As Julian Marsh puts it in the musical “42nd Street”: “Musical comedy – the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
Well, perhaps not everyone would agree. But musicals are still the lifeblood of the Broadway theater, with people increasingly turning to revivals such as “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “The Music Man.”
But there are other musical discoveries to be made in the city, particularly at City Center.
Its Encores! series, started in 1994, puts on three musicals each year. This coming spring we will get Bob Merrill’s “Carnival” (1961), Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ “Golden Boy” (1964) and Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’ “The Pajama Game” (1954).
Each staging runs only four or five performances (which are always sold out). There is little scenery or props, but the original orchestrations are scrupulously followed, and the productions, supervised by Rob Fisher and with his superb Coffee Club Orchestra, are impeccable.
And, of course, the virtually all-star casting is simply sensational. You get the kind of cast – and subsequent cast recording – that would not be viable for a Broadway run.
Occasionally, an Encores! productions goes on to a full Broadway showing. That’s what happened to “Chicago,” and rumor and hope has it that the Encores! staging of Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town” could reach Broadway later this season.
Last Sunday and Monday, City Center put on the first of what it called Encores! Broadway Bash! Staged by Kathleen Marshall, it was pure delight.
Fisher and the series’ current artistic director, Jack Viertel, produced a great concert made up of songs from musicals ranging from Victor Herbert’s “Naughty Marietta” (1910) to Galt MacDermot’s “The Human Comedy” (1984), which had been considered for Encores! presentation but, so far, has been rejected.
Naturally, nearly every musical of quality has at least one great number in it . And this was a hit parade of them given by performers such as Gary Beach, Kristin Chenoweth (a huge star-in-waiting), Jason Danieley, Melissa Errico, Alix Korey, Howard McGillin, Donna Murphy, Christopher Fitzgerald, Randy Graff, Jubilant Sykes, Vanessa L. Williams, Carol Woods and Karen Ziemba – half of whom are Tony winners.
Were any of these show-stopping numbers indicative of shows that either Encores! or Broadway itself should consider?
Perhaps. I would nominate Richard Rodgers’ “No Strings” and Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s “The Apple Tree” for Broadway, and Meredith Willson’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and Frank Loesser’s “Where’s Charley?” for a full Encores! outing.
But there’s some great stuff up there on the shelf. And producers should remember a good old musical is a better bet than a bad new musical.
No opera company went broke doing “Rigoletto.”
