Looking Back: '79-'80
During the summer of '79, I did manage to catch Kevin Kline in Michael Weller's intriguing Loose Ends; the lovable Gilda Radner in her hot-ticket Winter Garden Theatre show, Gilda Live it was preserved on film; and But Never Jam Today, based on Lewis Carroll. A revised version of the road-closer Alice, Jam was almost entirely without merit it did feature talented folk like Lynne Thigpen and Cleavant Derricks and folded after seven performances.
Just as Labor Day rolled around, I was enchanted by Sandy Duncan in the revival of Peter Pan. It was the first time I was seeing the musical live, having grown up on repeat telecasts of the Mary Martin taped version. Duncan's earthier approach was hard to resist, and it was one of the few times that Broadway got the chance to appreciate in full this underrated performer's musical-theatre skills. George Rose was a fine Captain Hook, but his successor, Christopher Hewitt, may have been even better.
On Golden Pond returned for its second Broadway engagement, again with the plausible if still rather young Frances Sternhagen and Tom Aldredge. Next came the first big fall musical, Evita, eagerly awaited ever since its spring 1978 opening in London's West End. What's particularly notable about Evita is that, while it became a smash hit lasting on Broadway for four years, it received fairly negative reviews from key opening-night critics. But New York's theatre crowd embraced the show as the electric event it was, and business was terrific. During the season, admiration increased for the star performance of Patti LuPone, which had not been wildly acclaimed in the opening-night reviews, and for the show itself. All of which allowed Evita to take the Best Musical Tony and even the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award over at least two musicals of the season which received better reviews than Evita. Hal Prince with considerable help from Larry Fuller supplied one of his best-ever stagings, and they couldn't have done better than LuPone, whose previous credits included such flops as Working in a non-singing role and The Baker's Wife.
The 1940s Radio Hour was a harmless novelty-item musical that was more suited to regional presentation than to the St. James Theatre, where it lasted three months. But the night after it opened, Broadway got another big hit with Sugar Babies. True, the show's claim to be an authentic recreation of a vintage burlesque-vaudeville show was dubious. But with its eager-to-please stars, Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, Sugar Babies was lavish, mindless fun.
As a huge fan of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, I was glad to see the show back on Broadway, even if the revival, from Michigan Opera, couldn't find an audience for more than two months. Giorgio Tozzi was a warm-hearted Tony, with excellent support from Sharon Daniels as Rosabella. It was the first of two Broadway returns of a show that's not likely ever to get a long-running revival and may find its natural home at venues like New York City Opera, which will be bringing back its Happy Fella next March.
The new Happy Fella was preserved for television, as was the next show to open, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the history of Disney musicals on the New York stage, this entry, presented by and at Radio City Music Hall, is an often forgotten chapter. It was an uninspired but faithful attempt at putting a beloved animated film and its score on stage, and Anne Francine former Vera Charles of Mame had fun as the evil Queen. But no one took seriously the notion of transferring Disney films to the stage. The cast album was sold only at the Music Hall.
There was still room on Broadway for a slender romantic comedy, and '79-'80 got one by Bernard Slade Same Time, Next Year that was called just that, Romantic Comedy, with an appealing pair of leads in Mia Farrow and Anthony Perkins.
Tom Stoppard may not have been at his best with Night and Day, but any show that returns Maggie Smith to Broadway is going to be okay with me. Martin Shapiro's Bent, about homosexuals during the Nazi regime, was fairly daring fare for Broadway, but the presence of a committed Richard Gere helped at the box office. I spent New Year's Eve 1979 at the Majestic Theatre, where Bette Midler was knocking 'em dead with her Divine Madness evening.
The final month of '79 brought in a satisfying revival of Oklahoma! with Laurence Guittard his replacement, Joel Higgins, was even better, Christine Andreas, Christine Ebersole, Harry Groener, and Martin Vidnovic. The peerless Agnes de Mille choreography was still in place, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein score remained choice.
Just before Christmas, Broadway got one of those musicals like Here's Love that seem suitable only for the holiday season. This was an all-black version of A Christmas Carol entitled Comin' Uptown, involving some of the talents from Shenandoah and Purlie and starring a furiously tapping Gregory Hines as Scrooge. Comin' Uptown had lavish Robin Wagner scenery and wasn't bad, but how long could this Christmas show expect to last? It folded on January 27, 1980.
Lillian Hellman's 1941 wartime drama Watch on the Rhine held up reasonably well in a revival with George Hearn, while Harold Pinter's Betrayal was one of the season's best plays, even if the Broadway men Raul Julia and Roy Scheider weren't ideal. Edward Albee had little success with the obscure The Lady from Dubuque, although it boasted Irene Worth in the lead. Even less successful four performances was an attempt to put the film Harold and Maude on stage, and not as a musical, with screen veteran Janet Gaynor pretty much at sea in an elaborate production. Joan Plowright was a formidable comic force in Eduardo DeFillippo's Filumena, a production which did not repeat its London success on Broadway.
I failed to catch the two-week run of an unnecessary Broadway transfer of an Equity Library Theatre revival of Canterbury Tales, a musical that hadn't been a Broadway success the first time around. I'm a sucker for West Side Story, though, and even if the first Broadway revival wasn't as good as the Music Theatre of Lincoln Center revival of '68, I still had a good time. Ken Marshall was a bland Tony, Jossie DeGuzman a decent Maria, and Debbie Allen a sizzling Anita. Jerome Robbins was still around to crack the whip, so the production was well danced, and also boasted a recreation of Oliver Smith's original scenery.
Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly was a charming two-hander and remains a good bet for a local revival. I just had to catch the great Uta Hagen, opposite, of all people, Charles Nelson Reilly, in the disastrous Charlotte, and the great Geraldine Page in Tennessee Williams' almost equally disastrous Clothes for a Summer Hotel, the latter about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Mary Tyler Moore had better luck re-opening Whose Life Is It Anyway?, retooled as a vehicle for a woman. Moore gave a strong, poignant performance.
Another musical flop I missed was Reggae, which was most notable as a new show for Hair producer Michael Butler. Set in Jamaica, Reggae had three book writers and seven songwriters and featured Philip Michael Thomas, Obba Babatunde, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. The latter two would fare better with Dreamgirls the following year.
The most acclaimed play of the season arrived at the end of March. It was Children of a Lesser God, an effective contemporary piece about the relationship between a hearing man John Rubinstein and a deaf woman Phyllis Frelich. I'm not sure how well the play would hold up in revival, but in 1980, it had considerable power.
Neil Simon was in less-than-wonderful form with I Ought to Be in Pictures. But then came the season's biggest sleeper, a revival of a forgotten 1939 play called Morning's at Seven with a fine ensemble company including Nancy Marchand, Maureen O'Sullivan, Gary Merrill, Elizabeth Wilson, and Teresa Wright. While Lincoln Center Theatre's recent re-revival was enjoyable, the surprise of the 1980 production was absent.
Happy New Year was an entirely lackluster attempt to musicalize Philip Barry's Holiday with a brace of Cole Porter songs. Musical Chairs was a dismal attempt at an original musical about a theatre audience. Susan Stroman was assistant choreographer, and Scott Ellis was in the cast. So was poor Patti Karr. I thought Nuts would make leading lady Anne Twomey a star, but it didn't happen and Barbra Streisand got the film.
At season's end came two more musicals that received better reviews than Evita, both hits. Jim Dale sparkled in the enjoyable circus musical Barnum, and A Day in Hollywood/ A Night in the Ukraine was a clever double bill, with a distinctive staging by Tommy Tune if not a distinctive score.