University of Virginia Library

The Broadway Beat

What's Happened To The Broadway Musical?

By Steve Wells
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

NEW YORK — It is ironic and
somewhat disturbing that, as of this
writing, the two best (I use "best"
in a comparative, not a superlative,
sense) musicals of the Broadway
season do not really qualify as new
Broadway musicals. One is a revival
of a 1925 show; the other, a
transplant from off-Broadway.

The latter, "The Me Nobody
Knows," won last year's Obie
Award for best off-Broadway
musical and then moved uptown in
December as a direct result of the
off-Broadway strike. It is a look at
life in the ghetto through the eyes
of the children who live there, a
sympathetic and human
examination of what it's like to be
young and underprivileged. One of
the reasons it moves you is that the
kids aren't self-pitying; their spirit
is indomitable. They live on hope
and their dreams have wings:

Much of the time they engage in
what can be best described as a
celebration of life. They sing the
praises of things which those of us
who are more fortunate take for
granted. And they are, above all,
sincere. Their only plea is simple
and soft-spoken:

Twelve youngsters tell us about
themselves and their experiences,
all of which are true-to-life, many
of which were actually written by
ghetto children and adapted for the
stage by Robert II. Livingston and
Herb Schapiro, and the spirit of
which are reflected and heightened
in Will Holt's crisp lyrics and Gary
William Friedman's rock score. The
music isn't truly distinguished, but
then I have yet to hear a rock score
that is.

"The Me Nobody Knows" has
its charms, but for some reason it
isn't quite as arresting as it should
be, and I think I know why. It is a
small show and demands a certain
intimacy between actors and
audience, which probably explains
why it was produced off-Broadway
in the first place. But the Helen
Hayes Theatre is a relatively large
Broadway house and the intimacy
is more difficult to achieve. This
has nothing to do with the caliber
of the material. "The Fantasticks"
has been running downtown for
eleven years, but I doubt it would
have lasted a month on Broadway.
Likewise, "Hello, Dolly!" could
never have made a go of it in a
Greenwich Village loft. Choosing
the right theatre for a vehicle is
essential to success and, like most
things in show business, there's
only one way to go about it —
instinct.

Good Old Days

Instinct also had to be working
when it was decided to revive "No,
No, Nanette." Would a 1971
audience buy the unsophisticated
foolishness of a show which didn't
even run 400 performances when it
was first produced more than four
decades ago? Christ, yes. As long as
there are some songs from the
"good old days" like "I Want to Be
Happy" and "Tea For Two," chorus
lines stretching across the stage, and
old time performers like Ruby
Keeler and Patsy Kelly to do their
thing (or, in Miss Keeler's case,
maybe I should say non-thing),
then be assured that Broadway
audiences will happily pay their
fifteen bucks a seat and glory in it
all.

I really don't mean to sound
cynical because "No, No, Nanette"
is a moderately engaging show,
which is more than can be said for
the season's other two surviving
musicals. But it's nothing to flip
over, which is exactly what New
York has done. Vincent Youmans'
score is pleasant, sure, as it fires one
"up" song after another at you.
And the production numbers—all
six of them—are professionally
handled by choreographer Donald
Saddler and production supervisor
Busby Berkeley. And the cast is a
pleasure—Jack Gilford, Helen
Gallagher, Bobby Van, Susan
Watson, et al.

But let's face facts: the story
line is ridiculous and the songs have
virtually nothing to do with it. If
the show had been written today
instead of in 1925, it would have
been laughed out of town, just as
"Gone With the Wind," were it
released for the first time today,
would be snickered at and
recognized as what it is: a trashy,
hammed-up soap opera. But once
you've lived through a period in
time, the natural tendency is to
look back on that period and the
artistic creations that came out of it
with affection. "No, No, Nanette"
is being cheered by audiences for
one reason: nostalgia.

There's nothing wrong with this,
mind you, only forgive me if I am
unable to partake in it. I'm willing
to play along and admire Burt
Shevelove's fast paced and highly
polished staging and admit that "No,
No, Nanette" is a fairly enjoyable
evening—especially when compared
to current competition. But I'm not
willing to overlook its structural
flaws, its superficiality, or its
longevity. I'll just applaud while
others are throwing their hats in the
air, disillusioning themselves while
trying to capture fragments of a
bygone era.

Depressing Situation

What's depressing about the
whole situation is that whereas
American musical theatre had not
neared its peak when "No, No,
Nanette" was written, it appears to
have passed it now. It took
librettists a long time to learn their
craft, and within twenty years from
the time musical books reached a
respectable level of sophistication,
talented composers and lyricists
became sparse. As William Goldman
says in his book. The Season,
musicals are "in trouble today
because the songwriters aren't
there. The old men are dead or
doddering, the young ones mostly
dull."

I rejected this statement a year
and a half ago, but the outlook is so
dismal now that the truth of it is
undeniable. The only bright spot,
based on advance word from
Boston, is Stephen Sondheim's
work for Hal Prince's new musical.
"Follies." Of the others, Richard
Rodgers, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon
Harnick have already disappointed
us this season. Jerry Herman has
mysteriously disappeared from the
musical scene since "Dear World"
flopped a couple of seasons ago.
Jule Styne and Bob Merrill's latest
effort just folded in Boston,
foregoing its New York opening.
Alan Jay Lerner's musical
adaptation of Nabokov's Lolita just
bombed in Philadelphia and is
currently undergoing a major
re-write. John Kander and Fred
Ebb's new show also opened in
Philly earlier this month to
disastrous reviews. And, keep in
mind, these are the best songwriters
in the theatre today.

Where do we go from here?