Author: Chris Van Patten

Katharine Hepburn did it first…

When Katharine Hepburn died in 2003, the executors of her estate donated her personal papers regarding theatre to the NY Library for the Performing Arts and her film related materials to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among the theatre-related notes is this, which strikes a familiar chord with recent theatregoers (text courtesy of USA Today):

A letter of apology from a woman named Paula Phillips, who had photographed Hepburn during West Side Waltz in Boston. Hepburn stopped midperformance to yell at Phillips to “get out of the theater!” Wrote the chastened shutterbug: “This was the first time I have brought a camera into a theatre. I learned a bitter and very unpleasant lesson.”

"Music in the Air" at Encores!

I was stunned walking out after Music in the Air at the City Center that I had completely forgotten the melody to “I’ve Told Every Little Star.” I spent the entire intermission humming the oft-repeated hit song from this lost Kern & Hammerstein show until the lights went down. We were even treated to yet another encore during the second act. But lo and behold, as I was walking down the steps from the gallery the only song that I could recall was the rapturous “The Song is You.”

The musical, last seen in NY in a 1985 Town Hall concert revival (with John Reardon, Patrice Munsel, Kurt Peterson and Rebecca Luker), was a moderate success for Kern and Hammerstein in 1932, running for 342 performances and spawning two popular song hits (care to venture a guess there…?). A film version starring Gloria Swanson was released in 1934.

To say Music in the Air has a creaky libretto would be a colossal understatement. The story is highly contrived and was initially meant to be more of a send-up of operetta conventions than anything else. Naive country folks, a doctor, his beloved daughter, her love interest and… brace yourself… their walking club (also the choral singing society) go to Munich. The doctor, an amateur musician, has written a song and the townsfolk insist it is so good that he must have it published. Words are by the love interest. They will take it to his school friend turned music publisher. Of course the daughter will sing it and win over the publisher, as well as the lotharious librettist and his lover-muse-prima donna in residence. Both larger than life characters use the two naive kids as pawns in their romantic battles leading to the young girl starring in a new operetta in Munich. Oh, did I mention there was lederhosen? Yes, it’s that kind of show.

Now before you think all “gee willickers, it’s just like 42nd Street,” it’s not. There is an unusual honesty in the second act about the difficulties of show business, with the disagreeable musical director dropping the necessary truth bombs in order for the show to become a hit. He asks if its unfair that the livelihood of seventy or so people be threatened by a rank amateur with dreams of being on the stage. The girl agrees and goes back to Munich, humiliated only in her love life, but eyes opened to cosi fan tutti. Everything about it isn’t quite so appealing. But never fear, there are still two numbers and two romantic couplings to be repaired, all accompanied by the orchestra and the necessary plot machinations.

Okay. It isn’t much. In fact, it’s a bit of a stretch. However, there is much to enjoy in the soaring Kern-Hammerstein score. Romantic, melodic and enough pastoral imagery to get us through until the next revival of The Sound of Music, it’s hard to resist. Interestingly, the team had just written the musical Show Boat which was one of the first attempts at progression in the musical as an art form. You had a show that combined elements, took on darker themes and bucked trends to create a powerful theatre experience, with most of the score serving dramatic functions for plot and character with some of the period crowd-pleasers tossed in for good measure. With Music in the Air (which would be Hammerstein’s last success until Oklahoma!) the team composed an entirely diegetic score, which is unusual for a musical. Most especially unusual for an operetta. Whenever a musical theatre song is diegetic it means that the character is aware that he or she is singing. For instance, Sally Bowles singing “Cabaret” or the “Parlor Songs” in Sweeney Todd. (This is also where the choral society walking to Munich comes to play. Again, it creaks… but alas that is period convention for you).

