Curtain Call at Broadway By The Year 1970
(photo by Maryann Lopinto)

Broadway Musicals of 1970

Leave it to Broadway By The Year series creator, writer and host Scott Siegel, his director/choreographer Jeffrey Denman, and their company of incredibly talented performers to mine musical gold out of a season that boasted few musical hits. It all happened on Monday evening June 15 where there was a sense of discovery, joy, and even amazement at the musical treasures that were unearthed. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record when it comes to these extra special, one-night-only revues.

The golden age of the Broadway musical was presumably over as the 1970s began. A Chorus Line, the defining and most successful musical of the decade was not to be heard of until 1975. If there was a new dawning of the genre in the works, it can be credited to Stephen Sondheim with his ultra sophisticated breakthrough hit Company. By 1970, the great Richard Rodgers was coasting with Two By Two (and without Oscar Hammerstein II), in the final laps of an illustrious career.

Except for Applause, which was the season’s biggest hit thanks to the bravura performance by its Tony-Award-winning star Lauren Bacall (despite her not being able to do more than croak her way through a tune) and The Me Nobody Knows, an intimate revue of poems written by children set to music, most musicals barely eked out respectable runs. Composing team Peter Udell & Gary Geld, however, came up with a surprise 688 performances hit Purlie that they based on Ossie Davis’s play Purlie Victorious.

Perhaps the core of musical theater’s creators and collaborators were in a state of flux and transition, but so was our country. As Siegel reminded us during his nostalgic opening remarks, women were finally being allowed admittance to McSorely’s Bar, homemakers were discovering the joys of the plastic ZipLock bag, and Ford found out that car buyers were not all that interested in their latest product, the Pinto.

Introduced affectionately as the “The Acid Queen,” (in Tommy), Cheryl Freeman got the show off to a bracing start with “I Got Love” (Purlie). Freeman also kept us remindful of just how victorious were the joys of Purlie with a thrilling, unplugged (no mike) rendition of “He Can Do It.” Other songs from Purlie included “The Harder They Fall,” as sung with energizing gusto by Sahr Ngaujah, the star of Fela! The splendid singing of Darius de Haas and the terrific tap dancing of Kendrick Jones were combined to put a new wrinkle in “New Fangled Preacher Man.”


Max Von Essen, Scott Coulter and Jeffry Denman

Company deservedly got the lion’s share of time on the program. But who could have expected the international singing star Ute Lemper to deconstruct that alcoholic anthem “Ladies Who Lunch” into a uniquely stylized rant. Looking radiant and sounding as if her recent encounter with motherhood was a very good thing, Melissa Errico held on to those tricky mile-a-minute lyrics of “Getting Married Today,” as supported by Christiane Noll and Jeffrey Denman. The lovely Noll careened, as she should, through “Another Hundred People,” and Max Von Essen blew us away, as he should and did, with “Being Alive.”

Whatever or whoever it was that failed Minnie’s Boys, the Marx Brothers bio musical the first time around, it wasn’t the score by Hal Hackady & Larry Grossman, or the never-to-be forgotten performance by Shelley Winters (as Momma Marx). Jeffrey Denman and Meredith Patterson found plenty to tap to and sing about in the very funny “Rich Is.” On a more serious note, Scott Coulter used his pianissimo for emotionally stirring effect for “Mama, A Rainbow.” Who could not resist the incomparable Stephen DeRosa as he dazzled and delighted us with “Empty,” and “Where Was I When They Passed Out Luck,” two more gems from that almost forgotten show?


photo by Maryann Lopinto. Pictured, Kendrick Jones, Melinda Patterson and Jeffry Denman

It was a treat to have Walter Willison, one of the original cast members of Two By Two, sit on a stool and tenderly sing “I Do Not Know A Day I Did Not Love You,” especially as he dedicated it to another original cast member Joan Copeland, who was present and seated front and center. Referring to Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s The Rothschild’s as the rich man’s “Fiddler (…on the Roof”), Siegel introduced veteran Broadway baritone Martin Vidnovik, who wowed us with – “Sons,” and “In My Own Lifetime,” the latter without a mike.

If “Welcome to the Theatre,” (from Applause) was ironically to be one of the last numbers of show, it was also a highlight as dynamically sent soaring over the footlights by Irena’s Vow star Tovah Feldshuh. Perhaps the Lee Adams & Charles Strouse score for Applause is not considered a great one, but it was thrilling to hear the entire company blending their voices in the rousing title song for the grand finale. Also earning deserved applause was the Ross Patterson Big Band. It was another reminder how much audiences love to applaud wonderful performers in a terrific show.

Broadway Musicals of 1970 (one night only June 15, 2009
Presented by The Town Hall, 123 West 43^rd Street
For tickets ($50 & $45) to future BBTY shows call (212) 840 – 2824 or http://www.the-townhall-nyc.org

Musical theater lovers will want to plan for the next Broadway Unplugged (the top singers in the business showing off the beauty of the human voice without the aid of electronic enhancement) concert scheduled for November 16, 2009. for more information or to reach Scott directly go to SiegelPresents.com or call (212) 365 – 4345.

Alert: A special edition of Broadway By The Year will be on the main stage of the Berkshire Theater Festival from June 18 to 27. Tickets range from $19.28 to $68 and may be purchased by calling the box office at (413) 298-5576 x33 or online at http://www.berkshiretheatre.org .