Revisiting Two '50s Musicals
Ben Vereen is said to be likely to take on the role of the Wizard in Wicked. Vereen won a Tony for another Stephen Schwartz musical, Pippin.
Looks like the musical version of The Mambo Kings will not happen until next season, but perhaps as early as summer 2005. The show is said to be interested in the Broadway Theatre.
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I recently reviewed the forthcoming DVD release of the 1957 kinescope of Rodgers and Hammerstein's television musical Cinderella, and today I find myself again discussing the property. That's because New York City Opera is reviving for a second time its 1993 New York stage premiere production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.
The R&H Cinderella received TV remakes in 1965 and 1997 the latter from Disney, with Lesley Ann Warren then Brandy stepping into the title role created in '57 by Julie Andrews. But as PBS viewers and purchasers of the DVD will soon have the opportunity to see for themselves when the '57 kinescope is re-aired and released, Cinderella found its most satisfying form the first time around. The '57 TV version is as close to perfect as live TV would permit. A tight seventy-six minutes, it featured a fine book by Hammerstein which would be rewritten or thrown out in favor of new scripts in subsequent TV and stage versions.
The 1993 and 1995 City Opera runs of Cinderella were staged and adapted from Hammerstein's original script by Robert Johanson, based on a previous book adaptation by Steve Allen. For the current City Opera run, which lasts through Sunday, the director and choreographer is Baayork Lee, but no one is credited with the adaptation. It appears to be mostly the Allen-Johanson script, but with notable alterations to the tunestack.
Retained from previous City Opera versions was the Prince's "Loneliness of Evening," a song cut from South Pacific and first given to the Prince in the '65 TV Cinderella. Dropped this time around were both songs that George S. Irving's King sang at City Opera in '93 and '95, "My Best Love" from Flower Drum Song and "If I Weren't King." Added this time for Renee Taylor's Queen was "Boys and Girls Like You and Me," cut from both Oklahoma! and the film Meet Me in St. Louis but heard in the 1996 Broadway State Fair.
Lee's staging did not differ radically from this production's previous incarnations. As before, it takes a very traditional, operetta-style approach, with a few contemporary jokes thrown in. With the exception of the dances at the ball, the choreography is mostly extraneous. As usual, the chief attraction is the charming score, and it's good to hear it played by an opera-house orchestra.
Expanding the piece from its original length has long been the problem with stage versions of R&H's Cinderella. But with the excision of the King's songs, the City Opera version is now somewhat shorter than it used to be, even if its 100 minutes of playing time still feel overextended.
What with the release of the '57 kinescope, I would not have felt the need to revisit City Opera's Cinderella were it not for the motley crew of a cast assembled for this revival. The gayest Cinderella we're likely to see, it features a stageful of individuals performing in a wide variety of styles, from the high-camp poses of drag artist John "Lypsinka" Epperson as the Stepmother to Taylor's pure-Bronx Queen.
You couldn't have found a more bizarre trio than this Stepmother and her daughters, Lea DeLaria's butch, raucous Joy, arm wrestling with the Prince at the ball, and the haughty, grumpy Portia of Ana Gasteyer. Epperson's Stepmother has some of the fastidiousness and disdain of Joan Crawford, the performance climaxing in a soul-searing second-act command to Cinderella to "Clean up this mess!" that was pure Crawford, or at least Faye Dunaway as Crawford. Best known for mouthing the words to pre-existing recordings, Epperson handled his chores with style and even sang confidently. DeLaria and Gasteyer were broadly amusing and scored vocally with the "Stepsister's Lament" and "A Lovely Night."
Old pro Dick Van Patten offered a wry King, while Taylor did little to camouflage her trademark delivery. But giving her "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" was a serious miscalculation; Taylor murdered the lovely song.
Then there was Eartha Kitt, waking things up at the end of the first half with a crafty, no-nonsense Fairy Godmother that featured a few growls and purrs and a welcome dollop of warmth. This was the second time Kitt played the Godmother in New York; she was seen in a separate national tour based on the '97 Disney remake that stopped at Madison Square Garden in 2001. That version gave her a big eleven o'clock solo, "There's Music in You." At City Opera, she had just one scene and number "Impossible", plus a single line to sing in the finale, so she was unable to make as much of an impression as she had at the Garden.
Doing their best to play it straight amid such a stageful of diverse personalities were Sarah Uriarte Berry in the title role and Christopher Sieber as the Prince. Berry was sweet, confident, and very attractive vocally. Sieber was persuasive, but one wished his singing voice were bigger.
Needless to say, the evening suffered from my having just watched the '57 kinescope. But then that kinescope is vastly superior to every stage version of the R&H Cinderella that I've encountered. This Cinderella may just do as an early holiday entertainment for young viewers, and can be recommended to collectors of eccentric casting. Otherwise, one may opt to skip it and wait a few weeks for the DVD release and telecast of the best Cinderella you're ever likely to see.
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Given the fact that the Broadway revival of Wonderful Town had been struggling at the box office for most of the past year, I hadn't expected to have the opportunity to check out cast replacements in the production. But I'm glad that one of my favorite musical comedies has managed to survive a year in revival, and that it now seems to have attracted a star with the kind of national renown that helps sell tickets.
When the 1953 Broadway production of Wonderful Town lost its original star, business declined and the run was foreshortened. This time around, business seems to have grown since Donna Murphy departed and Brooke Shields took over.
Early in the fall, I expressed my doubts in this space about Shields' suitability for the role of Ruth Sherwood. But Shields opened to unanimously positive reviews that made me eager to catch up with the show again.
I must admit that there's something innately likable about Shields on stage. She works hard, displays confidence, and appears to be game for anything. But if Shields is a winning presence, I found the performance distinctly underwhelming.
Ruth's wisecracking manner doesn't come naturally to Shields, so she must put it on, and the effort shows. The playing is fairly broad, with a good deal of mugging and indicating. Some laughs are lost, while others are underlined, with Shields overdoing the shtick in "One Hundred Easy Ways."
Then too, Shields lacks a strong comic personality. As a result, while she hurls herself into "Conga!" and "Swing," she never fully registers in them. There's also a sing-song quality to her delivery of lines, and the singing is unimpressive.
The star certainly deserves an "E" for effort, but the performance is pallid. For all of her determination and pleasing stage manner, I never felt that Shields was really right for Ruth, although I seem to be the only one around who feels this way. Shields' performance reminded this viewer of nothing so much as the personal-appearance star turns one used to get at the Westbury Music Fair or other star-package stock venues.
Looking something like a cross between Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner, Jennifer Hope Wills is a real cutey as Eileen. Her acting is acceptable, her singing fine if at times shrill. Leading man Gregg Edelman is now more relaxed, even goofier than before. While he's still not an ideal match for Robert Baker, he remains in strong voice.
Original cast member Ray Wills has moved up capably to the role of Chick Clark. Martha Hawley is a good new Mrs. Wade, while Kate Baldwin's Helen isn't as appealing as Nancy Anderson's. Raymond Jaramillo McLeod, Peter Benson, and Stanley Wayne Mathis are maintaining their performances nicely, and Kathleen Marshall's Tony-winning choreography holds up well. The twenty-four-piece onstage orchestra, the glory of this production when it opened last November, has been reduced by four strings.