The show was given the usual Encores! treatment, with emphasis placed on the score and giving the audience a chance to hear fully restored orchestrations by the great Robert Russell Bennett, the premier orchestrator of the early years of the American musical. Sierra Boggess and Ryan Silverman were the young lovers, vanilla extract and all. It took a few minutes for the show to get jump-started. That happened when stars Douglas Sills and Kristin Chenoweth took the stage as the larger than life divas. They get the funniest moments and some of the better musical numbers (for instance the scenelet where they present the first act of the new show and “The Song is You”). Add to this sight gag of Sills towering over the diminutive Chenoweth, decked out as a brunette and dressed to the nines in period gowns. Dick Latessa and Marni Nixon are on hand to lend some minor support in the second half, the latter stopping the show with a wistful recollection of her hit solo (so many shades of Heidi Schiller in Follies I can’t even begin to tell you…)

While the show itself is virtuable unrevivable, I am grateful for the opportunity to see such a lost show. As one who appreciates seeing and hearing musical scores live, I relish in these opportunities – especially if there isn’t a cast album available to give the full experience. But I have to say having limited expectations, I was surprisingly charmed by the experience. Encores! tends to mix things up a bit, throwing out titles that aren’t as lost as their initial mission statement would lead you to believe, but also allowing us to see a show like the troublesome cult flop Juno, or the 1932 revue Face the Music.

Moving from the hills of Germany to the realm of Missitucky, the City Center’s third and final installment for this season will be the satiric Finian’s Rainbow from March 26-29. Now, if they would only listen give me Darling of the Day, Donnybrook!, A Time for Singing and Very Warm for May.

Lisa Kirk – "The Gentleman is a Dope"

The complete studio cast recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1947 musical Allegro came out this week. While I’m waiting for the chance to hear it, I figured I’d tide myself over with Lisa Kirk lending that rich alto to the score’s most famous song, “The Gentleman is a Dope.”

Allegro, the team’s first wholly original musical, was highly experimental in its form and structure as it told an allegorical tale of an everyman who finds success, corruption and ultimately disillusionment in the “Big City.” It was met with mixed reaction by the critics and audiences, running a respectable if disappointing 315 performances. The show’s original cast album runs a mere 33 minutes, presenting highlights of what is a very unique score. Allegro was revived for a radio broadcast on NBC radio in 1951 starring John Lund and Jane Powell. It was also the second production of the very first season at Encores! back in 1994 (when it was still more of a concert than a concert staging).

The new album from Sony Classics features every note of the vocal score on two discs with the voices of Patrick Wilson, Audra McDonald, Liz Callaway (in the Lisa Kirk role), Laura Benanti, Judy Blazer, Ashley Brown, opera star Nathan Gunn, Maureen Brennan, Norbert Leo Butz, Marni Nixon (who I’m excited to be seeing this weekend in the Encores! production of Music in the Air) and the master himself, Mr. Stephen Sondheim. Long overdue, we now have an officially complete recording of one of the most intriguing scores of the 1940s. Now all we have to do is wait for a complete cast recording of Weill & Lerner’s Love Life.

As for Kirk, she went onto originate Lois Lane in Kiss Me Kate and would later replace Janis Paige in Here’s Love and offered great support in the original Broadway production of that cult favorite Mack and Mabel. Her final appearance on Broadway was in the 1984 revival of Noel Coward’s Design for Living as Grace Torrence. Her most noted work in film was as the vocal double for Rosalind Russell in the 1962 film version of Gypsy. Russell stated in her autobiography that she sang every note heard in the film, which is quite far from the truth. The recent soundtrack album release included the original tracks that Russell laid down in the studio before they decided to bring in Kirk, who sang the score in the lowest keys I’ve ever heard it sung. Rumor has it that after Ethel Merman died, recordings of Russell’s performances of the Gypsy numbers were found in her apartment. One can only imagine…

Get Your Own Tony

Costume designer Florence Klotz’s 1985 Tony award for her work on the flop musical Grind has surfaced on E-bay. The starting bid is $10,000.00, and it includes costume sketches for characters played by Ben Vereen and Stubby Kaye. However, in lieu of the bidding, you can buy it now for $20,000.00. Her win was prior to the Tony Medallion Receipt Agreement so this auction is not in violation of any Tony rules. The receipt agreement provides that the Tony Awards have the right of first refusal of any medallions prior to public sale. There is a similar agreement with the Academy Awards that has been in effect there since 1950, where people must sell their statuettes back to the Academy for $1. So if any of you lucky readers have some spare change lying around, you can bid on the late Ms. Klotz’s Tony award here. However, I highly doubt it’s as rewarding as getting one the old-fashioned way…

Walter Lippmann wasn’t brilliant today

And neither was the revival of Pal Joey which I saw last Sunday at Studio 54.

