Personal Favorites: The '60s
The fairly ugly tale of a ruthless young man on the rise in New York's garment industry, I Can Get It for You Wholesale still seems to me one of the toughest efforts of its time, a show that painted a vivid picture of a milieu and a period, and one that made no apologies for an often harsh narrative. Wholesale opened to mixed reviews; it should have won even better notices, but then it's one of those shows that, like Gypsy, doesn't flinch from dealing with unpleasant issues. John Weidman's book is superb, and Harold Rome's score is even better.
Wholesale received a solid, small-scale revival at the American Jewish Theatre in 1991, with a cast that included Evan Pappas, Carolee Carmello, Vicki Lewis, Alix Korey, and Patti Karr. Wholesale would never sell in a Broadway revival, but it's a show that Encores! might wish to get around to.
In the summer of 1962, I was taken on my first trip to Europe, a trip that began in London. Just off the plane, my father rushed my sister and me to a Thursday matinee of the recently opened West End musical spectacle Blitz!, the saga of a Jewish family during the London blitzkrieg of World War II featuring the latest score by Oliver!'s Lionel Bart.
In the '60s, London was still a foreign country in terms of its musicals. London cast albums were not sold in American stores, and there was no internet to read reviews of new London musicals as they premiered. Seeing Blitz!, a new world opened to me. Bart's score was one of the richest of the period, and it was doubly thrilling to hear as it was virtually unknown back home.
West End musicals staged a Broadway comeback at this time, with Oliver! which I saw in London a couple of nights after Blitz! and Stop the World---I Want to Get Off imported to Broadway success. But most London musicals remained in London. With Blitz!, I began to send away for and collect London cast recordings, and there was nothing more exciting than receiving a package with the latest West End show LPs.
Although She Loves Me 1963 received mostly strong reviews, it never became a big hit, and was overshadowed by bigger, brassier, starrier musicals. But the original Hal Prince production, blessed with delectable performances by the likes of Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey, Jack Cassidy, and Barbara Baxley, stands in my memory as one of the most perfect I've ever seen. It didn't hurt, of course, that the Bock and Harnick score is choice, or that Joe Masteroff's book is a model libretto. While She Loves Me has gradually entered the standard repertoire and is now regularly produced, the Broadway original was sublime.
Hello, Dolly! 1964 may seem an obvious choice, but it's a personal one on several counts. I was just beginning to be old enough to fully appreciate musical-comedy craftsmanship, particularly in the staging department, and Gower Champion's production of Dolly! seemed to me to make the show as blissful as a musical could be. Then there was a star, Carol Channing, who seemed to reach out and embrace the whole house. Jerry Herman's score and Michael Stewart's adaptation of Thornton Wilder remain fine examples of professionalism, but it was probably Champion's contribution that made the show into such a joyous spree. Although Dolly! is rarely placed at the top of the list of Broadway's greatest musicals, it felt like it belonged there with its original staging, design, and performance.
Dolly! was also the first show I saw numerous times, and the excitement of seeing later Dollys like Martha Raye, Pearl Bailey, and especially Ethel Merman was something new to me, something that inspired in me a particular interest in collecting musical replacements.
I was also tremendously impressed by Bob Fosse's fluid, cinematic, state-of-the-art staging of Sweet Charity 1966. Charity received mixed reviews, and few would place it on the list of Broadway's finest. But it seemed remarkably fresh to me at the time, and, although I had been taken to see Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees and Redheard, Charity marked the first time I fully appreciated Verdon's artistry.
I have to put Mame 1966 on this list, because, like Dolly!, it was a show I attended multiple times. I saw the first Broadway performances of replacements Janis Paige, Jane Morgan, and Ann Miller, and, if none of them could really touch Angela Lansbury, the show still played well. Having Herman's Dolly! and Mame playing simultaneously on Broadway from 1966 through 1970 seems in retrospect a particularly festive time.
I've written before about the singular impact Cabaret 1966 had on me the first time I saw it, at a Saturday matinee preview at the Broadhurst. That afternoon remains my single most electrifying experience at a new musical. It's not always the case that one fully appreciates a complex show the first time around. But the brilliance of Cabaret's concept and execution were fully apparent to me with that initial exposure. It remained a uniquely exciting work on the many times I revisited the original production.
My last two choices have at least something to do with the fact that, in both cases, I worked for a time as a concession boy at the theatre, selling orange drinks, candy, souvenir programs, LPs, and opera glasses. Promises, Promises 1968 was one of the solidest shows of the '60s, albeit one that's much harder to revive than, say, Cabaret or Man of La Mancha. I can still recall how thrilling it was to repeatedly watch Michael Bennett's "Turkey Lurkey Time" number, or being moved by the wistful conclusion of the first act, with the hero sadly disillusioned in the midst of a festive office Christmas party. All of the talent involved in Promises Neil Simon, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Robin Wagner, Bennett, director Robert Moore was working at peak form in Promises. And Promises boasted leading man Jerry Orbach's most winning and stellar musical performance.
Then there's Coco 1969, probably the worst reviewed musical in this entire series. But I used to hurry through my concession-stand duties in order to find a seat often there was one available down front on the side of the Mark Hellinger's orchestra and watch Katharine Hepburn's gallant, hilarious, touching performance as dress designer Coco Channel, along with Michael Bennett's brilliant musical staging. In light of what we generally see these days, I have a feeling that Coco might now look a great deal better to many than it did in the late '60s.