| My review of HEY, LOOK ME OVER!, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Encores! at New York City Center | |
| Last Edit: jesse21 01:08 pm EST 02/08/18 | |
| Posted by: jesse21 12:59 pm EST 02/08/18 | |
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| - Can it be 25 years since the venerable Encores! series at New York City Center captivated audiences with performances of Fiorello!, Allegro and Lady in the Dark that first season back in 1994. Well, after presenting 72 musicals since then, Encores! decided to celebrate itself with something different, a revue entitled Hey, Look Me Over! featuring scenes and songs from eight musicals the series hasn’t gotten around to staging as yet. On last night’s evidence, each of these second-tier musicals deserves the full Encores! treatment. The shows span only a 17-year period, between 1957 (Jamaica) and 1974 (Mack & Mabel) and reflect a period brassily punctuated with exclamation points in song and show titles as well as musical sound. The early 1960s are heavily represented: All American, Milk and Honey, Greenwillow and Sail Away, all dating from between 1960 and 1962; and to top off the festivities, 1968’s George M! with a special guest who shall go unnamed. Oh, and for the Encores! ‘entr'acte spot’ that opens the second half, there is also Jule Styne’s bouncy overture to 1961’s Subways Are for Sleeping. While most theatergoers today likely never saw the original shows, fans of musical theater certainly are familiar with the original cast albums recorded in the heyday of such LPs, mostly by the Columbia and RCA Victor labels. To knit the elements of the revue, Jack Viertel, the series’ artistic director, and Rob Berman, the music director, picked up on an idea suggested to them by Josh Clayton, their assistant music director, who said: “You need to get Man in Chair from The Drowsy Chaperone.” So indeed they enlisted writer and actor Bob Martin from that 2006 Tony-winning hit musical. It is an enticing concept which mostly works. The droll Mr. Martin opens the evening, against a show curtain displaying the poster art of many past productions, offering a stand-up act (he sits in a chair only once during the evening and, briefly, at that). Mr. Martin portrays an Encores! fan who wishes that the aforementioned musicals would receive the full treatment as he guides the audience through the revue, often showing up in the middle of a book scene with humorous comment. Bob Martin’s participation isn’t the only glue that holds the evening together, Rob Berman’s always-impressive full orchestra provides underscoring that also contributes to the unified feel of the presentation. Hey, Look Me Over!, its title taken from the hit song in Wildcat which is sung hear the beginning by Carolee Carmello and Britney Coleman, proves to be an audience pleaser. As a revue, it is way much better than last fall’s Prince on Broadway, a salute to producer-director Hal Prince that came off like cruise ship entertainment. This time, the overall impression is of first-rate performance and musicianship levels that are up to the high standards of Encores!. It is, of course, risky to present snippets of scenes from stage works. Witness the many failed attempts to spotlight plays at the Tony Awards. On the other hand, Encores! is saluting and preserving the legacy of the book musical (emphasis on “book”) and a revue consisting only of musical highlights would run counter to the mission. For the most part, this show works, helped by Mr. Martin’s interjection of himself into scenes. At other times, the dialogue is too wordy, for me particularly in what seems like an endless encounter between a wayward father (Marc Kudisch) and a minister (Michael X. Martin) in Greenwillow. And a couple of times, a song goes on too long, like Jerry Herman’s Broadway-infused hora from Milk and Honey. The exuberant choreography here and throughout is by Denis Jones (Holiday Inn) and the direction is by Marc Bruni (Beautiful), both of whom have worked at Encores! in past seasons. Yet for all their potential pitfalls, the book scenes illustrate that the power of song in musicals owes everything to dramatic context. It also proves how powerful a gifted actor, who is not necessarily a singer, can be in a musical role. This truism presents itself in the second segment where Reed Birney plays the refugee Professor Fodorski in All American. Within a few minutes he creates a whole character who provides the big song, “Once Upon a Time,” with the underpinnings it needs to be so poignant. He shares that number, by the way, with the also remarkable Judy Kuhn who is in splendid voice. The All American scene includes a jab at the Trump White House immigration policy that received a good hand of applause last night and serves as a bit of a running political satire/commentary here and there in the evening (each time with more applause). Finally, the show also presents a solemn rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” from the 1949 Miss Liberty. The cast is outstanding. I have no complaints. Their names and the songs they sing are listed in the “Musical Numbers” below. If there are highlights, the chief one belongs to a relative unknown named Clifton Duncan who made his Broadway debut last September in the replacement cast of the current comedy, The Play That Goes Wrong. His thrilling rendition of Frank Loesser’s “Never Will I Marry”ends the long Greenwillow segment. If there was an ‘applause-meter’winner last night, it was Mr. Duncan. Coming close though was Bebe Neuwirth, an Encores! favorite who starred in their biggest hit, Chicago, back in 1996, the production that’s still packing them in on Broadway some 8,822 performances later. Ms. Neuwirth plays the Elaine Stritch role in Noël Coward’s Sail Away, delivering the showstopping “Why Do the Wrong People Travel.” All in all, Hey, Look Me Over succeeds in whetting my appetite for more seasons of Encores! I felt I was watching enjoyable teasers of future shows I’d definitely want to catch. ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ - Jesse MUSICAL NUMBERS: WILDCAT Overture - Orchestra “Oil!” - Ensemble “Hey, Look Me Over!” - Carolee Carmello and Britney Coleman ALL AMERICAN “Melt Us” - Reed Birney and Ensemble “What a Country!” - Reed Birney and Ensemble “Once Upon a Time” - Reed Birney and Judy Kuhn JAMAICA “Ain’t It the Truth” - Vanessa Williams “Push De Button” - Vanessa Williams, Alex Aquilino, Matt Loehr, Justin Prescott and Jaquez André Sims MILK AND HONEY “Shalom” - Marc Kudisch and Judy Kuhn “Independence Day Hora” - Ensemble “Milk and Honey” - Tam Mutu, Clyde Alves and Ensemble MACK & MABEL “Movies Were Movies” - Douglas Sills “Look What Happened to Mabel” - Alexandra Socha and Ensemble INTERMISSION Overture from Subways Are for Sleeping - Orchestra GREENWILLOW Prelude - Orchestra “A Day Borrowed from Heaven” - Kerry Conte, Michael X. Martin, Lindsay Roberts, Steve Routman and Ensemble “Gideon’s Charm” - Clifton Duncan “The Music of Home” - Clifton Duncan, Marc Kudisch and Ensemble “Never Will I Marry” - Clifton Duncan SAIL AWAY “Come to Me” - Bebe Neuwirth, Clyde Alves, Alex Aquilino, Rick Faugno, Matt Loehr, Justin Prescott and Jaquez André Sims “Sail Away” - Tam Mutu “Why Do the Wrong People Travel” - Bebe Neuwirth GEORGE M! “Give My Regards to Broadway” - Clyde Alves and Ensemble SIDEBAR HEY, LOOK ME OVER! opened Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street. New York City. Running time: 2½ hours, including a 15-minute intermission. Act One: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Act Two: 1 hour. Link to website. Remaining Schedule: Today, Feb 8 @ 7:30pm Friday, Feb 9, @ 8:00pm Saturday, Feb 10, @ 2:00pm Saturday, Feb 10, @ 8:00pm Sunday, Feb 11, @ 2:00pm Sunday, Feb 11, @ 7:00pm - |
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