Wednesday, June 17, 2020

162. FASHION. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

 Center; Ty McConnell, Sandra Thornton; rear; Holland Taylor, Mary Jo Catlett, Sandra Thomas, Jan Buttram, Sydney Blake, Susan Romann.

FASHION [Musical/Women] A/D: Anthony Stimac; M: Don Pippin; LY: Steve Brown; SC: Anna Cora Mowatt’s play, Fashion; S: Robert U. Taylor; C: Bieff-Herrera; L: Spence Mosse; P: R. Scott Lucas; T: McAlpin Rooftop Theatre (OB); 2/18/74-5/12/74 (94)

Anna Cora Mowatt’s classic 1845 comedy of pretentious manners among the New York nouveau riche—one of the few premodern American plays more or less regularly revived—was given a novel musical interpretation this rather effective presentation originally seen Off-Off Broadway.
Sydney Blake, Susan Romann, Jan Buttram, Joanne Gibson, Ty McConnell, Mary Jo Catlett, Holland Taylor, Henrietta Valor, Sandra Thornton/
The adaptors chose to produce it as if it were being rehearsed at a suburban home by a group of well-to-do, 1973, Long Island, suburban housewives (“The Long Island Masque and Wig Society”) Done with an almost all-female cast (Ty McConnell, the one male, played both the chauvinistic director and the phony count) as a play-within-a-play. The performance suggested that these women were not so far removed from the snobbishness of their 19th-century counterfeits.

The event had an overtone of gay campiness, especially in the use of actresses to play male roles. The jokes were often obvious and the framework play was not fully developed, but there was a liveliness, esprit, and high enough level of achievement in most areas for several critics to find the show charming.

The Fashion part of the book stayed rather close to the original, while excising a few of Mowatt’s characters, including the black servant. Much of the 1845 dialogue was retained. 

The campy cutesiness of the show distracted a couple of reviewers.  One, Jerry Tallmer, however, had to admit that “it won me over, against all odds.” “Fashion is running high, wide and handsome,” wrote John Beaufort, and Clive Barnes declared that a “bullseye” had been hit in this “chamber-ensemble musical of beguiling charm.” John Simon enthused, “The cast is endearing, the material engaging, and often intoxicating, and the whole thing is buoyant and caressing as can be.” As a whole, Fashion proved “irritating” to Martin Gottfried, but “some of the parts are promising and even engaging.”

The “lively, lively score,” as Edith Oliver called it, written in a derivative mode that sounded like much that was familiar from well-known shows, was nevertheless enjoyably melodic, and the lyrics were “right and witty in context,” according to Barnes.

Most stimulating of the show’s assets were the performances, which Barnes called “without exception, exceptional.” Every player was lauded by one or more critics, but the plump Mary Jo Catlett was generally considered the finest of the lot in her roles of Evelyn and Mrs. Tiffany. Others in the 10-member cast included Jan Buttram and Holland Taylor.