Opera

Wonderful Town

 (New York State Theater, New York; 2,779 seats; $73 top)

By JEREMY GERARD

A New York City Opera presentation of a musical in two acts with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on their play "My Sister Eileen." Conducted by Eric Stern; directed by Richard Sabellico.
 
Appopolous - Larry Block
Helen - Meghan Strange
Wreck - Timothy Warmen
Violet - Amanda Green
Speedy Valenti - Carlos Lopez
Eileen Sherwood - Crista Moore
Ruth Sherwood - Kay McClelland
Robert Baker - Richard Muenz
Frank Lippencott - Don Stephenson
Chick Clark - Stephen Berger

 

"Wonderful Town," wonderful show. So why, by the end of the first act, did I want to swear off New York City Opera's Broadway revivals forever? Well, because more of them have been misses than hits, because Broadway shows are china shops in the bull of an opera house, because the casting is mostly awful and the amplification a horror, because at 41, the show seems as tired as me no matter how hard we try to put on a happy face.

So, thank goodness for the second act. Richard Sabellico's staging goes from perfunctory to amusing and swift; Tina Paul's choreography shifts from laughably mediocre (it takes real talent to mess up the "Conga" act one closer) to lively if notelectric, and the story itself, of two Ohio-born sisters -- aspiring writer Ruth (Kay McClelland) and irresistible would-be actress Eileen (Crista Moore) -- struggling to make it in New York finally takes off.

In 1953, "Wonderful Town" was greeted with a fistful of raves, but even then it must have occurred to some that its view of cute Greenwich Village eccentrics was so sugar-coated as to be nearly indigestible. Nevertheless, lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green's sophomore collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein -- after "On the Town" nine years earlier -- boasted an effervescent score. Much of the music now strikes the ear as an exercise for "West Side Story ," and the lyrics have great verve. Still, none of the songs broke out of the score, and it's unsurprising that revivals have been few and far between.

Strongest member of the current cast is Richard Muenz as the romantic lead, a fiction editor who falls in love with Ruth; his "A Quiet Girl" is the evening's musical high point. Neither McClelland nor Moore seems comfortable in her role, and their voices are woefully mismatched, making the score's most familiar duet, "Ohio," torture (twice torture, if you count the reprise).

Michael Anania's sets are handsome, though in the cavernous environs of the State Theater, Ruth and Eileen's Christopher Street digs seem more like a spacious aerie than the grungy grotto it's supposed to be.

Choreographed by Tina Paul. Sets, Michael Anania; costumes, Gail Baldoni; lighting, Jeff Davis; sound, Abe Jacob; chorus master; Joseph Colneri. Opened, reviewed Nov. 8, 1994. Running time: 2 HOURS, 40 MIN.
Musical numbers: Overture, "Christopher Street," "Ohio," "One Hundred Easy Ways ," "What a Waste," "A Little Bit in Love," "Pass the Football," "Conversation Piece, " "A Quiet Girl," "Conga," Entr'acte, "My Darlin' Eileen," "It's Love," "Let It Come Down," "The Wrong Note Rag."
 

With: William Ledbetter, Don Yule, Gary Jackson, Mason Roberts, Louis Perry, John Lankston, Jeffrey Weber, Marilyn Armstrong, Daniel Shigo, Susan Browning, Larry Sousa, Ron Hilley, Paula Hostetter, Melissa Maravell, Beth Pensiero.