This invaluable series always begins with the delightfully delivered and decidedly obligatory history lesson from producer/host/writer Scott Siegel. Most of us don’t need to be reminded that 1930 was the year that Broadway was to feel the economic drain created by the Great Depression. But, right along with the “bottom falling out,” as Siegel says, 32 musicals, nevertheless, gave it a try, with a few like the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy and Strike Up The Band sticking around long enough to become legends. The former also introduced a musical theater legend Ethel Merman.
So what if 1930 was the year that Judge Crater disappeared (I hear they found him on the moon); Pluto was first observed in the sky (not Disney’s but God’s), and the cyclotron accelerator was invented. Siegel tells us that the differential analyzer (the first computer) was invented in 1930 by Vannevar Bush.
If most of the highlights and near show-stoppers were in Act II, Act I had its share of disarming delights. A dozen top-notch singers soloed and shared the stage, each making his or her distinctive mark. If the opening ensemble was guilty of screeching unmercifully into their mikes through the opening number “I Got Rhythm” (Girl Crazy ), their use of these offensive devices steadily improved. No more gripes from this department, as the ingratiating Devon May discarded his mike to sing Cole Porter’s “Take Me Back to Manhattan” (The New Yorkers ) with a delightful nod to Al Jolson. The concert offered more songs from The New Yorkers and Girl Crazy than any of the other shows. It was easy to see why. From The New Yorkers was “I Happen to Like New York,” sung with gusto by the inimitable Mary Testa. And the sexy as hell “Love for Sale,” was stunningly arranged for the gloriously concerted (without mikes) voices of Celia Keenan-Bolger, Nancy Anderson and Emily Skinner.
From Girl Crazy , Jennifer Simard plowed into “Barbary Coast” with honky-tonk savvy, also getting a prop up and off of the piano from hunky baritone Marc Kudisch, who also ably directed the entire show. Michael Winther and Keenan-Bolger opted for a coy approach to “Embraceable You,” and the radiant Anderson caressed the plaintive “But Not For Me.”The Eubie Blake/Andy Razaf classic “Memories of You” (Blackbirds of 1930) was given a beautifully plaintive expressiveness by Winther.
The male ensemble stopped the show with their resonant singing and applause-getting precision marching through the title song of the Gershwins’ Strike Up the Band. “I’ve Got a Crush On You,” and “Soon” were sung the lovely Skinner as if she meant it, partnered by Douglas Ladnier in the latter.
Siegel informs us that the original cast of the Sigmund Romberg & Irving Caesar operetta Nina Rosa numbered 150: “It was the producer’s way of helping unemployment.” No standards emerged from the score, but Testa might have done it for the soaring “My first Love – My Last Love,” had she been in the original show. The audience gave deserved cheers to a pastiche tango “Serenade of Love,” as sung and danced by Sean Martin Hingston & leggy Shannon Lewis.
Credit also goes to choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler for this number as well as for “Exactly Like You” (Lew Leslie’s International Revue ), in which the personable Hingston also sang and danced with élan. From the same show Miles Phillips offered a nicely nonchalant “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” and Keenan-Bolger was at her most appealingly eccentric with “I’ve Got a Bug in My Head.”
Comical ditties were in good supply, including an Entr’acte – Let’s Go Eat Worms in the Garden” (Fine & Dandy ) played with jazzy spirit by the excellent on-stage Ross Patterson Little Big Band. Smiles came easily with songs from Vincent Youmans’ Smile . May amusingly borrowed some shtick from Eddie Cantor for “If I Were You, Love (I’d Jump Right in the Lake”) with lyrics by Ring Lardner (who knew?) Testa’s torchy rendition of “He Came Along” made you wonder why they dropped this song (lyrics by Harold Adamson) from the show.
Director Kudisch put himself and his rich baritone voice into the mix singing “Right At the Start of It” from the Dietz and Schwartz revue Three’s a Crowd ). But the crowning achievement of the evening may go to the spell-binding crooning of the comely Ladnier through “Body and Soul”. Other songs were invoked with panache from Artists and Models, Ballyhoo, and Earl Carroll’s Vanities (8th edition). The finale brought on the entire company for “Get Happy,” the only song selected from the Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler 9:15 Revue. They intended for everyone to leave happy. I suspect they did.
Broadway By The Year: 1930
The Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd Street
One Night Only March 6, 2006
For tickets to the next Broadway By The Year: 1956 (Monday Evening April 3) and BBTH: 1968 (May 1) and BBTH: 1978 (June 19) call 212 – 840 – 2824 or www.thetownhall-nyc.org
3/11/2006 Editors Note: The reviewer, Simon Saltzman, was corrected in a letter to the editor from Scott Siegel. Simon's original review, now corrected, stated that Siegel was wrong in the statement about the first computer invented. This is from Simon:
Dear Scott, I respectfully submit to your request. In 1927, Bush did indeed create the first analog computer that he called the "Product Intergraph." A larger version was created in 1930 that he called the "Differential Analyzer." You are right...I am wrong. Your research is impeccable. Mine was obviously not. Will submit immediately for correction. Simon