The musical by Rodgers and Hart, with a book by John O’Hara (based on his stories) is one of the first to offer an anti-hero as a protagonist. Joey is an opportunistic two-bit nightclub singer, doing whatever (and whoever) he can to headline his own club. The show wasn’t a huge success with 1940 audiences lasting almost a year and 374 performances. However, it did catapult a little known hoofer named Gene Kelly into stardom, soon leaving for Hollywood… well you know the rest. Vivienne Segal was the boozy, sardonic Vera, the uber-rich and uber-bored wife of a milk tycoon who becomes the object of Kelly’s intentions. Segal and Harold Lang recorded a studio album of the show in 1950 for Goddard Lieberson at Columbia records which helped bring the score back into the public’s consciousness (as well as preserving the glorious soprano’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” the most famous song from the score). The success of the studio album brought about the show’s first Broadway revival in 1952, which remains the most successful production of the show, with considerably more positive critical response than the first time around. The show lasted 540 performances. Lang and Segal recreated their roles with Tony-winner Helen Gallagher as Gladys and Elaine Stritch as Melba. (Stritch recounts her experiences in this production while simultaneously standing by for Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam in At Liberty).

There was the 1957 film with Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak that bowlderized the story and lyrics while taking many creative liberties including a “happy ending,” interpolated other Rodgers and Hart standards and accommodating the non-dancing star Sinatra. This was followed by a Tony-nominated turn by Bob Fosse at the City Center in the early sixties and a troubled 70s revival with Joan Copeland and Dixie Carter as Melba.

Now we have a revisal of the show with a new book by Richard Greenberg and new orchestrations from Don Sebesky (in an unlikely splurge from the Roundabout folks: I counted 13 players in the pit). The ever-reliable Paul Gemignani is conducting. Unfortunately, aside from two key performances there isn’t anything particularly memorable about this rather lackluster revival. Understudy Matthew Risch famously replaced Christian Hoff early in previews. Hoff, who was officially let go due to a foot injury was rumored to have been less than stellar. Risch, while he can dance up a storm, is lacking in every other necessary department. The short of it: his singing is poor and he lacks charisma. Joey, even in his nature as a cad, should have that presence and personality that puts the audience in his corner. As hard as he worked, Risch couldn’t overcome that shortcoming.

Stockard Channing is making her first Broadway appearance since the 1999 revival of The Lion in Winter and should consider making a return trip sooner rather than later. Channing is a breath of fresh air, tossing off one-liners and displaying an extraordinary emotional range as Vera. Her singing is decidedly weak, and she only scores once musically with her breathless, nearly spoken but captivating delivery of “Bewitched” in the first act. She also looks better than ever and is given some choice costumes from William Ivey Long, particularly a stunning negliglee for her bedroom soliloquy. I think with her dry as a martini delivery she would be even better suited for that other Vera, Ms. Vera Charles in Mame.

