Mine 'Til Sunday

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn might be considered the perfect show for Encores! Produced, directed, and co-authored by George Abbott, the 1951 musical set in turn-of-the-century Williamsburg won predominantly favorable notices and had a respectable, if financially unsuccessful, run of 267 performances. Its Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields score has long been treasured by fans, the show's memory kept alive by a particularly vivid cast album. But owing to shortcomings in its libretto, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn isn't likely to withstand a major revival.

Based on Betty Smith's best-selling 1943 autobiographical novel which had been successfully filmed by director Elia Kazan in 1945, the musical's book by Abbott and Smith shifted the focus from daughter Francie to her parents, Katie and Johnny Nolan, depicting their courtship, romance, and unhappy marriage. Very much in the musical-play style established by Rodgers and Hammerstein, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn bore striking similarities to the team's Carousel: In both, an innocent young woman marries an attractive ne'er-do-well, and the troubled marriage yields a daughter. The second acts of both shows feature the death of a leading character and end with the daughter's graduation.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn introduces us to charming singing waiter Johnny, who meets and woos young Katie, who marries Johnny in spite of his reputation for drinking and not working steadily. Following Francie's birth, Johnny is laid off, and Katie is forced to become janitor of her building. Katie eventually decides to leave Johnny, but he promises to reform.

Twelve years later, Johnny has been dropped by his union for drinking, and is reduced to playing piano at a brothel. When Francie, who idolizes her father, threatens to quit school to help the family, Johnny takes a job as a sandhog, working on the construction of a new tunnel. Francie does finish school, earning the first diploma in the family.

Like Carousel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was a fairly bleak piece, but it was leavened by the antics of beloved actress Shirley Booth, playing Katie's sister, Cissy. In the bizarre comic subplot, Cissy's current common-law husband she calls them all Harry, after the first one won't let her adopt a child, so she feigns pregnancy, and even pretends to give birth.

Booth's comedy scenes notwithstanding, the underlying pathos meant that the show had a hard time competing with the recently opened musical hits of the 1950-'51 Broadway season, the riotous Call Me Madam and Guys and Dolls and the grandly uplifting The King and I. Then too, it was felt that Booth's hilarious performance unbalanced the show, tending to pull focus from Johnny and Katie, the central characters. It's also the case that those central characters aren't as fully fleshed out as the protagonists of, say, Carousel.

There were substantial compensations, however, in the superb score, featuring moving ballads "Make the Man Love Me" for Katie, "I'll Buy You a Star" for Johnny; strong comedy material "He Had Refinement" and "Love Is the Reason" for Cissy; rousing production numbers "Look Who's Dancing," "Mine 'Til Monday"; and charming local-color material "If You Haven't Got a Sweetheart," "That's How It Goes".

In spite of several proposed returns, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn until recently lived on only through its cast recording. The show's rights holders were interested in mounting a new version, and in the fall of 2003, Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut offered a substantial revisal, adapted and directed by Elinor Renfield, a relative of composer Schwartz.

But the show cried out for Encores!' grand-scale treatment, one that would deliver the original, full-bodied orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett and Joe Glover. For a time, it appeared that Encores! would present the Renfield revision, which would have included substantial alteration to the original score. Happily, the rights holders have allowed Encores! to do the original show, in David Ives' concert adaptation.

The production is directed by Gary Griffin, who staged the two best Encores! shows of the last few years, The New Moon and Pardon My English. But those are quirky, stylized pieces. Griffin had a somewhat harder time animating the more conventional A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Part of the problem was Ives' concert script. As has been demonstrated in several previous Encores! concerts notably Golden Boy, cutting a half-hour of book can do considerable harm to the narrative. On this occastion, things tended to happen too abruptly; the romance wasn't given a chance to fully develop, and the rhythm of the comic scenes was off. The abridgement was especially damaging to the first act, making the book seem more problematic than it actually is.

Still, Griffin was able to capture enough of the show's emotional power, and kept things moving swiftly. Choreographer Sergio Trujillo provided bright choreography for the production numbers, even if he was unable to do much with that staple of the '50s musical play, the dream ballet. The designers supplied an evocative Williamsburg Bridge drop, along with suggestions of street lamps, store signs, and period attire. And Rob Fisher, beginning his final season as musical director of Encores!, gave the grand and reprise-heavy score its due. There was even a new entr'acte, fashioned by Jonathan Tunick.

Having already played Carousel's Julie Jordan in the Lincoln Center revival, Sally Murphy, currently appearing in Fiddler on the Roof, was a fine choice for Katie. A dignified, affecting heroine, Murphy handled the dramatic moments confidently and offered an intimate, lovely "Make the Man Love Me." One regretted that Katie doesn't have any music to sing after the first hour.

Jason Danieley's Johnny was superbly sung, especially powerful in his final number, "Don't Be Afraid." If his acting was convincing, Danieley lacked something of the character's magnetism and devastating charm.

It fell to Emily Skinner to take on a role whose comic scenes need a Shirley Booth to really work. As Cissy, Skinner was warm, earthy, and appealing, and she delivered "He Had Refinement" with care, getting all the laughs in Fields' tasty lyrics. It wasn't Skinner's fault that she's not Booth --no one is-- but one did miss a big comic personality in the role.

In a reunion with Full Monty players Danieley and Skinner, John Ellison Conlee was expert as Cissy's latest, and presumably last, Harry. And there were sharp contributions from Nancy Anderson as Katie's friend and twelve-year-old Katherine Faye Barry, who made a solid Francie.

This weekend, New York playgoers had the unique opportunity to take in the dismal musical Brooklyn, the enjoyable play Brooklyn Boy, and this Tree Grows in Brooklyn. If the show at City Center failed to soar, it ranked as a respectable attempt at a work that Encores! just had to do.