SPOILERS
I was at yesterday's matinee and was horrified at what Richard Greenberg has done to the book. Whatever wit was in the show to start with has disappeared without a trace. New, unnecessary characters and subtexts have been inserted, large hunks of what worked have been deleted, and the whole thing is one unmitigated mess. Congratulations, Roundabout, once again you've taken a classic musical and destroyed it. For example, Happy Hunting Horn, one of the original's dance highlights (check out Harold Lang during the '52 revival which aired on the Ed Sullivan show) has been reduced to a dirge -- the chorines appears in mourning veils at the start of the number and it was downhill from there. "Choreography" has been reduced to arm-swinging and uncordinated, meaningless gestures. Kelly, Fosse, Lang et.al. must be turning in their graves!!!! Gladys is now an ex-girlfriend of Joey's who had to have an abortion as a result of one of their indiscretions; Lowell is now a not-very-closeted gay who has a penchant for chorus boys; the sets were, to put it mildly, minimal. Two dreary songs that were written but dropped have been reinstated (Abbot, Rodgers and Hart knew what they were doing when they dropped them) -- the list goes on and on. No number registered with the audience and there were no repeated bows at the end. And, as for the casting:
Matthew Risch could be a good Joey, but this production defeats him. He dances well (as far as could be told from Daniele's vile choreography), is a Joey "type," sings well enough (though not spectacularly) and shows some spot-on acting in the 2nd Act. Stockard Channing cannot sing, period. Her acting is fine, when given half a chance, and she brings some flair to the part. Poor Martha Plimpton is up against insurmountable odds with some very unfunny dialogue.
I LOVE the show Pal Joey (as written) -- it's always been a favorite and it grieves me no end that this monstrosity should be some people's first and (most likely) only exposure to the piece. But Roundabout should be run out of town for allowing this to happen.
You may have guessed, I didn't like it.
BroadwayEd
Updated On: 11/30/08 at 11:14 AM