Now we get to the outstanding highlight of the evening. Martha Plimpton has been busy working in so many different plays in the past few seasons, garnering Tony nominations for her in The Coast of Utopia and Top Girls. Here she surprises with strong musical chops. All you could hear at intermission were astonished patrons talking about her credible musicality. Every time Plimpton walked onstage she scored as the aging burlesque chorine Gladys Bumps (who has a history with our Pal Joey). Plimpton, who is reminiscent of a young Elaine Stritch – only with a better sense of pitch, doesn’t really have that much to do, but makes every moment worth the price of admission. Her deadpan turned the throwaway “The Flower Garden of My Heart” into an audience favorite at the top of act two. There is one major difference with this revival. The character of Melba, a superfluous but amusing diversion in the original second act is gone. Instead she has been absorbed into Gladys’ floor show which allowed Plimpton the opportunity to provide the sole showstopper of the afternoon, “Zip.” The song is a rather brilliant parody of Gypsy Rose Lee’s act, with a deconstruction of how Lee encorporated witty banter into her strip. The topical nature of the song is dated, though several of the references have been updated to less obscure figures of the 1930s.

She was the only reason I really wanted to see the show and was easily the highlight, though Channing came in a close second. The direction and choreography were underwhelming. I especially expected the dance heavy show to soar in those moments, but ultimately didn’t. The set was rather drab (and let it be said I didn’t notice that the El was a part of it until the final scene). However the costumes were wonderful and Rodgers & Hart sure gave us a fun score. If only the production itself could have bewitched rather than bother and bewilder. As I left the theatre, I couldn’t help but wish I had seen the well-received Encores! presentation of the show with Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, Vicki Lewis and Bebe Neuwirth in 1995.

Doubt: A Film

[I don’t intend on spoiling anything, but I do discuss certain aspects of the plot that may be considered spoilers, hard as it be to avoid them whenever you discuss this piece. So if you’re on the spoiler police squad that usually cries foul at those who do, go see the film first just to be on the safe side :)]

I rank seeing the original Broadway cast of Doubt high on my all-time list of theatre going experiences. Part of the appreciation stemmed from my Catholic upbringing and nine years spent in a parochial school, but mostly I was impressed with Shanley’s text. The principal of a 1964 Bronx Catholic school suspects one of the priests of having an inappropriate relationship with the school’s only black student. And go… the play in its taut ninety minutes isn’t about the validity of whether or not the priest has done it, but about the greater ramifications of our certainty and judgments. You have nun vs. priest, encompassing a greater conflict of conservative vs. progressive, Vatican I vs. Vatican II, man vs. woman (especially in the patriarchal hierarchies of the Roman Catholic Church).

As I watched the terrific play unfold onstage, I couldn’t help but think that it would open well for film and to my delight it has. There are aspects that will remain for my theatrical experience, the play’s dialogue is so expertly written (crafted? manipulated? you decide) to give the audience only circumstantial evidence for either argument. However, one must base their decision on the facts and not what is circumstantial which has led many theatre patrons to have fantastic discussions following three tier: they supported the nun, they supported the priest or they hadn’t a clue. The playwright’s intention was the latter, but far be it from anyone to convince anyone otherwise.

Shanley’s screenplay and direction have taken the play out of the church and principal’s office, giving us scenes in the courtyard, classrooms, convent, rectory and street, opening it up without tampering too much with what was presented onstage. Meryl Streep gives a stern, magnificently restrained performance as Sr. Aloysius, the principal who either has it in for this priest, or has the interests of her students in mind. Philip Seymour Hoffman is credible as Fr. Flynn, the charismatic priest who has…well, what has he done? I’m afraid I don’t know, nor do I think I ever will know. Amy Adams is spectacular as Sister James, the 8th grade teacher who finds herself caught in the middle of the battle. Viola Davis, on screen for 11 minutes as Donald Miller’s (why the change from Muller to Miller… anyone?) mother, is magnificent. Her scene is both devastating and unsettling, particularly in the unexpected turn their conversation takes. I can vividly recall the look on Cherry Jones’ face at the Walter Kerr, which was not unlike that on Meryl’s face.

