Bring Back Birdie @ 54 Below

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 6:18pm

Dear Steven Carl McCasland, 

I know you read and post on this board, so I want to address you directly for a moment and thank you so much for putting on Bring Back Birdie AND for turning in one of the funniest performances I've seen in a long time with "Shape Up." I enjoy your series a lot, but this gem of show was the cream of the crop. 

Sincerely, 

Whizzer

I have long been obsessed with the Bring Back Birdie score/OBCR, as well as a few naughty audios I have of the show. To see it all performed live was a dream come true. Lenora Nemetz did some serious channeling of Chita last night- this might be the role she was born to play. I loved her. 

The show itself must be one of the worst to ever grace a Broadway stage, especially when figuring in the caliber of talent who created it. The lyrics are shockingly atrocious and the book is an insult to both the audience's intelligence and fans of the original Birdie. (Why is Albert such a horrible asshole to Rose? How is the big reveal that Mae is really Dolores Lopez and has only been mean to Rose all these years because she knows how "wicked we Latinas can be??" This also makes Alberto half-Latino btw.) The real saving grace are Strouse's melodies which are infectious as ever. 

Of all the campy numbers, I think "A Man Worth Fightin' For" is my favorite. The fact that all these hunky guys in the El Coyote club would be all gaga over Rose is ridiculous, and having Rose sing a country western uptempo song in defense of Albert is the definition of WTF. (Btw in the original production some of the male ensemble were dressed up in full Village People Native American garb as they tossed Chita around the stage.)

All of the kids' numbers have cringeworthy lyrics, but "Middle Age Blues" probably has the worst of the bunch. "Went bowling Tuesday evening, was feeling terrif', woke up Wednesday morning and the wrong parts were stiff!" and "My teeth are still OK, the fillings hurt, no french fries or else it's Maalox for dessert" are my favorites. I don't understand why drag queens everywhere aren't singing "I Love Them All" and "There's a Brand New Beat in Heaven" is a showstopper to revival the best of them. 

Encores wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole, but what I wouldn't give to hear the score performed by a full orchestra.    

It's too bad they didn't pull a Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight and check in on Rose and Albert every 20 years...what might have been!

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 11/3/17 at 10:29am

Ugh, I am SO disappointed now that you couldn't make it to Sugar, Whizzer! I wish there was video from it...but there are show stills somewhere on BWW. (I'm in one with Lesli Margherita.)