Bothered and Bewildered- jv92 sees Pal Joey

[jv92]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 7:03pm

Dick Rodgers is spinning is his grave. Why? Stockard Channing is singing some of his most lovely songs in the Roundabout's pitiful new production of the 1940 Richard Rodgers-Larry Hart-John O'Hara musical, "Pal Joey."
Ms. Channing is a very good actress. She's won a Tony Award and recieved acclaim for her numerous stage and film apperances. However, a musical comedy leading lady she is not. By the time she finishes "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", the musical's signature tune, newly orchestrated to have the rhythm section removed, we don't need anymore proof. She is nasal, slurry and barley gets out her high notes. After watching her guzzle down a few glasses of supposedly fake scotch durring the performance, one is left to wonder if the scotch was real after hearing her hideous performance of "Take Him", again with the rhythm seciton mostly removed.
Her copatriot in this mess is Christian Hoff's understudy Matthew Risch. Risch needs to go back to acting school. He can barely play a role as undeveloped as Joey Evans. He is totally charmless and ridiculous in the part. His singing is a little better than Ms. Channing's, but not by much. Surely Mr. Hoff is a lot more charming in the role. I'm sure he can sing better too.
Poor Martha Plimpton was left with a nothing part. Except for a charming bit in "The Flower Garden of My Heart", one was left wondering what the hell her character was doing onstage. And why did she sing "Zip?" Sure it's a funny song, but it made no dramatic sense here.
Which brings us to another point- the revised libretto. "Pal Joey" has never been a particularly well written show, but Richard Greenberg has taken whatever charm and humor the original John O'Hara book had and has thrown it into the garbage can. The first act could have been finished in three songs instead of the nearly fifteen we had to suffer through, most of them staged by the usually wonderful Graciela Daniele in a fairly pedestrian mood this time at bat. The second act shoved a whole lot of plot that went undeveloped in the fist and "Zip" into its fifty five minute running time.
Scenic designer Scott Pask decided to use the left over roller coaster tracks from "Assassins" to try to create 1930's Chicago. He failed miserably. And how the hell does one leave the Chez Joey or the Chez Mike or whatever the hell it's called? The staircase or the door? Joe Mantello would know. Or would he? Can he stop directing musicals? Please?
So please dear friends, avoid this mess of a production of "Pal Joey." It's the beginning of the end for the Roundabout unless Stephen Sondheim discovers another brilliant production of one of his musicals for them.
Oh, and I'm even getting started on the new gay plot twist. Waste your money to learn more about that.
Sorry kids, I wanted to like it, but I simply could not. It just wasn't good.




Updated On: 11/23/08 at 07:03 PM

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 7:12pm

I disagree completely. While Stockard's vocals are hardly stellar, I'm glad she's in the show for the very reason that they built this production around her involvement - and I thought the production was top-notch. ESPECIALLY Matthew Risch, who started off shaky (though I think that was more a problem of requiring your lead to dance for 4 minutes then immediately sing well) but grew amazingly into the role. I loved the rest of the production too. Especially the lighting, incredibly effective.

The staircase is how you leave Chez Joey. The door was the maid's entrance. That was stated pretty clearly.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 7:16pm

Oh, I thought that was the author trying to throw in a bitchy line for Vera Simpson.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:14pm

Stockard and Martha are brilliant, delivering Tony-caliber performances. The main problems are a miscast Joey, a somewhat inconsistent quality of a score, and a book that is too PC [the gay subplot is ridiculous].

Stockard's character is not supposed to sing like Barbara Cook! "Bewitched" is her post-coital soliloquy on sleeping with Joey for the first time. It is not a "belt" number: she is touching, rueful, and poignant. Martha is sassy, delighfully vulgar, and also quite touching towards the end.

The set and supporting cast are fine. Joey is the main issue and I hope he is replaced.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:21pm

Ouch. That hurt.

I'm seeing it Tuesday.

Perhaps I ought to see it "after one whole quart of Brandy..."

Updated On: 11/23/08 at 09:21 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:41pm

But fflagg, Patti and Viviane Segal sang it so much better. I rather enjoyed Stockard durring the book scenes. And I'll admit Martha was quite good. I just wish her part made sense. I mean, why oh why was "Zip" in there? Why couldn't they have employed some poor actress to play Melba so the song could make sense?
Can the Roundabout please find a new artistic director? Please? It seems to me that the only good things they do are transfers from across the pond (Cabaret, Pacific Overtures, Sunday in the Park...) save for one brilliant American production (Assassins). It's a shame that we have to suffer through such pedestrian crap. This could have been a wonderful show. It's a shame it turned out this way.
Updated On: 11/23/08 at 09:41 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:06pm

I'm old, but not old enough to have seen Vivienne Segal in the original PAL JOEY. I DID see Patti LuPone do the role at Encores! and she was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Updated On: 11/23/08 at 10:06 PM

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:07pm

You thought their Pacific Overtures was good?

[logan0215]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 12:25am

I don't understand why you're so perplexed by Zip.

Gladys is performing at Chez Joey and the song later comes up as she is replaced.

Where is the plot hole?

[perfectliar]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 12:30am

I was going to say the same thing, logan... how does "Zip" not make sense? It may be sung by a different character, but it's not like it comes out of nowhere... it's clearly spelled-out as yet another one of the acts at Chez Joey.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 12:32am

If anything having Melba, a character created just to sing "Zip", is a bigger plot hole than having an Act I character sing it.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 5:32am

"Stockard's character is not supposed to sing like Barbara Cook! 'Bewitched' is her post-coital soliloquy on sleeping with Joey for the first time."

