PalJoey on Pal Joey

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:49am

So I saw the show tonight, and I'm too tired to deliver detailed reactions, but in the short form:

Martha Plimpton's every moment is perfect, Stockard doesn't sing "Bewitched" like your favorite singer but delivers a brillantly nuanced portrayal of an older woman who doesn't want to let herself be used, and as for Matthew...











...a star will be born.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:53am

I was really excited about your review. Sounds great! Hope you get more details when you're not tired.
I'd love to hear your comments on Greenberg's book, Plimptom's "Zip," and most importantly about this star that will be born

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:59am

Ah Iw as waiting for yoru review! Glad you liked it and can't wait to hear more.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:02am

I would be hard on the book if I thought it was bad. It's pretty good, and the second-act plot twist involves the "Zip" number, so I actually give Greenberg points for integrating "Zip" better than it ever has.

Plimpton not only nails Zip, she nails every line and lyric she has. She nails walking from stage left to stage right. She even nails standing still.

More on the Star-That-Will-Be-Born tomorrow.

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:16am

I've been waiting for your review! Thanks for the preview of coming attractions. I look forward to hearing all about it. I may just have to make a trip into the city for this one.

[cello_dude]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:22am

This is one of my favorite thread titles

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:58am

Agreed!

CANNOT wait to read your full review soon, my friend!

So far, you've gotten me all the more intrigued!

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 7:37am

I loved Martha - but don't you think there's a problem in either the book or her performance in her last scene in Act 2? She turns from a confident wordly woman into a complete ditz for no reason, and it really bothered me.

Those three carriage returns before you said Matt was good was the most tense internet in recent memory.

[SgtDonut]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:37am

I'm glad it was good! It'd be a shame if it sucked.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:40am

Starting with your comments about the plot and Martha (it's so easy to talk about her because she's just that good!):

Without wanting to say WHY she's a beaten woman in that scene (it would be a spoiler, right?), suffice it to say that she has to provide the plot twist. Greenberg had to create SOMETHING in the second act, because there IS no second act in the original. John O'Hara wrote a series of New Yorker short stories that were actually just letters from Pal Joey to his Friend Ted. There was no plot, and every adaptation since has had to invent one.

So Greenberg, like all the other adapters before him, had to make up something in the second act to propel the story. What he chose to do with Martha's character is actually true to the period: It was the Depression, jobs were hard to come by, and Gladys is a bit of a boozer who wouldn't be able to find another job easily. I totally bought her in that final scene. In fact, I think that scene should clinch her Tony nomination.

It's the OTHER plot twist I think is a little gratuitous and out-of-period--you know, the one I can't say anything more about because it really WOULD be a spoiler. But it drives the plot and gives Stockard a great moment in the confrontation scene.

So all in all, I think Greenberg did an excellent job of taking the best from the past structures and dialogue and giving it a new voice and shape.

Now let's talk about Matt: From the overture--which Graciella Danielle has smartly chosen to stage as a dance overture--you totally buy Joey as a hoofer (yay!), selling his money steps to a bunch of club owners, trying to get a job. Those first little dance scenes firmly place him in the tradition of hoofers and song-and-dance men like Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor and Gene Nelson.

Then there are those dark, brooding good looks of his. By the end of the overture, it's already working. We're buying him as Joey. Now he's got to open his mouth.

The odd structure of the show (going back to the original) requires him to sing two minor Rodgers and Hart nightclub songs ("Chicago" and "You Mustn't Kick It Around," with the chorus girls), immediately followed by one of their greatest love songs ever: "I Could Write a Book," which has always been somewhat disproportionately romantic for two characters who have just met.

In his fourth performance, he was surprisingly self-assured. His voice is rich and supple and his low notes are especially sexy. And in the dialogue, he's got the right edgy ambitiousness going, and he "gets" the combination of 1930s Chicago tough-guy-talk and 1930s Variety-ese show-biz lingo.

In the scenes and songs with Jenny Fellner as Linda, Matthew's youth gives him an interesting earnestness. The audience is actually confused--and in a good way: Is he just working her, the way he works every angle? Or does he actually capable of feeling deeper human emotions for this girl? It creates the perfect tension for the show. You believe him as the cad and the heel and you almost seduced into believing he's fallen for Linda like he has for no other girl. It's a delicious ambiguity.

But it's especially in the scenes with Stockard Channing that you really see a glimpse of a great Joey in Matthew. (She's that kind of great actress, a gift to other actors and the audience: Just standing on stage with her elevates everyone else's performance--and just seeing her onstage the entire evening for the rest of us.)

The difference is their ages is so obvious that it gives her something fascinating to play: She is totally disbelieving at first that he could be interested in her, then amused, then shocked, then offended, then turned on. And you see her go through all that in the very first nightclub scene.

The way Matthew handles the dialogue in that scene and the subsequent one with firmly establishes him as a good (and possibly great Joey). He is so sexual in his overture to her, so insinuating--so carnal--that the story takes on the eroticism it needs to be truly edgy and dangerous.

