BACKSTAGE BABBLE AT STUDIO 54:
TOPS WITH FLOPS
Not every musical is a hit, and some barely get a chance to stumble before vanishing into obscurity. The midtown Manhattan nightclub 54 Below has an ongoing concert series that explores Broadway’s Greatest Hits—but what about Broadway’s greatest flops? Last night on February 19, Beyond the Walls of Joe Allen—presented by Backstage Babble, threw a spotlight on those underappreciated, underwhelming, or just plain unlucky productions, offering a night of might-have-beens, should-have-beens, and probably-deserved-to-die curiosities. An attentive crowd at 54 Below heard from many singers from the original casts recalling and recreating musical moments from these short-lived productions. Not career highlights, but perhaps the opposite: lowlights. But in the right hands, even a theatrical misstep can still find its moment in the spotlight.
Speaking of lights, I’m reminded that one hundred and ten years ago, a song came along called “There’s a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway.” It was recycled for a stage vehicle on that fabled thoroughfare: Bullets Over Broadway (which didn’t quite go great guns itself). The old lyric about the lights states that there are “a million tears for every gleam.” After all the heartbreak, tears, toil, tension, trouble and tons of lost money become history, memories survive and, at least upon one cabaret stage, they can live again for one night.
Speaking of one night, the musical Onward, Victoria didn’t go onward after its opening night (preceded by previews, of course). It was about the first woman to run for US president. Like this 1980 endeavor, Victoria Woodhull’s run was not successful, but it did get a cast recording, so it’s not an unknown score to collectors (or theatre attendees with long memories of long-ago shows). Jill Eikenberry, who’d played the title role, brought lots of life to “Another Life”, earning definite “votes” of approval from the concert’s crowd. And she provided a quick American history lesson—this is the week of Presidents’ Day, after all—and a comment about the romance invented for the script of the partially true biomusical.
At least that show got its opening night and a cast album. Not so lucky was the production called Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don’t You Ever Forget It). Many forget it because it had no recording and no opening night, closing in previews. Representing the score was a fan letter addressed to a superstar, “Dear Miss Streisand.” Sung (or should I say, belted to the extreme) by Jenna Lea Rosen, not old enough to have seen or been in the 1973 piece, her character was appropriately starstruck and enthused, but the volcanic volume is too much for a cabaret room where everybody is pretty close to the stage.
During this notable night, with the very able and Broadway-savvy Michael Lavine manning the keyboard, bits of 411 were smoothly solicited or related by Charles Kirsch—the industrious, indefatigable host/curator/on-stage questioner of the stars. This evening is called Backstage Babble, the name of his ongoing podcast which features his interviews with Broadway folks. This is not his “first rodeo” at the nightclub, corralling celebrities. Plus, he has more projects in the works for 54 Below. In addition to his upcoming cabarets with J2 Spotlight Productions at the AMT Theater, this busy bee was buzzing around Broadway Con recently as the moderator of panel discussions. In his spare time, the high-spirited fellow goes to high school!
Another endearing Charles, whose surname also ends with “sch,” the rather legendary Charles Busch discussed the revival of House of Flowers, for which he revised the book. He brought an actor’s nuanced phrasing to illuminate the score’s tender “Don’t Like Goodbyes” and shared how the production put the spotlight on star Patti LaBelle, who’d never done musical theatre, but pulled her star-power weight, desiring more songs, so she reprised the ingenue’s numbers and incorporated her version of the classic “Over the Rainbow”! (Well, at least the melody was by the same composer, Harold Arlen).
And our host joked with a willing Stuart Zagnit about the latter having been in more than one musical that didn’t stick around on the Great White Way. Joined by Allen Lewis Rickman, they struck gold with “Gold and Goldberg” from Michael John LaChiusa’s score of The Wild Party. They also let us remember “Remember Who You Are” from the semi-recent The People in the Picture (2011) which played the Studio 54 theatre above this nightclub.
Perhaps carried away with reignited memories and emotions from decades ago, some singer-actors set up their songs with more context and details than was necessary for devotees in the nightclub (and those watching on livestream). The heavy, controversial and much-revised The Capeman got plenty of time, tears, and tangents about the tragic true-life tale—but reunited stars Natascia Diaz and Luba Mason brought on, and brought back, the apt angst and despair. In a lighter vein, charmer Ivy Austin again became a living doll as the title character of Raggedy Ann and got an extra hand for handling a section of “Rag Dolly” in Russian (yes, this musical, with songs first heard in a film version a decade earlier, was mounted in Russia before coming to Broadway, where it opened and closed in a week in 1986).
Others show tunes that got another airing on Wednesday: “Wednesday” (Jerry Dixon, recalling the drugs and sex elements in Bright Lights, Big City which didn’t make its expected transfer to Broadway from Off-Broadway; “Long Past Sunset,” with Cass Morgan poignant as a mother learning of a tragedy in The Human Comedy; A montage of songs (described as “mushed-over goo” by one newspaper reviewer) from Rockabye Hamlet, which brought rock music to shake up Shakespeare’s famous lines, was here strutted and blasted by Philip Casnoff); “Private Conversation” from Side Show in the sturdy voice of Jeff McCarthy; and some swell samples of Lorelei from one of its stars, vivacious veteran Lee Roy Reams, the reliably raring-to-go ribald and radiant raconteur. It should be noted that the musical in question is a more than questionable choice for a survey of flops; it ran for 320 performances and toured for a year. Explanation: the irrepressible musical comedy gentleman was asked to join the roster of artists “at the last minute” when someone had to drop out.
And then there’s Alma Cuervo, with extra wistfulness lavished on her character at a school reunion recalling the romantic/sexual tensions of a night when “Nothing Really Happened” from Is There Life After High School? She recounted that, back in 1982, she was told the song would really be more effective if it were “sung by an older woman in a cabaret.” And now that comes to pass.
You know someone’s a star when she gets the most sustained and excited applause—and she’s not even performing in the show! This is not meant as a slight to any of the talented people on stage or their renditions of the selected material. What happens as the evening is winding up is this: it’s announced that the last flop musical to be sampled, Her First Roman (1968), had Cleopatra as the main female character—and that the original leading lady was in the house: Leslie Uggams. Once the cheers subside, we are told that songs from this production will be performed by none other than her daughter, Danielle Chambers. When she asked her mom what she remembered about working on the musical, she had a terse reply: “It was brutal.” Well, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree: this young woman beams mega-watt energy with charisma and vocal chops. She sailed and soared through her song, getting her own major and well-deserved applause as the festival of flops finished fabulously.
Charles Kirsch will be back at 54 Below on March 2 to co-host a night of Jerry Herman’s Broadway fare and on April 14 for a concert version of the musical Coco. For more of the venue’s many offerings, see their calendar pages at 54 Below.
