TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/030689/03068900.021

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 4KB | 60 lines

SHOW BUSINESS, Page 81

The View from the '80s

By William A. Henry III


    Forget for a moment that Jerome Robbins is one of the pivotal
figures in Broadway history and that the gala onstage is a summing
up of his invaluable career. For audiences who know what came
after, how entertaining is this journey to the bottom of Robbins'
trunk? If Broadway is not making 'em the way it used to, should we
be regretful? Or relieved? If neither revivals from Broadway's
heyday nor imitations of that style lead to commercial success,
then does this logical next step, a greatest-hits compendium, offer
much hope?

    The answers, as might be expected with such a patchwork show,
depend on what is onstage at the moment. The pratfall pandemonium
of the opening scene of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum makes one long for a full-scale Broadway revival. The dance
suite of teen gang wars adapted from West Side Story actually
benefits by being divorced from the original's cute, coy lyrics,
which in life would not tumble trippingly from the tongues of
underprivileged youth. The wide-eyed wonder of city life may never
have been more vibrantly shown than among the World War II-era
sailors aprowl in On the Town. The comic chase among cops, con men,
thugs and bathing beauties from High Button Shoes improves upon the
fizzy Mack Sennett one-reelers that inspired it.

    On the other hand, the whimsical Siamese retelling of Uncle
Tom's Cabin from The King and I seems stately and slow. The Russian
peasant life in Fiddler on the Roof looks even cornier and campier
when deprived of the original's glints of fear and oppression. A
protracted, wordless street scene among customers of a speakeasy
is unlikely to bring back Billion Dollar Baby. And a danced duet
from High Button Shoes, cast with vigorous young performers,
defeats the whole sentimental purpose of the original number: to
demonstrate that a married couple well along into middle age can
not only remain lovebirds but still get their knees up into the
air. The show's archival curiosity is Mr. Monotony, a dance
interpreting an Irving Berlin song; the number was dropped out of
town from two successive shows. Here it is amusing, but its fate
is understandable: this pure divertissement would be distracting
in any musical with a plot.

    Despite all the ballyhoo about the $8 million price tag, the
work onstage can appear modest, even a little tatty. The sets are
mostly painted drapes, an awkward compromise between old-style
realism and contemporary abstraction. There may be hundreds of
costumes, but a lot of them look flimsy; they might have been
basted together by the second-rate strippers in the You Gotta Have
a Gimmick number from Gypsy. While the performers dance as
brilliantly as one would expect from disciples of Robbins, most
can't act very well, and there is not one striking singer in the
entire company. The most problematic is Robert La Fosse, a New York
City Ballet star who moves gloriously but whose facial expression
seems limited to a scowl and a simpering grin. Jason Alexander, who
serves as narrator and plays seven characters, has wit, charm and
the requisite razzmatazz -- his parts in Forum and Fiddler were
played by Zero Mostel -- but lacks the star attribute of effortless
ease. Yet if Robbins has not unearthed the treasure trove that many
hoped for, he still offers a richly illuminated manuscript from the
book of Broadway's beloved past.