The love of the play didn’t hinder me seeing this film, in spite of my underwhelming reaction to the casting of the two lead roles. In an ideal world, all our original casts would get to put their roles on screen. Cherry Jones was no exception for me. I had heard talk of her for years, but hadn’t really seen much of her work save for Cradle Will Rock and a memorable cameo in Ocean’s Twelve (the only thing I can recall from that otherwise DOA sequel). However, I was taking in her Tony winning role, especially beating the voracious Martha of Kathleen Turner. Well, to put it simply, I will drop anything and everything to see her onstage (only we’ve lost her to the current season of 24 where she plays the latest US president caught up in the world of Jack Bauer). Her performance as Aloysius ranks near the top of the list of live theatre experiences I’ve had, ably matched by the youthfully virile Brian F. O’Byrne sporting a Bronx accent and nary a trace of his Irish in a verbal volley for the ages, putting me at the edge of my seat. Her command of the stage and the audience was just thrilling, with her exceeding the hype surrounding her, with a performance reminiscent of the more stern nuns I’ve known and adored.

Anyway, the film is for the most part, quite excellent. Of all things I’m kind of nonplussed at the establishing shots of the film that really weren’t necessary. A nice touch too with Shanley giving Streep an entrance, with a great reveal after scolding several students for misbehavior at Mass. She gives one of the best turns I’ve ever seen her give (this from someone who finds her highly overrated, no offense meant) and certainly worthy of the accolades that have come her way. She finds her way through the script without being a total harridan which is important, especially in the final confrontation sequence. Hoffman, regardless of how the award guilds look at it, is giving a lead performance and is outstanding.

The final confrontation scene was electric onstage and I miss the higher stakes seen onstage, though that is a personal quibble and those of you seeing the film without having seen the show staged, this will mean nothing to you. Go, enjoy the film and discuss, it’s strength is in the text and in the performances (it’s fun too if you’ve seen the play to see where Shanley has cut and added scenes and dialogue). The writer and actors often discussed how the the play itself was the first act and the second act was the audience leaving the theatre arguing and debating over what they had seen. I would love to know what you thought about it as well.

It should be interesting to see how the film fares on Oscar night. While it was denied a Best Picture nod, the four main actors are in contention. The Best Supporting Actress category minus favorite Kate Winslet has suddenly become the one category that is completely up in the air and bears watching. Hoffman doesn’t stand much of a chance against the juggernaut of the late Heath Ledger and his iconic performance in The Dark Knight. And it appears that Best Actress is between Meryl and Kate. I’ll be en route to or in the airport at that point… so lord knows if I’ll see any of it.

Oh, and before I forget. One touch I loved? The casting of Helen Stenborg as Sister Teresa. Stenborg, the widow of the late Barnard Hughes, is the mother of Doug Hughes, the Tony-winning director of the original production.

Quote of the Day: ‘At Large’ Elsewhere

From Peter Filichia’s Diary on 1.30.08:

‘Staying on the subject of the presidency, Bruce Haberkern wrote that “With the events of this month’s Inauguration, it might be a chance to revisit the Bernstein-Lerner unsuccessful musical, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The musical had a lot to do with the black servants’ participation in maintaining the White House, especially in the lyrics of ‘Take Care of this House.’ Today their descendants are actually taking care of that (White) House.”

Kevin Daly mentioned 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, too, and cast Victoria Clark in the Patricia Routledge role should the show ever materialize. (Given the estates’ feelings about the quick flop, that will only happen when the show goes into the public domain.) But Daly came up with an even more fetching idea that really should happen — and could: “Let’s have the upcoming cast of Blithe Spirit present a one-night concert performance of High Spirits for their Actor’s Fund performance.” If it happens, I’m there!’

Hey Bernstein and Lerner estates, let’s talk, shall we?

"The Quadrille"

It’s not quite the real thing, but here is a glimpse into some rare Golden Age material. Gail Benedict leads a recreation of Michael Kidd’s original choreography for the exuberant “Quadrille” from the 1953 musical Can-Can. Now if someone only had a preservation of the famed “Apache Dance,” which prompted a tremendous mid-show ovation on opening night in NY, quelled only when Ms. Verdon appeared for a call in her bathrobe (at the insistence of producer Cy Feuer). In supporting part that egomaniacal star Lilo demand be cut down, Verdon ended up overshadowing the above the title star, walking away with the reviews and her first of four Tony awards.