Broadway's Most Wanted

by Tom Shea

  Another two-hander, this time from the pen of the talented Jason Robert Brown, who wrote book, music, and lyrics. The Last 5 Years depicts the five-year relationship of Jamie and Cathy, examining their time together by playing that time backwards, starting with the breakup of their marriage and ending with their first entrancing meeting. Brown cleverly orchestrates their relationship, nowhere better than in the final numbers, “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You,” which juxtaposes their first goodbye (after their first date) with their last.

  9. GOBLIN MARKET

  Christina Rossetti’s allegorical poem Goblin Market was adapted into a two-character musical at the tiny Vineyard Theater in 1985. The allegory is mainly sexual, as two sisters visit their childhood nursery and find their memories invaded by goblins and the forbidden fruits they bear. Peggy Harmon and Polly Pen made a quite unusual verse musical out of this material, with actresses Ann Morrison and Terri Klausner hauntingly portraying the sisters.

  10. THREE POSTCARDS

  Singer-songwriter Craig Camelia is often referred to as the musical theater’s best-kept secret. Or used to be, anyway, before Sweet Smell of Success bombed so loudly on Broadway. But before Success smelled, off-Broadway lauded his superb Three Postcards, from 1986. Three women meet for lunch in a trendy bistro, to the tinkling sounds of our orchestra, the bistro’s piano player. The only other character is the pithy waiter, who frequently interrupts the ladies’ reveries.

  It’s an Art

  10 Musicals about Other Art Forms

  Musicals often hold a fun-house mirror up to nature, distorting real life by musicalizing it. Here are ten musicals about other parts of the fun house—different types of show business.

  1. BARNUM

  Cy Coleman, Mark Bramble, and Michael Stewart’s 1980 musical biography of the legendary showman P. T. Barnum. Director and choreographer Joe Layton wisely set the evening within the context of a circus, with a ringmaster announcing the scenes. Orchestrator Hershy Kay and set designer David Mitchell made invaluable contributions to the three-ring evening.

  2. MY FAVORITE YEAR

  The hectic, seat-of-the-pants world of early variety television gets the once-over in this unsuccessful musical from 1992. Adapted from the 1982 film of the same name, My Favorite Year concerns a young gofer working on the King Kaiser television show who is assigned to babysit a dipsomaniacal matinee idol prior to his appearance on the show. An appealing cast did their best but the atmosphere was never convincingly portrayed.

  3. 3 GUYS NAKED FROM THE WAIST DOWN

  No, it’s not a porn musical. “Naked from the waist down” is trade lingo for stand-up comics, who let it all hang out for everyone to see when they step to the mike. This 1985 off-Broadway show follows the parallel lives of three comics, starting in small clubs and aiming for the big time (Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!) and the very different paths their lives take. Loud, bombastic rock-and-roll storytelling was the order of the day.

  4. CITY OF ANGELS

  A best-selling detective novelist adapting his work into a Hollywood film is the subject of this very funny, superbly conceived 1989 musical. Larry Gelbart’s book portrays both the real, “color” world of the writer up against the Hollywood system, and the noir world of his characters, in black and white, sometimes both onstage at once. Even more ingenious was the use of the same actors to portray the real people as well as their fictional counterparts, daring the audience to decide which bunch was more unsavory. Cy Coleman and David Zippel’s score was one of the best of the 1980s, and saw out the decade in excellent style.

  5. DREAMGIRLS

  1981’s Dreamgirls was an intriguing show in concept— the tale of the rise and fall of the Dreams, a girl group obviously based on the Supremes—but just a mediocre show on paper. Michael Bennett cast the show with performers who sold the R & B style to the hilt. Bennett’s legendary staging literally never stopped moving, and the non-stop dancing was aided greatly by lightning-fast costume changes and scenic designer Robin Wagner’s amazing movable light towers, which seemed to dance themselves.

