrell, and John Treacy Egan), too many other attempts at striking sparks generated only cold. Chief among these was the second act opener, Candide's "Glitter and Be Gay," sort-of sung by Beauty and the Beast's Ashley Brown, who shriekingly demonstrated that without a comfortable E-flat, Cundegonde is not a suitable role to sing even in concert. Cutrell fell into two other Candide numbers, "You Were Dead You Know" (with Brown) and "It Must Be So" (alone), and fell flat on his face, vocally overparted in roles intended for legit voices rather than cabaret crooners.

More often, though, "The Broadway Musicals of 1956" served as a disquieting reminder of how easy it is to squander talent in contemporary musical theatre. It's perhaps imprudent to ask why first-rate singers like Kudisch and Brent Barrett (wasted in a Higgins number from My Fair Lady, but much better used in Candide's "My Love" and The Most Happy Fella's "Joey, Joey, Joey") aren't cast in more musicals than they are, though at least that frees them to wow us with their talents here. It's likely also imprudent to ask that Christine Andreas not botch her lyrics for My Fair Lady's "Show Me," or that she tap into the youthful energy needed to keep "I Could Have Danced All Night" from being as earthbound as it was here. Then again, who could find fault with her plaintive performance of "The Party's Over" (Bells Are Ringing), a rich lesson in subtle vocal interpretation that would do well to be studied by, well, practically everyone else in the cast? And how difficult it is to stay disappointed at Richards for only having one solo ("Too Close for Comfort," from Mr. Wonderful), when he sells it to the rear mezzanine just as if he were the star who introduced it, Sammy Davis Jr.?

One could easily find fault with the song selection, which weighed some shows too heavily (Candide with five songs, The Most Happy Fella with four) and others with none (Shangri-La and The Girl at the Bijou, listed in the program, were not represented at all). Still, inconsistencies aside, it's wonderful to have so many great songs to choose from so many great shows -- if only all theatrical concerts, or even all "Broadway by the Year" concerts, had such glorious concerns. And it's a fine excuse, as if any were needed, to return to the overstuffed year in a future edition to catch the straggling numbers that disappointingly, if unavoidably, fell through the cracks this time around.

Posted by Matthew Murray on Monday, April 03, 2006 at 10:59 PM | Item Link

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	BROADWAYSTAR'S FIVE DAY FORECAST

2007-08
Broadway Season

June 28 - Old Acquaintance (AA)

July 10 - Xanadu (Hayes) [Robert Ahrens, Dan Vickery, Tara Smith/B. Swibel and Sarah Murchison/Dale Smith]

Aug 19 - Grease (Atkinson)

Oct 4 - Mauritius (Biltmore) [MTC]

Oct 11 - The Ritz (54)

Oct 18 - Pygmalion (AA)

Oct 25 - A Bronx Tale (Kerr)

Nov 1 - Cyrano de Bergerac (Rodgers)

Nov 4 - Rock 'N' Roll (Jacobs)

Nov 8 - Young Frankenstein (Hilton)

Nov 9 - Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (St. James)

Nov 10: Local One Strike Begins

Nov 28: Local One Strike Ends

Dec 2 - Cymbeline (Beaumont)

Dec 3 - The Farnsworth Invention (Music Box) [Dodger Properties with Steven Spielberg, Dan Cap Productions, Fred Zollo, Latitude Link and the Pelican Group]

Dec 4 - August: Osage County (Imperial) [Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler, Jerry Frankel, Steppenwolf]

Dec 6 - The Seafarer (Booth)

Dec 9 - Is He Dead? (Lyceum)

Dec 16 - The Homecoming (Cort) [Richards, Frankel]

Jan 10 - The Little Mermaid (Lunt)

Jan 15 - The 39 Steps (AA)

Jan 17 - November (Barrymore)

Jan 24 - Come Back, Little Sheba (Biltmore)

Feb 21 - Sunday In The Park With George (54)

Feb 28 - Passing Strange (Belasco)

Mar 6 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Broadhurst) [Stephen C. Byrd]

Mar 9 - In The Heights (Rodgers)

Mar 27 - Gypsy (St. James)

Mar 29 - Macbeth (Lyceum)

