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| Randy Herron, Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Murney. |
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| Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Murney. |
A frenetic, unfunny mélange
of commedia dell’arte costumes and
shtick (pardon me, lazzi) designed to
convert an amusing 17th-century French farce by Molière into a Broadway
musical. It failed catastrophically to do so with wit, élan, or charm. For some
reason, theatremakers of early 70s were mesmerized by this material; between
1970 and 1975 three New York shows were based on it, the
other two described here.
 |
| Christopher Murney, Walter Bobbie, Rene Auberjonois. |
Jon Jory’s
heavy-handed, sight-gag crammed treatment of the original, often called in
English The Tricks of Scapin, had
succeeded at Jory’s home theatre in Kentucky, the Actors Theatre of Louisville,
but seemed blatantly provincial on the Main Stem. By the time it opened, its
commedia approach had been far more successfully utilized by Bob
Fosse’s Pippin, and it all seemed
old-hat and second-rate.
 |
| /Walter Bobbie, Carolyn Mignini. |
The critics pointed
to the constant succession of energetic shenanigans and to the would-be
tour-de-force of broad acrobatic and comical acting of Rene Auberjonois as the
wily servant, Scapin, but they decided there was not enough behind the
breathless acting and staging to stimulate much laughter or to keep their minds
engaged. Much of the score was sung by a rock quarter backed by an onstage band
seated at the rear of Oliver Smith’s bright yellow and orange set. One happy
takeaway, however, was a Tony nomination for Miles White, whose delightful period costumes were
much appreciated.
Among the cast members were Christopher Murney, Walter Bobbie, Carolyn Mignini, Joe Morton, Tom Toner, and Jo Ann Ogawa.
Readers of this blog who may be interested in my Theatre's Leiter Side review collections (one with a memoir), covering almost every show of 2012-2014, will find it at Amazon.com by clicking here.
Next up: Troilus and Cressida
