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| Joanna Merlin, Susan Browning, Marcia Rodd, Terry Kiser. |
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| Terry Kiser, Marcia Rodd. |
This was the type of musical critics described with words
like “likable,” “amiable,” “pleasing,” and “engaging,” as if it were a puppy,
not a show. It concerns a philandering young TV ad writer named Michael (Terry
Kiser) who sees his wife and seven adopted kids only on weekends, and resides
during the week in the special effects set used for the commercials he creates.
With him is Arthur, a marvelous computer that, at the touch of a button, can
created projected scenic backgrounds appropriate for any mood or climate
desired. (This prescient notion is now common in both theatre and on TV.) Arthur can also do a host of other useful feats, including singing many of
the show’s songs.
Michael seduces a young actress, Maud (Marcia Rodd), is
disturbed the next morning by another of his bed friends, a cleaning woman
named Wednesday November (Susan Browning), and finally must face his
supportive, understanding, but firm, wife, Gloria (Joanna Merlin).
There were some decidedly effective ideas in play here (many
of them scenic and technical), and the performances were bright and amusing.
However, the critics were mostly disappointed, opining that the show failed to
come together in a consistent blend.
Clive Barnes liked the “generally neat” lyrics, and found
the “undemanding soft-rock [music] with lots of electronic sound . . .
attractive.” Douglas Watt said the book was “gratingly mannered and
senseless,” the lyrics “foolish,” and “The music in no better.” Martin
Gottfried described Shelter as “an
unmusical and an undramatic play.” Several others were annoyed by the
unpleasant character of the spoiled, unstable, womanizing hero. One or two felt that a more positive women’s lib approach might have helped.
Creators Cryer (mother of actor Jon Cryer) and Ford, pathbreakers
in being, reportedly, the first female lyricist-composer team on and
Off-Broadway, would bounce back five years later (1978) with their best-known show, the popular I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It
on the Road.