  6. THE I940’S RADIO HOUR

  An evening-long spoof of the days of post-depression live radio broadcasts, this show takes place in a radio studio, and we meet seemingly the entire radio station over the course of the evening. The show’s clever structure includes using the pit band as the studio orchestra, a sound effects man, and actual product jingles and songs from the period. The very funny “Eskimo Pies” commercial is among the most popular audition pieces for actresses.

  7. THE RED SHOES

  This legendary 1994 Broadway flop is based on the classic film Ninotchka. Composer Jule Styne and author Marsha Norman came up with an adaptation which veered wildly in tone, suffered from too much tampering in production, and couldn’t live up to the legendary film source. Despite effectively choreographed ballet sequences, The Red Shoes was D.O.A. when it opened and quickly became the latest in a depressingly long string of high-profile flops.

  8. GYPSY

  Very loosely based on striptease queen Gypsy Rose Lee’s autobiographical memoir of her days in burlesque, Gypsy is one of the very best musicals ever written. Arthur Laurents’ book concentrates not on Lee and her sister, June Hovic, better known as June Havoc, but rather on their stage mother from hell, Rose.

  Rose, as delineated by Laurents, Jule Styne, and Stephen Sondheim (and thrillingly and terrifyingly embodied by Ethel Merman), was a near-heartless Gorgon living vicariously through her “babies,” pushing them headfirst into show business and not capable of letting go when her babies outgrow her smothering protection.

  9. ONE TOUCH OF VENUS

  “New art is true art,” says Whitelaw Savory, patron of the new and fresh. But in One Touch of Venus, Savory buys a mysterious ancient statue of Venus, which comes to life via the touch (and engagement ring) of a Manhattan barber. Eventually, the statue vanishes then reappears, spreading her message of pleasure and liberation all over Manhattan island.

  S.J. Perelman and Ogden Nash’s libretto sets the witty show in motion, and the Nash-Kurt Weill score takes it from there. Classics like “Speak Low” and “Westwind” jostle for position with private-eye shenanigans and crazy chases in this gorgeous, funny 1944 take on modern art and timeless love.

  10. THE GREAT WALTZ

  The Great Waltz examines the middle age of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss, Sr. and his increasingly volatile relationship with his son, Johann Jr., who later became his generation’s Waltz King. Their mutual respect and understanding is finally cemented when Senior conducts the premiere performance of Junior’s “On the Beautiful Blue Danube.”

  Cobbled together by Robert Wright and George Forrest for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera, The Great Waltz boasts an all-Strauss score, often set to unimaginative lyrics. The silly book often sets these tunes in unfortunately preposterous situations. In all, it’s neither Broadway caliber nor a fitting tribute to either Strauss.

  Children Will Listen

  Parents and Children in the Musical Theater

  Many parents want their children to step into the family business, but many people in show business wouldn’t wish their careers on anyone, least of all their offspring. Luckily for us, some of the theater’s leading lights let their genes have their way.

  1. SHIRLEY JONES/JACK CASSIDY AND DAVID, SHAUN, AND PATRICK CASSIDY

  Jack Cassidy was a handsome smoothie who turned in a memorable performance as no-goodnik Stephen Kodaly in She Loves Me. Jones was a beautiful ingenue who, after making her Broadway debut as a replacement Laurey in Oklahoma!, went Hollywood debuting in Fred Zinneman’s film version.

  Their three sons have all appeared on Broadway, teen-pop idols David and Shaun appearing together in the musical Blood Brothers (as twins) in 1994. Youngest son Patrick made his Broadway debut in 1982 and appeared most recently opposite Cheryl Ladd in the hit revival of Annie Get Your Gun.

  2. CARLIN GLYNN AND MARY STUART MASTERSON

  Glynn is the warm, att
ractive leading lady who won a Tony in 1979 (wisely billed in the “Featured Actress” category, otherwise she would have been steamrolled by Angela Lansbury and the Sweeney Todd juggernaut) for her performance as Mona Stangley in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which was co-authored by her husband, Peter Masterson.

  Their daughter Mary Stuart, best known for her performances in films like Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny and Joon, appeared on Broadway in Eva LaGallienne’s adaptation-with-music of Alice in Wonderland, and was seen as Luisa in the Roundabout Theater’s recent revival of Nine.

