Revivals: The '80s--Part One

In the '80s, the trends previously noted in Broadway musical revivals --"revisals," returns of classics, returns of stars in celebrated roles, flops--continue, with the latter variety becoming particularly abundant. But if only a few musical revivals of the '80s became financial hits, the decade would establish the revival as a Broadway staple.

The two-year runs of two institutional productions may have been largely responsible. Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance combined a glamorous company Linda Rondstadt, Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, George Rose, Patricia Routledge, a joyous staging by Wilford Leach and Graciela Daniele, and a zesty musical adaptation by William Elliott. It proved such a triumph at the outdoor Delacorte in the summer of 1980 that it was transferred at the end of the year to the Uris now the Gershwin Theatre, where its charms were retained. This revival spawned a national tour, a London company, and even a film.

Another model resuscitation was Lincoln Center Theater's 1987 Anything Goes. This was very much a revisal, as Jerry Zaks' sparkling production employed a new book by John Weidman and Timothy Crouse, the latter the son of original librettist Russel Crouse and a slightly altered tunestack. This was nothing new, as the version commonly performed in the previous twenty-five years was the 1962 off-Broadway version, itself a revisal with book revisions and score interpolations.

Lincoln Center's Anything Goes was beautifully designed by Tony Walton for the Vivian Beaumont; the set didn't function as well on tour or in London, on proscenium stages. Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin were pretty much perfect in the leads. London got the wonderful singing of Elaine Paige opposite McGillin, then John Barrowman, while the national tours got a bland Leslie Uggams and a vocally unsteady Mitzi Gaynor.

While the first Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury in 1975 had played a limited engagement of only four months, the second revival, starring Tyne Daly in 1989, lasted over a year at the St. James Theatre, with Linda Lavin taking over to diminished business, then returned with Daly for several months at the Marquis Theatre. The continued power of the work combined with Daly's bountiful performance and librettist Arthur Laurents' incisive staging made this one of the best revivals of the '80s.

Another personal favorite of this period was the 1983 On Your Toes, which lasted over 500 performances but failed to return its investment. The second Broadway return of the Rodgers-Hart-Abbott show was a revisal, but a subtler one, without radical change to the tunestack. And it was also a restoration, with Hans Spialek's original orchestrations re-emerging in full glory. Ballet diva Natalia Markarova was a sensation in her theatrical debut; she's not on the grand cast album it was a non-singing role, but Christine Andreas at her best, George S. Irving, Lara Teeter, and Dina Merrill are. This was elegantly danced, designed, and performed, one of the decade's most charming productions. Makarova was a hard act to follow, although Kitty Carlisle had appeal when she succeeded Merrill.

Although Neil Simon trimmed his book for the twentieth-anniversary Sweet Charity, it was otherwise one of the most authentic recreations granted any recent revival, with Bob Fosse drilling the company in some of his best choreography, and Gwen Verdon teaching the title role to star Debbie Allen. For those who loved the original, this was hard to resist, even if Allen wasn't Verdon no one ever will be. The new Charity did strong business until Allen departed. Ann Reinking was not at her best as Allen's replacement, dancing superbly but losing many of the laughs. Still, the production brought Reinking together with Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony playing Nickie. The two ladies would reunite for a far more successful Fosse revival in the '90s.

Of the star returns, Richard Burton proved a huge draw when he took on Camelot for the first time since he departed the original production. If his performance at the New York State Theater in the summer of 1980 was only a shadow of what it had been, Burton still had voice, class, and authority. That was less true of Richard Harris, the film's Arthur, who replaced Burton when the star was unable to continue touring. Harris's sometimes bizarre, self-indulgent turn was seen on Broadway when the production returned for another run at the Winter Garden. Christine Ebersole became Burton's charming Guenevere when an unknown actress named Kathleen McKearney didn't work out during the tryout. Strong singer Meg Bussert, a regular in revivals of the early '80s, played the role opposite Harris.

The producers of the Camelot revival also brought back another Lerner-Loewe musical with its celebrated original star. It was Rex Harrison's first return to My Fair Lady since he made the film. This was another of those hugely successful national tours, but the New York run proved disappointing. In addition to the fact that Harrison was somewhat wooden, the Broadway stand was marred by the fact that the tour Eliza, the gifted English actress Cheryl Kennedy, had been fighting a losing battle with the role's tricky tessitura. By the time the production got to New York previews, Kennedy was in vocal distress and was forced to withdraw, with understudy Nancy Ringham proving a lackluster replacement. In 1989, Maureen McGovern's vocal problems on the road forced her to withdraw from the Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera, and once again, Ringham took over and opened the production in New York. Unlike Kennedy, McGovern recovered and returned to the production before it closed.

When Cabaret premiered in 1966, Joel Grey was a supporting player in a showy part. When the show returned to Broadway following an extensive tour that continued after New York, Grey got sole above-the-title billing for recreating his Tony and Oscar-winning Emcee. This Cabaret marked the last time New York saw the original Hal Prince-Ron Field staging; a semblance of Boris Aronson's original sets; and the original Joe Masteroff book slightly revised to include hero Cliff's homosexual tendencies.

The third Tevye, Herschel Bernardi, and the first Golde, Maria Karnilova, of the original Broadway Fiddler on the Roof were wonderful in a summer 1981 remounting at the State Theatre that Jerome Robbins took care to supervise. The original cast of Ain't Misbehavin' continued to make a case for the show as the best of all songbook revues when they returned in the summer of '88. John Cullum was backed by a Canadian company in an unexpected return of Shenandoah in '89. And although Anthony Quinn had never before starred in the Kander and Ebb musical version of Zorba, the fact that he was identified with the part from the film version allowed him to make the tour and Broadway revival in 1983 the commercial success that the vastly superior Hal Prince original Broadway production had not been.