Duke Ellington's Beggar's Holiday is Overloaded with Songs

Also see Richard's review of Pageant

Happy Mac (played by Christopher Neal Jackson) and Lucy (played by Virginia Wilcox)

Once each season, Lee Sankowich, artistic director of the Marin Theatre Company, joins forces with Richard Gibbs, co-founder and choreographer of the Allegro Theatre Company, to present a musical at the Marin Theatre Company Theatre. This has been a hit and miss affair over the past few years. This year, Mr. Sankowich and Mr. Gibbs decided to resurrect a failed musical that opened at the Broadway Theatre on December 26, 1946, where it ran for 111 performances. It was Duke Ellington's first and only musical with lyrics by John Latouche and was based on John Gay's wonderful 1728 classic "opera," "Beggar's Opera," which later became the hugely successful Weill/Brecht Threepenny Opera in the '20s.

The Duke used various musical styles, including college and marching songs, romantic ballads and, of course, jazz. The production starred Alfred Drake playing the anti-hero Mack the Knife while Zero Mostel made his Broadway debut as Mr. Peachum. Libby Holman originally was cast as Jenny Diver. The production was co-directed by John Houseman and Nicholas Ray. It looked like a match made in heaven when it had its pre-Broadway run in Boston.

Beggar's Holiday had major problems right from the beginning, when John Houseman quit in Boston and George Abbott was bought in to co-direct. Libby Holman, who was Ray's lover, was fired on Abbott's orders. Finally, George got rid of Nicholas Ray and the show limped into New York. I remember seeing the show during the winter months of 1947, thinking this certainly was not the Duke Ellington I loved. He just could not produce a Broadway score, even in '46. Following the closer, only a few songs survived and they were never popular.

Later, Dale Wasserman, who was a co-producer of the original, was determined to revive the musical. He secured the rights to the play and started to update the script. It took him 15 years to locate the complete score and lyrics, and he has been rewriting the script and lyrics for the past several years. Beggar's Holiday was suppose to have been presented during the past season schedule, but Mr. Wasserman was not satisfied with the script. It has finally been staged for the first time with expectations that the musical will transfer to a San Francisco house and far beyond.

Beggar's Holiday is loosely based on the John Gay opera. Mack the Knife is now Happy Mac (Christopher Neal Jackson), a hopeless, blind dreamer who thinks that his gang of thieves should franchise themselves like "Starbucks," since everyone including the government is picking the pockets of someone. Mac is one good looking dude who has women sprawling at his feet, but he can't stay true to one woman. He just loves them all. Of course, Mac has three women who are just crazy about him: Polly Peachum (Dani Marcus), whom he marries only because she is so damn naïve; Jenny (Cathleen Riddley), who is tough as nails and has been around the block many times; and Lucy Lockit (Virginia Wilcox), the jail keeper's daughter who helps him escape from jail in the second act.

There is the obligatory comic trio, the Peachums (Ed Sarafian and Joan Mankin), who are fences, and the crooked police officer and jailer Captain Lockit (Joe Bellan). However, for some reason, these marvelous talented people were not connecting on the Sunday night we watched the production. (I found out later that the cast had Saturday matinee and evening performances and a Sunday matinee, and they seemed to be exhausted from performing this very difficult musical. The vaudeville shtick just was not coming over and timing was way off.)

Beggar's Holiday has far too many songs that come out of nowhere. Many do not sound like Ellington, with the exception of some blues numbers sung by Cathleen Riddley (Willows production of Man of La Mancha). She has a big, brassy blues voice that rocks the house, especially on the songs "Brown Penny" and "I Want a Hero." She is a standout in those numbers. Soprano Dani Marcus (who was "Snow White" for several years at Beach Blanket Babylon) keeps that shiny high voice in "No One But You." In fact, it seems that she is still playing Snow White. Virginia Wilcox (Eileen in Marin's Wonderful Town) is very good as the roguish daughter of the jailer. Ed Sarafian and Joan Mankin (many productions in the Bay Area) do what they can with the "Fences Fugue," which was composed by Don York. Joe Bellan (The Fantasticks at Playhouse West) looked lost on stage.

Christopher Neal Jackson (member of the original New York cast of The Lion King) is a magnificent specimen of a man and he has a great voice, but he does not have that moody, Ellington voice. His songs are just straightforward with little or no expression. The chorus is good but not exceptional.

Some dancer numbers are thrown in here and there but none were outstanding. There is even a Keystone Kops number straight out of Mack and Mabel that falls flat on its face.

A very loud, seven-piece band plays from the stage, drowning out the first big dance and singing number. They finally toned down the sound so we could hear the voices of the cast. A strange thing about this musical is the exit music - the orchestra plays a Billy Strayhorn song made classic by Ellington, "Take the A Train." If only the songs in this musical were of that caliber, it would be wonderful.

Beggar's Holiday plays through October 10 at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley. For tickets call 415-388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org. The next production will be Yasmina Reza'a Live X 3, opening on November 11th.

Photo: Ed Smith

Cheers - and be sure to Check the lineup of great shows this season in the San Francisco area

- Richard Connema