Well, actually she is supposed to sing kind of like Barbara Cook or at least the woman who created the role did. That was Vivienne Segal and the part was clearly fashioned to her strengths and her style, which included a soprano voice (she'd starred in a number of operettas). Even though the role doesn't go very high, Rodgers clearly wrote it with a legit voice in mind.

That's not to say that you have to cast a soprano. Carol Bruce played the role successfully in the tour of the 1952 production and then in the London version of the production. I believe the songs were lowered for her, but she was a superb singer with a very rich belt contralto.

On the page linked below, you can click on the second clip if you want to see Vivienne Segal (during the run of the 1952 production) sing a slightly cleaned-up for TV version of "Bewitched" at this link:

http://www.bluegobo.com/production.php?var=10200&mode=P&vid=0

Of course, her voice probably sounded more youthful when she played the role originally.

And for a sense of the person Rodgers approved to take over the role, here's Carol Brice singing "Bill" on TV:

http://www.bluegobo.com/production.php?var=10202&mode=P&vid=0

None of this is to say that you can't have someone who's not a first-rate singer in the role, but it's definitely not correct to say that the song is not supposed to be sung by someone with a trained voice. Rodgers was always very concerned about the quality of the voices in his shows and it's not at all clear that he'd want someone who really wasn't much of a singer to play the role. I rather suspect he wouldn't, although he did allow one City Center revival to go ahead with Viveca Lindfors, who got skewered by the critics for being unable to sing, in the role.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 12:33pm

Think less and feel more. Stockard is wonderful. And so is Martha.

If only the prod were directed by a man or woman who had a background of musical theater instead of pretentious drama.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 1:34pm

I'm seeing it tomorrow night.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 2:00pm

And the clip of Harold Lang doing Happy Hunting Horn is further proof that you MUST have a great dancer playing Joey. It's a lesson in how the part should be done, period.

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 2:12pm

Just wanted to clarify:

Neither Roundabout's 1998 "Cabaret" revival nor 2004 "Pacific Overtures" revival were "transfers from across the pond".

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 2:58pm

"Think less and feel more. Stockard is wonderful. And so is Martha. "

To whom is this directed? To me? It sounds like you're lecturing someone.

I responded specifically to a statement in your post that seems demonstrably wrong. You're the one wrote that the song is "not supposed" to be performed a certain way.

And I expressed no opinion on Stockard or Martha or anything about this production, which I haven't seen.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 4:08pm

Good Lord, we are on the verge of Thanksgiving and the holiday season. Please stop acting like someone is sticking a pin in you. . . this is a silly chat room which is getting sillier and nastier by the minute. Why I bother. . .

More importantly, peace and good will to all men [and women] during the next month.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 4:27pm

Having seen a production of Pal Joey in Canada about four years ago, I was appalled by the desolate stretch of book in the first half of Act Two. It was just badly put together and felt like a desert. We met characters like the gangsters that ought to have been introduced in Act One and then a whole lot of plot that needed to be parsed out over the evening. This dead stretch just killed the whole show and it never recovered.

I am concerned that the book has been fixed.

There has never been a major production of Pal Joey since the Bob Fosse runs at City Center in 61-62 that has succeeded. Ask anyone who saw the legendary disasterous one at Circle in the Square in about 1976 where Joey quit after the first preview and Vera after the fourth. Then Lena Horne and I think Clifton Davis failed big time in the late 70s with a revise that never made it into town.

It may be one of "those" heartbreakers where the book cannot be fixed and sinks the whole enterprise. I find out on January 9.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 4:47pm

" this is a silly chat room which is getting sillier and nastier by the minute."

You got it right there.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 5:02pm

Higgins-
Yes indeed they both were. Cabaret started in London at the Domnar. Pacific Overtures was actually a Japanese prodution Sondheim and Weidman saw and wanted to see come to America.

You know what I really don't get? Now that this poor fellow is actually going to be OPENING in the show- why does he have to play the goddamned role like a New York gangster with his phony "tough guy" manarisms and voice? I'm pretty sure Kelly, Lang and Fosse didn't pull off such antics. Even Sinatra wasn't as "tough guy" as this poor fool. Does anyone get what I'm saying? In other words, why can't someone play a role Irish anymore? Are we not tough anymore? Are only Italians considered tough? I love Italians by the way. I'm not trying to be mean of discriminatory in any way. I just don't get it.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 5:20pm

Higgins wrote:

"Neither Roundabout's 1998 'Cabaret' revival nor 2004 'Pacific Overtures' revival were 'transfers from across the pond'."

jv92 wrote:

"Yes indeed they both were. Cabaret started in London at the Domnar. Pacific Overtures was actually a Japanese prodution Sondheim and Weidman saw and wanted to see come to America."

I think you're both right. Those Roundabout productions were based on the earlier productions but you could legitimately argue that they weren't "transfers from across the pond."

The Cabaret was completely re-choreographed, among other things. And the only member of the English cast to come over was Cummings.

The Pacific Overtures was very close to the Japanese production, but some changes were made, and of course it had a completely new cast (and it was in English).

[marknyc]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 6:30pm

I don't think the Japanese "Pacific Overtures" was in Japanese. The Japanese TV production is in English (and well-spoken, too).

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 6:37pm

Aren't Carol Bruce and Carol Brice different people? Somebody help.........

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 6:40pm

While Mantello would not have been my first choice to direct a classic musical, all this criticism is just evil.

The show is in PREVIEWS and is still being worked on. Matthew Risch went on the first time without hardly any rehearsal and is already being slaughtered by people on this board.

Yes, Stockard Channing is not a great singer but a grand theatre diva should be able to pull off the role off anyway (See Carol Channing, Lauren Bacall and Katherine Hepburn in other great musical theatre rolls).

Nobody is expecting this to be a definitive prodution, but let's give the production time to find its legs before opening night, shall we?