  3. RICHARD RODGERS AND MARY RODGERS GUETTEL

  Broadway’s greatest composer rarely made mistakes in his illustrious career, but his daughter Mary said she became interested in composing because the mistakes she made playing the piano were often more intriguing than what had actually been written. She learned her lessons well, composing a superb score at the tender age of 28 for Once Upon a Mattress. She now serves as head of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, which licenses the work of her father.

  Another spin of the wheel: Her son, Adam Guettel, is one of the handful of the “new breed” of theater composers. He wrote the very successful off-Broadway musical Floyd Collins and the popular song cycle Saturn Returns.

  4. HAROLDAND DAISY PRINCE

  No one has more Tony Awards than Broadway’s own royal, Harold Prince. Prince worked his way up from assistant stage manager on Call Me Madam in 1950 to an unparalleled career as a producer and director of such legendary shows as West Side Story, Company, Sweeney Todd, and The Phantom of the Opera.

  One of the few missteps in his career was Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s flop Merrily We Roll Along in 1981. Merrily featured Prince Hal’s daughter, Daisy Prince, making her Broadway debut as Meg, girlfriend of Franklin Shepard, the show’s antihero. Miss Prince also appeared as Young Phyllis in the legendary Follies in Concert and has carved out a career of her own as a successful off-Broadway director of shows like The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. In 1994, she appeared at the Public Theater in a fractured fairy tale of a musical called The Petrified Prince … directed by her father.

  5. RICHARD AND KATE BURTON

  Richard Burton, the immortal Welshman, gave one of the musical theater’s most commanding performances as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot. (Burton was so good as Arthur that, upon reviving it in 1980, one critic wondered why Guinevere ever would have left him.)

  His daughter Kate made her Broadway musical debut three years later as J.J. in the short-lived musical version of Garry Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury, and later appeared in the high-profile Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company as karate-fighting Sarah. In 2002, she was nominated for two straight play Tony Awards, for The Elephant Man and Hedda Gabler, the latter produced by her mother, Sybil Christopher.

  6. OSCAR II AND JAMES AND WILLIAM HAMMERSTEIN

  Some consider Oscar Hammerstein to be the MVP of the Broadway musical (considering his contributions to two of the linchpin shows, Show Boat and Oklahoma! as well as his other classics), and his two sons, James and William, had admirable careers of their own on Broadway, and on the road, as producers and directors of renown.

  Most famously, James served as co-director of the Broadway incarnation of his father’s State Fair in 1996, while William’s most notable project was the well-received major Broadway revival of Oklahoma! in 1979, which he directed.

  7. BOB FOSSE/GWEN VERDON AND NLCOLE FOSSE

  One of the greatest onstage pairings in Broadway history was the teaming of the slick, seductive choreography and direction of Bob Fosse and the performances of his longtime wife and muse, the dazzling redheaded singer/dancer Gwen Verdon. The work of the two shone in shows like Sweet Charity, Redhead, and Chicago, Verdon oozing talent, class, and sex appeal, all shown off to maximum effect by Fosse’s riveting staging.

  Their daughter Nicole made her Broadway debut as a member of the corps de ballet of the “Opera Populaire” in The Phantom of the Opera. She danced for her father in his 1979 film All That Jazz and appeared as Kristine in the movie version of A Chorus Line. Both mother and daughter served in consulting positions on Fosse, the Tony-winning tribute to the late choreographer.

  8. JAMES AND MATTHEW BRODERICK

  The late stage and television actor James Broderick made his Broadway debut in 1953 in the musical Maggie, loosely based on J.M. Barrie’s play What Every Woman Knows, which ran a meager five performances. James’s son Matthew, however, has fared slightly better in his forays into the Broadway musical.

  Matthew’s first Broadway musical outing, the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, proved him to be a fine musical farceur and a pretty good singer, winning him his second Tony (his first was for Neil Simon’s play Brighton Beach Memoirs). As musical farces go, 2001’s The Producers is Grade-A, and Broderick took the role of mousy accountant-turned-crooked-producer Leo Bloom and ran with it, winning raves and audience love letters.

