Where's Charley?

The way Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin, a pair of green Broadway producers, launched their illustrious career was this concept: A musical of CHARLEY’S AUNT staring Ray Bolger. That did it. That got everyone necessary on board––especially after Ray Bolger heard the idea. And on this idea without a single note of music written the enterprise was launched, an opening date chosen, and everyone went to work on what would become Frank Loesser’s introduction to Broadway, WHERE’S CHARLEY. The show ran two years, which equaled a hit in those days, despite mixed reviews and got a rather faithful movie treatment. Two things have kept WHERE’S CHARLEY from entering the cannon of the thirty or so most often revived titles from musical theatre history. The first is because there was a strike in the recording industry and so WHERE’S CHARLEY wasn’t given a cast album. Why it wasn’t made when the strike was over we’ll never know, but there it is. The second reason is that the movie never went to video and hasn’t been released on DVD. It doesn’t even show up on TV anymore, though it used to and so it is possible to hunt down a copy of it from some musical comedy lover or other who happened to record it on their VCR once upon a time. The film features most of the Broadway cast, including Ray Bolger, so we have a fair idea of what those performances were like. Seeing it now at City Center Encores, it seems antique, even for a 1940s show. It seems like a valentine to the Jerome Kern Princess Theater musicals era the way THE BOY FRIEND is a valentine to 1920s musicals. The score, though appropriate to the material, does not yet sound like the Frank Loesser that would follow, so to my ear now it sounds undistinguished. My friend Jim pointed out to me that this may have everything to do with the fact that we don’t have a recording and we didn’t grow up with the movie like we have with so many others of the classic shows. Had we lived with WHERE’S CHARLEY as we have THE SOUND OF MUSIC or so many others, maybe there would be more revivals in the world and maybe I would think more of a mostly unfamiliar score. On the other hand, I have discovered plenty of old shows––even rare ones––and have been enchanted by those scores on a first listen. Recording or no recording, video or no video, maybe WHERE’S CHARLEY isn’t the greatest score in the world. The book by GEORGE ABBOTT isn’t so hot either––one joke over two acts of Charley dressing up as his aunt to play a proper chaperone to he and his roommate’s girlfriends. Complications ensue. Think of it as a Victorian SOME LIKE IT HOT or TOOTSIE, but without any contemporary social commentary to give it substance. When it comes down to it the main attributes of WHERE’S CHARLEY were Ray Bolger and a little number called “Once in Love With Amy.” It’s still the stand out of the show.

John Doyle directs and Alex Sanchez choreographs with Rob Berman heading the usual great Encores full orchestra. Charley is played by a delightful person new to just about anyone, Rob McClure. He made a splash in the press last fall in a new musical about Charlie Chaplin called LIMELIGHT at the La Jolla Playhouse. So, he is brand new to the New York audience and he is a delight. He makes the old boy-in-dress routine work wonders. His girl Amy is the perky Lauren Worsham with a wonderfully expressive soprano voice that made “The Woman in His Room” a show-stopper. Roommate Jack is handled nicely by Sebastian Arcelus and makes the sappy, “My Darling, My Darling,” very lovely with the help of Jill Paice as Kitty. The older couple is elevated by the talents of Broadway stalwarts Rebecca Luker and Howard McGillin with a charming delivery of “Lovelier Than Ever.” Jeff Brooks, Dan Callaway and Dakin Matthews are well cast in supporting character roles. Ann Hould-Ward has given the production nearly the full period treatment with the costumes, which was necessary to properly put us in the period mood. John Lee Beatty’s single garden patio set served its basic purpose. This is a concert staging, so nothing more should be expected and actually, the costumes were rather elaborate for a concert production. There is a strange, but enjoyable, ballet at the end of act one called “Pernambuco,” where Charlie as his Aunt describes her home town in Brazil (where the nuts come from). It’s got a south of the boarder theme to it, which pegs the show as a 1940s entertainment because thanks to FDR’s “good neighbor” policy, south of the boarder subjects were everywhere in show business and a trend was created. The ballet has no business being in the show, but the shenanigans are so implausible that one can shrug and say, “why not?” It is alarming how little happens during the course of this musical and by the end of the two acts how quickly everything is wrapped up. WHERE’S CHARLEY doesn’t really hold up, but it has its charms and it was nice to have the chance to see it at the City Center with the full orchestra and a first class cast.