The one and only time I saw a production of PAL JOEY was back in 1978 at the Music Center in Los Angeles. In fact the producers changed the title to "PAL JOEY '78" thinking it would let the audience know it was a newer, updated version of the original 1940's musical. The show (and hype) was built around the Vera Simpson character for good reason. It was being played by the legendary Lena Horne who hadn't appeared on the Broadway stage in a show since JAMAICA back in the fifties (though in 1974 she did play the Minskoff with Tony Bennett in a concert setting for about three weeks).
Back to PAL JOEY. The part of Joey was played by Clifton Davis, whose character was changed from being a dancer as played by Gene Kelly and Bob Fosse on stage to that of a singer as Frank Sinatra portrayed him in the film. That disappointed me at the time because I would have ideally preferred the role to be that of a singer/dancer with the stress on dancer. Someone at the time like Ben Vereen or Gregory Hines would've been ideal..
The show wasn't working for me from the very beginning. Plus the first Act closer which built up to Lena singing "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" was a disaster. Lena was fine but her body mike kept cutting out constantly. And when it did, it seemed to do it on all her big money notes. It was so bad that I actually thought they were going to redo the number when they got the equipment working correctly. But...they didn't. Of course, Lena looked great in her costumes and did the best she could with the role but by the second act it dragged. Once again, had she played against a really exciting and impressive dancer instead of a lounge singer I feel it would've helped immensely. The show also played San Francisco but the reviews were not good and plans of going straight to NY were jettisoned, I have nothing but good thoughts towards a future reworked production with added R & H songs. TBH, I only like a handful of songs from their original score.
Updated On: 7/13/23 at 11:02 PM