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| Bernice Massi, James Donohue. |
KABOOM!
[Musical/Politics/Youth] B/LY: Ira Wallach; M: Doris Schwerin; D/CH: Don Price;
S: Peter Harvey; C: Lohr Wilson; L: Timothy Harris; P: Joseph Rhodes, Alice
Schuman; T: Bottom Line Theatre (OB); 5/1/74 (1)
Critical nausea turned this Off-Broadway offering into yet
another one-performance reject of the early 70s. The satirical little show was
about Grisdale (James Donahue), a conniving go-getter who can’t achieve his
goal of being a supermarket checkout clerk because he lacks a high school
diploma. He gets into several scrapes, including stowing away on a spaceship
and, then, when it’s in trouble, guiding it safely back to earth. The First
Lady (Bernice Massi) becomes one of his several mistresses, and the President
(Charles Hudson) congratulates him and allows him to realize his life’s
ambition in the supermarket.
Kaboom! was
described by Howard Thompson as “A dull, vulgar little musical” with a “leaden”
book and a score only “a little bit better.” It was “ferociously dull,” claimed
Douglas Watt, and possessed of an “unfunny book, . . . awkward lyrics, . . . a
commonplace score . . . [and] blunt and obvious humor.” To Richard Watts, this
was “one of the season’s modest little disasters.”