  9. LUCILLE BALL/DESI ARNAZ AND LUCIE ARNAZ

  The legendary comic pairing of Lucy and Desi yielded a great television series, but the beloved performers had only one Broadway musical apiece, his being Rodgers and Hart’s Too Many Girls in 1939, hers being Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s Wildcat in 1960, when she was at the height of her TV popularity (and, incidentally, the end of her marriage to Arnaz).

  Daughter Lucie shot to stardom in 1979 in her Broadway debut, the Neil Simon/Carole Bayer Sager/Marvin Hamlisch musical a clef They’re Playing Our Song. It won her a Tony nomination for her performance as Sager’s alter ego, a lovably ditzy lyricist.

  10. ZERO AND JOSH MOSTEL

  One of the legendary clowns (a “superclown,” as critic Marilyn Stasio described him), Zero Mostel’s immense talent, appetite, and ego made him one of the American theater’s true characters. A three-time Tony winner, two of those awards were for memorable musical creations: Pseudolus, the wily slave in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his remarkable Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

  Following an unfortunate experience working with his father on a television show while in college, Josh Mostel struck out on a successful career of his own, albeit mostly in “fat clown” roles like those played by his father. Also like his father, Josh appeared in two Broadway musicals: the 1990 revival of 3 Penny Opera, and as Sy Benson in the short-lived My Favorite Year. Unlike his father, who was often considered too “outsized” for the movies, Josh has had a long and successful film career, one of his most memorable performances coming in his movie debut as the libertine King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar.

  Keep It Gay

  10 Musicals with, Um, Happy Bachelor Characters

  The musical theater is created, performed, and attended by an overwhelming number of gay men and women. Odd, then, that so much of the gay content in earlier musicals was completely coded (just look at almost any Cole Porter lyric, for example). There still aren’t many gay-themed shows with gay characters in them. Here are ten shows with important homosexual content.

  1. LADY IN THE DARK

  A masterpiece of storytelling as well as subtext, Lady in the Dark is a supremely innovative and heavily sexually coded musical about inner crises and personal triumph. It also featured one of the first sympathetic gay characters in Broadway history.

  Lady in the Dark’s libretto was written by Moss Hart, a gay man who was, at the time, married to a woman. His heroine is Liza Elliott, a magazine editor in personal and professional crises, afraid of her inner demons. While this is obvious subtext for a gay man’s self-loathing, the only openly gay character in the show, photographer Russell Paxton, is a trusted confidante to Liza (he also gets a lot of great music, like the tongue-twisting “Tschaikowsky”).

  2. HOWARD CRABTREE’S WHOOP-DEE-DOO!

  This one is, as the title suggests, a plotless revue. But come on, that’s one of the funniest show titles you’ll ever see, so here it is in this book. Whoop-Dee-Doo! was ma
inly the brainchild of the aforementioned Howard Crabtree, who wrote a bit, performed a bit, produced a bit, and designed all of the costumes.

  The show itself was a teeny Follies-style revue on gay themes, with songs like “Tough to Be a Fairy,” “I Was Born This Way,” and “Nancy, the Unauthorized Musical.” (Wonder who that’s about.) Crabtree’s costumes, which often defied description and were worth the price of admission alone, stole the show.

  3. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

  Manuel Puig’s political play had been adapted into a 1985 film by Hector Babenco which won William Hurt an Academy Award. Hurt played Molina, a gay window dresser imprisoned for lewd acts, who is confined with Valentin, a political dissident, in a hellish South American prison.

  The great songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, along with librettist Terrence McNally, adapted Spider Woman into a musical in 1990, and it finally hit Broadway in the Spring of 1993. Molina, played movingly by Tony winner Brent Carver, must get close to Valentin for reasons of survival, but their bond eventually becomes genuine. Molina’s relationships with Valentin and, especially, his own mother (epitomized in the song “You Could Never Shame Me”), are heartbreakingly real and touching.