SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS with Raul Esparza @ Lincoln Center — Page 3

I was there Saturday, and the score was so stunningly executed, the sharp staging made a persuasive case. I found it part Loesser - the lush stuff between Susan and Dallas but also part Cy Coleman, the edgier midcentury urbanity. A friend felt the engendered emotion was slightly oppositional to the musical's goals: when the melodic lines underscore earnest intention in characters, satire and brittle sheen in the story can disappear. Of course, that's often true in musicals: as soon as a heart is worn on a sleeve melodically, intellectual distance is harder to produce in an audience. The jazzy score is atypical for this tunesmith, though I did chuckle to myself at "Dirt," which builds like a certain one word finale in Hamlisch's best known work. Has anyone else noticed that the hook in the haunting "At the Fountain" is eerily the same as "Momma, Look Sharp"?

On the plot: If JJ can be reduced to an organized crime syndicate capo, the whole point of the piece implodes. His venom is in the pen, in his MO: Williams' famous intentional cruelty. Once he crosses the blurred line into pure evil, the story loses its teeth. If a columnist with almost absolute power needs to kill to sustain his grip on the culture, melodrama takes over. It cheapens a satire, which to be relevant to today - and these creatives want that - skewers the basis of social media: instant cancellation. If murder is required, everyone in the audience can say: "Hey, that's not me on Instagram or Facebook (or Broadway World dot com)." Isn't the eerie timelessness applicable to 2025 only by holding a mirror up to our ability to destroy lives on these sites, sans weaponry other than a laptop?

Updated On: 11/24/25 at 10:18 AM

My two companions and I all thought the homoerotic element in JJ and Sidney was front and center with this cast's interpretation, if not always illustrated in the staging (an unfair ask, since nailing the plot is tricky enough with this piece with 2 weeks of rehearsal; subtext would have to be mined in performance). The emotional incest angle certainly makes JJ a bit of a damaged puppy, and "For Susan," a scary stalker paean, nails how pervasive the obsession has become. In Esparza's hands, JJ is like Roy Cohn in Angels, a man whose internal self-loathing is projected outward. It was a great performance, and if the show were remounted with him - unlikely - he'd get some of the best notices of his career. Now in his mid-50s, Esparza blends character actor and leading man effortlessly, and here his charisma was absolute.

The homoerotic aspect with JJ and Sidney definitely felt present in this version. Pretty early on too.

EricMontreal22 said: "I think it still could work with a smaller chorus as I know a university production did.)"

To be clear the chorus element was only for this production...the original had 21 in the onstage cast, which is fairly normal.

EricMontreal22 said: "Man, I want to hear this newly included material."

Taking all the creators' talk at face value that the material performed here was closer to what got initially workshopped, the musical's demo recording theoretically should (at least textually) get you within kissing distance.

Updated On: 11/25/25 at 09:40 PM

Wonder if this is a show that would hypothetically benefit from a Jamie Lloyd-style treatment? Or a more period-specific “Sam Gold emulating Ivo” thing. It’s a much better musical than SUNSET imo, but without the “slay diva” moments.