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| Dan Goggin, Elaine Petricoff, Danny Guerrero, Marvin Solley, (front) Jack Blackton, Sharon Miller. |
An excellent, well-received show that demonstrated the
effectiveness of a bookless musical completely set to music with a vague thematic
throughline. The theme of Hark! Was a
loose birth-to-death concept expressed in songs referring to things like youth,
overpopulation, undertaking, sexuality, Vietnam, urban living, and so on. It
was smoothly produced on a circular space, with considerable use of movement. Martin
Gottfried would have liked more dancing and less stress on the need for the
music to carry the show. Still, he was ecstatic about the “marvelous” music and
the range of styles demonstrated.
Douglas Watt wished the theme might have been more
imaginatively expressed, but felt the show’s “spring-like charm,” and commended
its “brisk and disarming” lack of pretension. And Richard Watts smiled brightly
at “a score that a more ambitious musical show could use to advantage.” Among
the few negative responses was Edith Oliver’s, which claimed that “tolerable is
the most that can be said” of Hark!
The six-member cast included Jack Blackton, Dan Goggin, Danny
Guerrero, Sharon Miller, Elaine Petricoff, and Marvin Solley. Goggin’s name may
be most familiar because he later created the internationally successful show Nunsense.