And it's in one of the most minor Rodgers and Hart songs that Matthew REALLY begins to own the role: "Happy Hunting Horn," which Greenberg and Joe Mantello have brilliantly used to illuminate the feral, predatory nature of Joey's narcissism. As he climbs the stairs to make his sexual kill--the poor Linda who believes in him--he becomes the ultimate user of people that John O'Hara first envisioned in his New Yorker short stories.

Just one quick note about Stockard: If you want to hear "Bewitched" sung perfectly, put on Ella Fitzgerald or Lena Horne. But suffice it to say that moments of her performance are still resonating with me the morning after, the way moments of her performances in the past in 6 Degrees and Blue Leaves are still with me years later.

I predict that by opening night, three great performances will be reasons to see this production: Stockard Channing, Martha Plimpton and Matthew Risch.

Updated On: 11/26/08 at 08:40 AM

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:59am

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I am now excited to see this again!! Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for such a thorough review.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 9:05am

Now I really can't wait to see this this Saturday matinee. The way PalJoey is describing it, I think I'm going to go back for second helpings.

Updated On: 11/26/08 at 09:05 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 9:49am

I have an old friend in this company, and I'm cutting/pasting this review. Bet he finds this a Thanksgiving present to dine out on.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 9:54am

Don't get me wrong. The show is still a problematic show. Like Follies and Merrily We Roll Along, it may be unfixable.

Follies has unpleasant leads and Merrily has an unpleasant lead and an unsatisfying backwards structure. It's possible those shows--and this one--can never be turned into perfect things. (Although I think the original Follies WAS as perfect as anything ever was.)

But between the two stunning performances from Stockard and Martha, the possibility of Matthew turning into a third, and an intelligent and well-done attempt at the book, this will be a Joey worthy of its source material.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 9:56am

"In his fourth performance, he was surprising self-assured. His voice is rich and supple and his low notes are especially sexy."


You mean he's not a screechy tenor? That alone makes me want to hop a plane to New York.

Great recap, PJ. It sounds like they have the right people in place now, and they just need to let it gel a bit more before opening. And that's what previews are for!

[jaystarr]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 10:19am

Thank you for the review! I might decided to go to NYC again and see this!

J*

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 10:24am

Somebody more musical than I would have to say if he's a tenor or a baritone--or a "bari-tenor"--all I know is that when he hits those low notes, it's sexy.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 10:35am

Thanks for a great review, PalJoey. I totally agree with everything you said about Martha Plimpton and Stockard Channing. That's how I felt about them when I saw the first preview with Christian Hoff.

If I see a show in previews and I usually like to go back again after opening. After being so disappointed and disheartened by Christian's performance I decided that night that I didn't need to see anymore. After reading your review I will definitely be going back to see it again. I am so glad to hear that Matthew seems so promising. What a great opportunity for him.

I think Christian Hoff is a terrific actor and well deserving of the Tony Award he received for his performance in Jersey Boys and I look forward to seeing him in future projects.

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:22pm

I'm going to see the show at the end of December and CAN'T WAIT to see Matthew as Joey!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:24pm

While I love and adore PalJoey (the poster on BroadwayWorld), do not go see this show JUST because he posted a mostly positive/promising review about it. There are *much better* shows playing on Broadway right now...

Jaystarr, if you decide to come into the city, please see Billy Elliot instead...I know you had tickets and missed it the first time around. BE will be a multiple Tony winner and Pal Joey may not even get a single nomination (not only is it mediocre, but it might be long forgotten since it closes in February).

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:48pm

While I love and adore WithoutATrace (the poster on BroadwayWorld), sometimes people like to see a classic, even in less-than-perfect condition, just to see how it's holding up.

You know. Like going to see Liza in 2008.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:53pm

Haha. Nice response. I haven't seen Liza's at the Palace yet...if it is awful, I will state that on the boards.

I am going to try and see PAL JOEY again this weekend so I can make an accurate assessment of Risch's performance, because frankly, someone with the screen name "PalJoey" is less likely to be unbiased in his review of this show.

Still love you though, PJ and looking forward to seeing you next Wendesday evening.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:07pm

Wait as long as possible to see Matthew. He'll be better as he gets more performances under his belt.

And one should never state publicly that Liza is awful. It would be like breaking a sacred trust.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:14pm

I ASSURE you guys.. Liza will NEVER be awful. Ive seen her show already in Woonsocket, RI. and she's beyond FANTA-BULOUS!

Rest assured. You guys in NYC will be blown with her performance at the Palace. IT'S A MUST SEE!

I will probably end up seeing both Pal Joey ( I trust PJ's opinion!) of course~and BILLY ELLIOT (which most likely it will win the TONYS for BEST NEW MUSICAL! (yes this early!!)

YES~ Pls screen print this.. I dont think I will EAT my words!

J*

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:27pm

Great preview, PJ, thanks. I would love to see the show, alas there's no chance of NYC before March.