Apr 3 - South Pacific (Beaumont)

Apr 17 - A Catered Affair (Kerr) [Jujamcyn Theaters, Jordan Roth, Harvey Entertainment / Ron Fierstein, Richie Jackson and Daryl Roth]

Apr 24 - Cry Baby (Marquis)

Apr 27 - The Country Girl (Jacobs)

Apr 30 - Thurgood (Booth)

May 1 - Les Liaisons Dangereuses (AA)

May 4 - Boeing-Boeing (Longacre)

May 7 - Top Girls (Biltmore)

TBA - Godspell

2008-09
Broadway Season

Oct 16 - Billy Elliot (Imperial)

Nov 08 - Dividing the Estate (a Shubert theater)

Dec 14 - Shrek: The Musical (Broadway) [DreamWorks]

Talked About
Not Scheduled Yet

TBA - 50 Words

TBA - Addams Family (Elephant Eye)

TBA - American Buffalo

TBA - An American Vaudeville [Farrell, Perloff]

TBA - The Beard of Avon [NYTW]

TBA - Being There [Permut]

TBA - Benny & Joon [MGM]

TBA - Billy Elliot

TBA - Brave New World [Rachunow]

TBA - Breath of Life [Fox]

TBA - Busker Alley [Margot Astrachan, Robert Blume, Kristine Lewis, Jamie Fox, Joanna Kerry & Heather Duke]

TBA - Broomhilda

TBA - Bye Bye Birdie [Niko]

TBA - Camille Claudel [Wildhorn]

TBA - Camelot

TBA - Carmen [Robin DeLevita and The Firm]

TBA - Catch Me If You Can

TBA - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Bob and Harvey Weinstein]

TBA - Cry Baby [Grazer, Gordon, McAllister, Epstein]

TBA - Designing Women [Alexis]

TBA - Don Juan DeMarco [New Line]

TBA - Dreamgirls [Creative Battery]

TBA - Duet

TBA - Equus

TBA - Ever After [Adam Epstein]

TBA - Fallen Angels (Shubert) [Kenwright]

TBA - Farragut North [Richards]

TBA - Father of the Bride

TBA - The Female Of The Species (TBA)

TBA - Fool For Love (AA) [Roundabout]

TBA - Girl Group Time Travelers

TBA - Golden Boy

TBA - Harmony [Guiles, Karslake, Smith, Fishman]

TBA - Hitchcock Blonde

TBA - The Importance Of Being Earnest

TBA - Jerry Springer: The Opera! [Thoday, McKeown]

TBA - Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train (Circle)

TBA - Josephine [Waissman]

TBA - Leap of Faith

TBA - A Little Princess [Ettinger, Dodger]

TBA - Midnight Cowboy [MGM]

TBA - The Minstrel Show - Kander and Ebb and Stroman

TBA - Moonstruck [Pittelman, Azenberg]

TBA - Mourning Becomes Electra [Haber, Boyett]

TBA - Monsoon Wedding

TBA - The Night of the Hunter

TBA - The Opposite of Sex [Namco]

TBA - Orphans

TBA - Pal Joey [Platt]

TBA - Paper Doll

TBA - The Paris Letter

TBA - The Philadelphia Story

TBA - Peter Pan

TBA - Porgy and Bess [Frankel, Viertel, Baruch, Routh, Panter, Tulchin/Bartner]

TBA - The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

TBA - The Princess Bride

TBA - Princesses [Lane, Comley]

TBA - Poe the Musical

TBA - Rain Man [MGM]

TBA - Robin Hood

TBA - Secondhand Lions

TBA - South Pacific

TBA - Speed-the-Plow

TBA - Stalag 17

TBA - Starry Messenger

TBA - Syncopation

TBA - A Tale Of Two Cities

TBA - Torch Song Trilogy

TBA - Turn of the Century

TBA - West Side Story

TBA - The Wall [Weinstein, Mottola, Waters]

TBA - Will Rogers Follies [Cossette]

TBA - The Wiz [Dodger]

TBA - Zanna [Dalgleish]

This list is compiled from various sources. If you have corrections to the Broadway Season, please contact us.

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