To revive a musical like "Wonderful Town"—or its precursor and unofficial companion piece "On the Town"—you must understand that what you’re dealing with is a period confection, and you have to commit to some version of the recipe that renders the confection with tasty authenticity. As most of you know, the George Wolfe/Public Theatre try at "On the Town" several seasons ago missed the boat by a wide margin.
Happily, though, director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall and her musical director/vocal arranger, the redoubtable Rob Fisher, have hit the target pretty true with their rendition of "Wonderful Town."
In a way it’s hardly surprising: like the current long-running revival of "Chicago", this "Wonderful Town" began as a staged-reading concert in the Encores! series at City Center. The purpose of those concerts is to present neglected, forgotten or otherwise unrevivable shows in something close to their original style and ambience—and there is much recorded precedent for how "Wonderful Town" should be done (the 50s Broadway cast album, the network special recreation of the show and the soundtrack album it spawned, all starring Rosalind Russell). So with authenticity as a credo, "Wonderful Town" made a splash, one Spring weekend, two years ago.
You know what this one’s about, right? Set in the 30s, two sisters from Ohio decide to brave New York to make their careers? The older one, Ruth, kind of caustic and wry, wanting to be a writer; and the younger one, Eileen, an aspiring actress—a "good girl" (as they said at the time), but one who is nonetheless so strikingly pretty that men fall down before her. The story follows their misadventures, romantic entanglements and introduces a lot of eccentric supporting characters along the way.
Key to the reading’s success—and the reason why the producers waited so long to remount, to accommodate her schedule—was Donna Murphy as Ruth. It’s not merely that she so quintessentially captures the style of the era…it’s that she delivers the arch Fields-Chodorov dialogue, and the chi-chi—sometimes cutesy—Comden-Green lyrics with shameless abandon. One of the few musical theatre actresses of her generation to not only achieve but exhibit genuine stardom, she is unafraid to simply wail a scat-sung riff, or dive into a silly couplet with unrestrained exuberance. More than that, she’s a terrific vocalist, a first-rate actress, and also has a sense of proportion. She knows when to pull out the stops. She doesn’t just play the role…she plays the audience.
With the style so well-embodied at the core, how can it not ripple out to the rest of the company? And indeed, each in his/her own way embraces their archetype with gusto and relish, the standouts being David Margulies (the middle-European landlord), Michael McGrath (the wiseguy reporter), Raymond Jamarillo MacLeod (the football jock) and Greg Edelman (the noble editor).
I wish I could say Jennifer Westfeldt as Eileen was a standout too, but for my money she was certainly pleasant and right and appealing—but not inspired or special. (By contrast, the Encores! concert had featured Laura Benanti, who, for all her character’s innocence, had an interesting sense of bemusement lurking behind the eyes; she brought to it the extra layer that makes the difference between sufficient and sparkling.) But you could lots worse than pleasant and right and appealing, and like her cohorts, she keeps up her end of the bargain, and the show’s tone, handily.
Memory makes unclear how much the current staging recreates the Encores! concert and how much is reconceived…but it retains the general physical configuration. Rob Fisher and his orchestra are not consigned to the pit, but are rather visible on a raised, upstage platform (same as the orchestra in the Encores!-borne "Chicago" revival), which makes the angularly playful and delightfully hip Leonard Bernstein score thrilling to hear, and the staging and dance swirls around them.
What is clearly different is the design. Whereas "Chicago" keeps to the black-tie affair palate that informs the show’s darker themes, "Wonderful Town" has been appropriately gussied up with backdrops and cityscapes of bright color and in general a nostalgic (but not old-fashioned) evocation of old-time/broad strokes musical comedy (sets by John Lee Beatty, with costumes by Martin Pakledinaz to match).
There has been some skepticism "on the street" as to whether "Wonderful Town" could eke out contemporary survival, being such an "irrelevant" bit of fluff. And I will freely admit, I was among those who had my doubts as to how good an idea it was.
But one only has to watch Ms. Murphy make the audience eat out of her hand to realize that good is good, and that is that, and how much more "relevant" than that can you be…?