#26
Posted: 5/14/07 at 10:47am
As ENCORES! go, I found STAIRWAY TO PARADISE pleasant but dissapointingly bland. When I think of the great revues , I think of big, quirky unique personalities: Bert Lahr, Ethel Waters, Bea Lillie, Clifton Webb. Instead we got THE APPLE TREE PART 2 - Kristin Chenoweth with a nice supporting cast. She's a great talent and I consider myself a fan - but I thought she dominated the priceedings in an unhealthy fashion. And with the tantalizing potential of a rich palette of material to choose from (I would have loved to have seen her tackle some Bea Lillie material), she went for her usual twinkly-soubrette stuff. When she stayed from it in "Guess Who I saw Today, My Dear" she was undone by the bombastic arrangement.
The show needed more BIG personalities in the manner of Encores! previous and more satifying outing, FACE THE MUSIC. I normally love Kevin Chamberlin, but too often he seemed to be trying too hard in numbers that cried out for Nathan Lane's star wattage and stage presence (think what he could have done with Lahr's "Song Of The Woodman" from THE SHOW IS ON) And Christopher Fitzgerald was fine - but I kept wondering what quirky energy someone like Norbert might have brought to it. I was very dissapointed in Capathia Jenkins - her version of "Suppertime" was damn near emotionless (paging Mary Bond Davis) and I found Ruthie Henshell inaudible. And I found both sketches to be cute but not wildly funny.
Another problem for me was the over-familiarity of many of the numbers. I know this is heresy, but I would love to see "Manhattan/Mountain Greenery" given a rest for a while. And many of the featured revue numbers were later pasted into Hollywood musicals, where they recieved indelible and definitive impressions that none can replicate: Judy Garland's heart-stopping "Franklin D. Rosevelt Jones" in BABES ON BROADWAY, Ethel Merman's "Pack Up Your Sins" in ALEXANDERS'S RAGTIME BAND, and Fred, Nanette & Jack's "Triplets" in THE BANDWAGON and George Guitary's "Stairway to Paradise" in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. I know I should be able to listen to these fresh fresh ears but I can't!
And what a shame that there was nothing from the marvelous Arlen-Harburg-Ira Gershwin revue LIFE BEGINS at 8:40.
The show needed more BIG personalities in the manner of Encores! previous and more satifying outing, FACE THE MUSIC. I normally love Kevin Chamberlin, but too often he seemed to be trying too hard in numbers that cried out for Nathan Lane's star wattage and stage presence (think what he could have done with Lahr's "Song Of The Woodman" from THE SHOW IS ON) And Christopher Fitzgerald was fine - but I kept wondering what quirky energy someone like Norbert might have brought to it. I was very dissapointed in Capathia Jenkins - her version of "Suppertime" was damn near emotionless (paging Mary Bond Davis) and I found Ruthie Henshell inaudible. And I found both sketches to be cute but not wildly funny.
Another problem for me was the over-familiarity of many of the numbers. I know this is heresy, but I would love to see "Manhattan/Mountain Greenery" given a rest for a while. And many of the featured revue numbers were later pasted into Hollywood musicals, where they recieved indelible and definitive impressions that none can replicate: Judy Garland's heart-stopping "Franklin D. Rosevelt Jones" in BABES ON BROADWAY, Ethel Merman's "Pack Up Your Sins" in ALEXANDERS'S RAGTIME BAND, and Fred, Nanette & Jack's "Triplets" in THE BANDWAGON and George Guitary's "Stairway to Paradise" in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. I know I should be able to listen to these fresh fresh ears but I can't!
And what a shame that there was nothing from the marvelous Arlen-Harburg-Ira Gershwin revue LIFE BEGINS at 8:40.
"Christ, Bette Davis?!?!"
