525. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Michon Peacock, Michael Vita, David Chaney, Alan Weeks. (Photo: Henry Grossman.)

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT [Musical Revue] M/LY: Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz; D: Paul Aaron; CH: Larry Fuller; S/L: David F. Segal; C: Jane Greenwood; P: Gordon Crow i/a/w J. Robert Breton; T: Edison Theatre; 4/14/72-4/16/72 (4)

A jukebox revue in which a narrative frame loosely tied together around 40 musical standards about love’s joys and sorrows, written by the "hugely successful partnership of Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. The songs included “Something to Remember You By,” “By Myself,” “That’s Entertainment,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Shine on Your Shoes,” most of them tunes with which a 1972 audience would have been familiar. Perhaps less well-known were numbers like "High and Low," Absent Minded," "You're Not the Type," and "Blue Grass."

The singers had character names and the songs were staged as narrative scenelets, but the direction often became intrusive, a number of songs were considered better left at home, and the performances were uninspiring. Clive Barnes summed it up as “half-baked in conception,” concluding, “That’s not entertainment.”

For the record, the singers were David Chaney, Jered Holmes, Judith Knaiz, Michon Peacock, Vivian Reed, Scott Salmon, Bonnie Schon, Michael Vita, and Alan Weeks.

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