Looking Back: '73-'74
Back in the '70s, Circle in the Square was not just a venue to be rented but an actual producing company. In the summer of 1973, it began the Broadway season of '73-'74 with one of its biggest attractions, a Mike Nichols-directed revival of Uncle Vanya with George C. Scott, Nicol Williamson, and the Broadway debut of film star Julie Christie. The uniformly strong cast also included two distinguished veterans, Lillian Gish and Cathleen Nesbitt. An extremely hot ticket, the production lived up to its hype, and no subsequent Broadway production of the Chekhov play has been as memorable.
The beginning of September brought in one of the odder attractions of the period, an attempt at resuscitating '20s operetta on Broadway with "the Lehman Engel production" of Romberg's The Desert Song. Although The Desert Song is one of the stronger examples of its genre, there was no interest in it on Broadway anymore, at least not in a satisfactory but unremarkable production starring David Cryer currently appearing in Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera as the Red Shadow. Pieces like The Desert Song would find a home in the '80s at New York City Opera, but there would be no more Broadway attempts.
Because I had seen Crown Matrimonial in London, with the great Wendy Hiller as Queen Mary in the true-life story of the abdication of King Edward VIII the Duke of Windsor, I skipped the Broadway version with Eileen Herlie and George Grizzard. The Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center's A Streetcar Named Desire that had been seen at the Vivian Beaumont earlier in '73 reopened that fall at the St. James, but the new Blanche DuBois, Lois Nettleton, was not as wonderful as Rosemary Harris still the best stage Blanche I've ever seen had been at the Beaumont.
October brought in the season's first major musical, and the one that would wind up taking the Tony, Raisin. Although it would prove a financial failure, it would stay open for two years. It was probably the best possible musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, yet I didn't feel that the often striking score by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan really added that much to the strength of the original play. Nor were attempts to expand the scope of the show to feature scenes in church or in Africa especially helpful. Still, enough of Hansberry's play remained to carry the evening, and the performances were generally fine.
Even with formidable actors like Eileen Heckart and Arthur Kennedy, Veronica's Room was a surprisingly tacky thriller from Ira Levin, who would do much better with Deathtrap a few years later. The gifted Kaye Ballard dropped the "e" from her first name for luck, but she didn't have much with the unfortunate Molly, a big, sweet, hapless Broadway musical based on the characters from Gertrude Berg's "The Goldbergs." Also ill-advised was the stage version of the film musical Gigi, the first in a series of unnecessary transfers in which the theatrical incarnation failed to equal the screen version. But Gigi wasn't a washout, not with Alfred Drake in his final Broadway musical lead, Maria Karnilova, Daniel Massey, and Agnes Moorehead.
There was still room on Broadway for repertory, and the New Phoenix Repertory Company, boasting Hal Prince as managing director, brought three rotating productions to town, the most memorable being Prince's staging of the chilling The Visit with a superb Rachel Roberts as the imperious woman who returns to her hometown to exact vengeance. Her leading man was John McMartin, who would go on to play the same role in the musical version of The Visit, opposite Chita Rivera in Chicago in 2001.
Neil Simon was back, but with an unusual venture, an adaptation of some Chekhov stories under the title The Good Doctor. With Christopher Plummer the star, the result was fairly entertaining, although it only lasted six months. A month apart came dazzling Broadway concert shows by Bette Midler at the Palace and Liza Minnelli at the Winter Garden. Some of what Liza, then at the peak of her powers, did at the Winter Garden can still be seen on the TV special Liza with a 'Z', soon to be re-aired and released on DVD. Midler had reached an early peak of success, and her performance at the Palace still ranks as one of the most enjoyable concert evenings I've ever encountered.
In light of the acclaim won by the Roundabout's current The Pajama Game, it's interesting to note the failure of the first Broadway revival, which featured a racially integrated set of principals and was directed by original director George Abbott, with Bob Fosse's original choreography recreated. Barbara McNair was an extremely tough Babe, Hal Linden a good Sid, but after a mixed critical reception, audiences weren't interested for more than two months.
The next Circle in the Square production offered a powerful James Earl Jones as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh. Although they're rarely itemized in Patti LuPone's credits, the future star made a number of Broadway appearances with the Acting Company around this time. During '73-'74, she was in The Three Sisters, The Beggar's Opera, Measure for Measure, Scapin, and Next Time I'll Sing for You, all at Broadway's Billy Rose Theatre, all but the last also featuring Kevin Kline.
Now considered one of the outstanding revivals of its time, the Jason Robards/Colleen Dewhurst/Jose Quintero production of O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten arrived with little fanfare and advance sale. But it was lauded by all the critics, and proved to be the season's outstanding dramatic presentation. Happily, it is preserved on video and available on DVD.
