228. HEATHEN! From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Russ Thacker, Yolande Bavan, Edward Rambeau.

HEATHEN! [Musical/Period/Religion/Youth] B: Robert Helpmann and Eaton Magoon, Jr.; M/LY: Eaton Magoon, Jr.; D: Lucia Victor; CH: Sammy Bayes; S: Jack Brown; C: Bruce Harrow; L: Paul Sullivan; P: Leonard J. Goldberg and Ken Gaston i/a/w R. Paul Woodville; T: Billy Rose Theatre; 5/21/72 (1)

Edward Rambeau, Mokihana

An amateurish concoction of rock music and an inane story set in the Hawaii of 1819 and 1970, with flashbacks taking the audience from the hippie-dominated present to the missionary-dominated past. The same actors played the Hawaiians of both past and present, making the frequent time shifts clumsy and confusing.

This “complete disaster,” in Richard Watts’s words, seemed like “some sort of terrible joke,” as Martin Gottfried declared. Why Sir Robert Helpmann, the distinguished British choreographer, dancer, and director, contributed to its creation was a question on everyone’s mind. Regardless, everyone knew, as did Douglas Watt, that with Heathen!’s single performance, the 1971-1972 season had “ended in a shambles.”

; L