E.G. Marshall, Virginia Vestoff.
NASH AT NINE
[Musical Revue/Literature] CN/D: Martin Charnin; M: Milton Rosenstock; LY: Ogden
Nash; S: David Chapman; C: Theoni V. Aldredge; L: Martin Aronstein; P: Les
Schechter and Barbara Schwei i/a/w SRO Enterprises and Arnold Levy; T: Helen
Hayes Theatre; 5/17/73-6/2/73 (21)
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| E.G. Marshall, Virginia Vestoff, Bill Gerber. |
This was an intermissionless, hour-and-a-quarter revue composed of Ogden Nash’s comical verses and lyrics set to music. It proved too intimate in manner
and limited in appeal to sit well in the (soon-to-be demolished) 1,200-seat
Helen Hayes Theatre (not to be confused with the later venue of that name,
i.e., the renamed Little Theatre).This despite Nash’s clever and idiosyncratic rhythms and rhymes being well-enough sung and acted by E.G. Marshall and Virginia Vestoff,
supported by Bill Berber, Richie Schechter, and Steve Elmore. (A sample: “Many
an infant that screams like a calliope/Could be soothed by a little attention
to its diope.”)
David Chapman’s black and white-paneled set of pages from
the dictionary and thesaurus was striking and original, and Martin Charnin’s
staging appropriately upbeat and blithe. However, the material was often too
loosely arranged around thematic structures to provide needed continuity.
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| E.G. Marshall, Steve Elmore, Virginia Vestoff, Richie Schechtman. |
Reviews were mixed, but most hovered in the lukewarm to
politely appreciative range. “[T]he revue passes like a breeze,” wrote Edwin
Wilson, and Douglas Watt called it “the perfect after-dinner entertainment.”
Martin Gottfried, though, disliked its blandness and the irrelevance of Nash
being set to music—“vacant” music at that. Walter Kerr chastised the direction
as “coy” and “fussy,” and Clive Barnes thought the show lacked “variety.”
T.E. Kalem spoofed the material thusly:
Dear Ogden Nash—
Though dandy your candy,
And puissant your liquor,
Broadway kills quicker.
Late flash—
We still love you pash.