John Hopkins' Find Your Way Home got a mixed reception. Set in England, it dealt frankly with homosexuality, which was still somewhat exotic material for Broadway, and Michael Moriarty won a Best Actor Tony for it. Dewhurst, of course, won the lead-actress Tony.
Carol Channing may have had only two triumphant musical roles, but she made the most of both of them. Not yet ready to revive Hello, Dolly! on Broadway that would happen four years later, she was back in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, or rather Lorelei, a revised version of Blondes that allowed Channing to provide an impressive star turn that kept the production going for 320 performances. I went twice, just to watch the diva in action.
But I somehow allowed myself to miss Rainbow Jones, one of the most obscure musical flops one performance in Broadway history, with producer/director Gene Persson directing his wife, Ruby Persson, in the title role, and book, music, and lyrics by the unknown Jill Williams. Like this season's In My Life, it played the Music Box. I also missed Brian Friel's latest, The Freedom of the City, but caught and enjoyed Noel Coward in Two Keys, two Coward one-acts with the Cronyns Hume and Jessica Tandy and a glamorous Anne Baxter.
Probably the most acclaimed musical production of the season opened on Broadway in March after a run in late '73 at Brooklyn's Chelsea Theater Center. This was the first Broadway return of Candide, a Hal Prince free-for-all environmental staging that turned a '56 Broadway flop into a two-year Broadway success. True, owing to problems with the musicians' union, the revival never made any money. But it established Candide as a viable stage work, and led directly to Prince's opera-house production and the many others Candide continues to receive.
A conflict arose at Tony time about whether or not the new Candide would be eligible to compete as a new musical, a situation fiercely fought by the producer of Raisin. Ultimately, while Candide took a Tony for Hugh Wheeler's new book, it was ruled ineligible to compete as a new show. As there were no revival categories in those days, the production was given a special Tony.
What I considered to be the most enjoyable new musical of the season, Over Here!, featuring the return of '40s singing icons the Andrews Sisters, arrived in March. This energetic and amusing take on wartime America had a catchy, period-perfect score by the Sherman Brothers, of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins fame. The two remaining Andrews Sisters weren't actresses, but they were cleverly deployed, and the production boasted a hilarious supporting performance by Janie Sell as Mitzi the Nazi, plus a new, daredevil dancer named Ann Reinking. Over Here received pleasant reviews which should have been stronger, and lasted a year.
An off-Broadway sensation in the '50s, Zero Mostel in Ulysses in Nighttown, adapted from James Joyce's Ulysses, was out of place at Broadway's Winter Garden, and was one of the season's major disappointments. Henry Fonda went solo as Clarence Darrow, and homosexuality got a sweetly comic treatment in the British import My Fat Friend, with George Rose, Lynn Redgrave, and John Lithgow. Marlo Thomas' name kept Herb Gardner's weak Thieves alive for nine months. Because I'd seen it in London with Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg, I skipped the Broadway premiere of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, with Brian Bedford and Jill Clayburgh. Terrence McNally was by this time making inroads on Broadway, and his typically naughty and funny Bad Habits got a six-month run.
The final Circle in the Square show of the season was another transfer from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the new Candide had begun. This was Scapino, an adaptation of Moliere that introduced to New York an actor already well known in England, Jim Dale, who gave an extravagantly athletic and inventive performance, just as he would do in Barnum six years later.
The season's last show would prove to be its longest-running musical, The Magic Show 1,859 performances, with a catchy score by Stephen Schwartz, then in the hit period that also included his Godspell and Pippin. The libretto was little more than an excuse to allow magician extraordinaire Doug Henning to perform his tricks. But somehow that was enough to keep the show going for years, even when Henning was replaced by another performer. When Henning tried Broadway again, in Merlin 1983, he would have little success.
Uptown at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival was still in residence. Mainstage offerings during '73-'74 included the quirky, unwieldy Boom Boom Room, written by David Rabe and with a touching performance by Madeline Kahn; Julie Harris and Charles Durning in an allegorical curiosity called The Au Pair Man; Zoe Caldwell and Robert Shaw in Strindberg's difficult Dance of Death; the Detroit-set black play What the Wine-Sellers Buy; and the acclaimed Short Eyes, Miguel Pinero's stark look at life in a house of detention. Short Eyes arrived at the Beaumont in May after a run downtown at the Public Theatre.
Also playing throughout '73-'74: the final season of the glorious original Broadway production of A Little Night Music; the original Grease; Pippin; and Irene, with an appealing Jane Powell taking over for the more high-powered Debbie Reynolds.
