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| Burt Rodriguez, Eddie Mekka. |
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| Eddie Mekka. |
Lt. William Calley, a name that will live in infamy, was an
American soldier who gained notoriety during the Vietnam War for ordering and
participating in the massacre of My Lai, a village of innocent people, while on
a “search and destroy” mission. This shocking atrocity was the core of The Lieutenant, a sung-through rock
opera (no dialogue) developed at the Queens Playhouse in Flushing Meadows,
Queens, before ending up on Broadway.
The Lieutenant attempted
to explore the background to Calley’s callous act by showing how the Army
calculatedly turned innocent men into killing machines, a subject previously
handled in George Tabori’s Pinkville.
The unnamed officer (Eddie Mekka) was thereby shown as a scapegoat while American
militarism was denounced as the villain.
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| Jim Litten, Tom Tofel, Eddie Mekka, Jo Speros. |
Played on a bare state with an eclectic score using non-rock
styles as well as rock, this “shattering anti-recruitment poster” of a show, as
Douglas Watt called it, was staged and choreographed with “seamless and
unfaltering” smoothness. “The dancing is sensationally innovative and
well-executed,” claimed Brendan Gill. Clive Barnes called Dennis Dennehy’s
choreography “tough, taut and explosive.” Watt thought the score by Curty,
Scharfman, and Strand “lacking in distinction,” but Barnes found it “attractive
and supportive.” Less enthusiastic critics included John Simon, who wrote that
the show’s “satirical yet earnest material” was created by “well-meaning but
uninspired individuals,” while Martin Gottfried demeaned the entire enterprise
as amateurish and on “a summer camp level.”
Its several positive good reviews notwithstanding, The Lieutenant, possibly because of its
unpleasant subject matter, failed badly at the box office and was gone in a
week. Musical competition on Broadway was very thin that year, which is surely
why the show was nominated for a Best Musical Tony, a Best Book Tony, a Best
Score Tony, and a Best Actor, Musical, Tony for Eddie Mekka," The latter's biggest
claim to fame would be the role of Carmine Ragusa on TV’s “Laverne and Shirley.
