RAINBOW JONES [Musical/Animals/Fantasy/Romance] B/M/LY: Jill
Williams; D: Gene Persson; MS (CH): Sammy Bayes; S: Richard Ferrer; C: James
Berton Harris; L: Spencer Mosse; P: Rubykate, Inc. i/a/w Phil Gillin and Gene
Bambic; T: Music Box Theatre; 2/13/74 (1)
Peggy Hagen Lamprey, Gil Robbins, Ruby Persson, Andy Rohrer, Stephanie Silver.
One more coffin in the cemetery of single-performance flops
so prevalent in the early 70s, Rainbow
Jones was called a “coy and simpering” fantasy by Clive Barnes, “embarrassing”
by Martin Gottfried, and “idiocy” by Douglas Watt. Gene Persson directed his
wife, Ruby Persson—suggesting to Gottfried that this was a vanity production—in
the title role of Rainbow Jones, a young woman who blames herself for the auto
accident that killed her parents. She lives with an eccentric aunt (Kay St.
Germain) whose chief activity is watching TV quiz shows.
Unable to keep a job, the dispirited Rainbow finds her only
consolation in going to Central Park with a copy of Aesop’s Fable. There she communes with a speaking dog, lioness,
fox, and lamb who materialize whenever she opens the pages. A romance blooms
with an ad writer (Peter Kastner) who jogs in the park, but the relationship
weakens when he is skeptical about her fantasies. She leaves for Ohio, but
eventually returns to the guy in the park.
Kind words were scarce for this show. Barnes said, “The book
is as bad as the music, the music is as bad as the lyrics, and the lyrics are
as bad as either.” No pot of gold awaited Rainbow
Jones.