Preview '05-'06: Other Events
The script is by Terrence McNally, who wrote the books for the Rivera vehicles The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Visit. It's directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, who choreographed The Rink. And it will feature some new songs by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who collaborated with McNally on Ragtime and A Man of No Importance and with Daniele most recently on Dessa Rose.
How will Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life differ from, say, Elaine Stritch at Liberty? Well, Rivera will be backed by a company of ten, who will help her recreate numbers by Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, and Michael Kidd, from the "Shriner's Ballet" from Bye Bye Birdie to "All That Jazz" from Chicago.
This bio-musical should have both sentimental and historical value, paying tribute to one of the last of the still-working, golden-age Broadway musical divas while simultaneously evoking some of the giants of the period. Rivera's last Broadway appearance was in Nine; after the disappointment of The Visit not coming to New York as scheduled, one hopes that The Dancer's Life will prove as exciting as it sounds.
A previous attempt at a Rivera tribute show, called Chita and All That Jazz, didn't quite take and never came to New York. But the new show sounds far more substantial. Everyone will be rooting for it, as Rivera is a beloved figure and a late-career triumph would delight her many fans. There's nothing I'm looking forward to more all season.
Martin Short's Broadway musical credits include The Goodbye Girl and Little Me; he co-starred in The Producers in Los Angeles, but did not move on to the Broadway version of that hit. Instead, he has been developing a musical show which is to have a quartet of players backing the star as he recreates such popular characters from his repertoire as Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers Jr., and Jiminy Glick.
The title they've settled on is Martin Short: If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here, and it's co-authored by Short and the Hairspray team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with Wittman also directing. If I'd Saved... will have its world premiere this fall in Boston, play Chicago, then arrive on Broadway sometime during the final months of the season.
The genesis of the show is said to be Short's annual performances at Christmas parties; apparently Shaiman and Wittman became involved when they wrote special lyrics for "Winter Wonderland" for one of Short's holiday events. I believe Short to be a brilliant funnyman, so I'm also looking forward to If I'd Saved.... And it will be good to hear some new Shaiman-Wittman songs.
And I'll include here Souvenir, even though, unlike the Rivera or Short shows, it's likely to qualify for Tony consideration as a new play or musical. This is Stephen Temperley's two-character work about Florence Foster Jenkins, the well-to-do matron whose lack of vocal prowess didn't prevent her from becoming an operatic recitalist.
Souvenir was seen last season at York Theatre, where it starred Judy Kaye, doing her best to sing off-key, as Jenkins, and Jack Lee as Cosme McMoon, Jenkins' accompanist and accomplice. Directed by Vivian Matalon, Souvenir is re-opening at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre on November 10, with Kaye joined this time by Donald Corren. Although Souvenir could prove a tough sell on Broadway, it received splendid reviews for its York engagement, and will no doubt receive them again. Curiosly enough, another play about Jenkins, called Glorious and starring Maureen Lipman, is opening in London's West End.
Two musicals with cult followings will play New York this fall in one-night-only concert stagings. The Cy Coleman/Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical On the Twentieth Century 1978 has for years been rumored as a possibility for City Center's Encores! series. That series' L.A. counterpart, Reprise!, did On the Twentieth Century, with Bob Gunton and Carolee Carmello.
Instead of Encores!, Twentieth Century will be the fifth annual Actors' Fund fall gala concert, following Dreamgirls, Funny Girl, Chess, and Hair. The concert, scheduled for September 26 at the New Amsterdam and with Seth Rudetsky back as musical director, will follow the pattern of Dreamgirls and Chess rather than that of Funny Girl and Hair, casting a single actor in each of the leading roles. The honors have fallen to Douglas Sills who was supposed to have done the Reprise! 20th Century, Marin Mazzie, Christopher Sieber who replaced Sills during rehearsals for Spamalot, and Jo Anne Worley.
There have already been concerts of Children of Eden and Pippin to commemorate World AIDS Day. Chosen to honor that occasion this year is The Secret Garden, the 1991 Broadway musical with a fine score by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman and a devoted following. The date for this concert is December 5, and Laura Benanti will sing the role of Lily.
Speaking of Encores! , two titles have been rumored for the 2006 season, which is likely to open with Kismet. This is the sort of well-known, classic score with numerous recordings that one might think Encores! could skip. Yet a full-scale Broadway revival of the show seems unlikely, so a concert version makes sense. Encores!' Kismet sounds like a good vehicle for Brian Stokes Mitchell.
The other Encores! title mentioned is the Charles Strouse-Lee Adams It's a Bird...It's a Plane....It's Superman. The 1966 musical was to have been part of Encores!' 2002 season, but after September 11, 2001, it was thought best to cancel it the first act ends with Metropolis' City Hall getting blown up, with another Strouse-Adams show, Golden Boy, substituted. But perhaps enough time has passed so that Superman can now be welcomed.
Other titles rumored in recent seasons for Encores! include Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones, Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon, and Kander and Ebb's 70, Girls, 70 and Flora, the Red Menace.
Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella 1956 has had Broadway revivals in 1979 at the Majestic and 1992 at the Booth. In 1991, not long before the last Broadway revival, New York City Opera mounted the show, and for fourteen performances in March, 2006, City Opera will be bringing back its Happy Fella to the State Theatre. The first time around, the City Opera Fella was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. This time around, the director is Tazewell Thompson.
Last season, City Opera staged Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. This fall, it's the opening attraction at Paper Mill Playhouse, where it will be directed by Gabriel Barre, who staged the Deborah Gibson-Eartha Kitt Cinderella national tour. Paolo Montalban will repeat his television and touring role as the Prince, and Angela Gaylor will have the title role.
The Paper Mill season's second musical is one that Encores! gave us a few years back, the touching Carnival, directed by Erica Schmidt. No word yet on who will play the title role in Mark S. Hoebee's June revival at Paper Mill of Hello, Dolly!