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| Diana Davila, Raul Julia.(Photos: Friedman-Abeles) |
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| Jonelle Allen, Norman Matlock, Frank O'Brien. |
Clive Barnes, on
seeing the Central Park production of this rock musical adaptation of one of
Shakespeare’s lesser plays, let rip a barrage of bubbling phrases to describe
it. “It is a jeu d’esprit, a midsummer night’s jest, a merriment of lovers, a gallimaufry
of styles, and a gas. It takes off.” Not every critic was as elated as Barnes
by this anachronistic blend of barrio brassiness and Elizabethan exhilaration, but
enough agreed with Barnes to help turn the Broadway transfer into a sizzlingly
hot ticket for over 600 performances.
Shakespeare’s
Italianate lovers Julio (Carla Pinza: Central Park/Diana Davila: Broadway) and Valentine (Clifton
Davis), were transmogrified into Puerto Rican and Black ghetto hipsters, and the
characters around them represented other spicy ingredient in the melting pot of
urban America. One unfortunate loss the show encountered when it moved to
Broadway was Jerry Stiller’s Yiddish-accented Launce (John Bottoms replaced him—sans
accent). There were also some speeches in Spanish and others in
heavy Black dialect. Sir Eglamour was played by Chinese-American actor Alvin
Lum, prompting John Simon to quip, “What restraint kept his adaptors from
calling him Sir Eggfooyong?” Try that crack today, critics, and you’ll end up with protests outside your door.
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| Signa Joy, Alix Elias, Diana Davila. |
Critical
disagreements arose over whether the Broadway version had bettered its
summertime original (half a year had elapsed and many revisions had been made).
Still, all who liked it agreed that the show was hit material. It had “energy,
wit and originality while being musical entirely” raved Martin Gottfried, who
added, “the evening remains very true to the original in both spirit and style”
despite colloquial and anachronistic insertions. Guare and Shapiro had left a
considerable amount of the Bard intact, with Guare’s excellent lyrics only
occasionally failing to blend with the original’s words.
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| Clifton Davis, Jonelle Allen. |
Sexuality and energetic
youthfulness were rampant in the “wild, hilarious, sexy and brazenly
high-handed adaptation,” reported Walter Kerr. With its men clothed in high
boots, tight pants, and flowery blouses, and the women in colorful maxi-dresses,
the show’s look conveyed the essence of both Renaissance dynamism and hippie
flower-populism. Galt McDermott’s score was lithe and eclectic, if not as
memorable as the one he wrote for Hair,
both musically and in its ethnic variations. As Kerr declared, McDermott
supplied “the lovelorn of two cities with rhythms ranging (without clash) from
rock to bluesy jazz to square-as-you-can-be.”
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| Jose Perez, John Bottoms, Raul Julia, Clifton Davis. |
The fervent
performances of every actor gave Harold Clurman the sense that “the kids in his
‘Verona’ love lovingly. Shakespeare
did it in his constantly bubbling, sweet-scented, ever vigorous verse; the
Guare-Shapiro adaptation does it in horseplay redeemed of coarseness by candid cordiality.”
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| Phineas, John Bottoms. |
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| Raul Julia, Carla Pinza, Jerry Stiller in the Central Park production. |
Hosannas for the cast
were boisterous, especially for the Latino Proteus of Raul Julia, “a swell
clown as well as a superb actor. He can do more with a pair of steel-rimmed
glasses than most actors can do with four years of acting lessons,” in
Gottfried’s opinion. Also basking in acclaim were Clifton Davis as Valentine, Jonelle Allen as Sylvia,
and (on Broadway) Diana Davila as Julia. Among the numerous supernumeraries milling about as Citizens of Verona and Milan in the Broadway production were a couple of aspiring thespians named Stockard Channing and Jeff Goldblum.
Producer Joseph Papp
was quick to point out that the proceeds of the Broadway run would help
subsidize the New York Shakespeare Festival, a practice he continued to follow
with success for years. He said, “I believe this may be the first time in
history when a non-profit organization is producing a Broadway play with all
the profits to be returned to it for non-profit purposes.”
A touring version of
the musical was produced in the summer of 1973 (7/3/73-8/26/73; 24
performances), with a new cast and under the direction of Kim Friedman.
Produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival it played in a Mobile Theatre
throughout the city’s parks and playgrounds.
Numerous awards and
commendations were bestowed on Two
Gentlemen of Verona, which won the Tony for Best Musical and the Drama
Critics Circle Award for the same. Guare and Shapiro shared a Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Book Writers, and a Tony for Best Book. Guare won a Drama Desk
Award for Outstanding Lyrics as well as
the Variety Poll for Best Lyricist.
McDermott won the Drama Desk Outstanding Composer award, and, with Guare, was
Tony-nominated for Best Score. McDermott also landed the Variety Poll for Best Composer. Shapiro snared the OBIE for
Distinguished Direction, and a similar award from the Drama Desk. Jean Erdman’s
choreography garnered a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. Jonelle Allen
was Tony-nominated for Best Actress, Musical, and won the Variety Poll for Feminine Lead, Musical, as well as the Theatre
World Award and a Drama Desk Award. Clifton Davis was Tony-nominated for Best
Actor, Musical, while Raul Julia won a Drama Desk Award. Theoni V. Aldredge’s
costumes gained her a Tony nomination, a Drama Desk Award, a Variety Poll victory, and the Joseph
Maharam Foundation Award.
Do you enjoy Theatre’s Leiter Side? As you may know, since New York’s theatres
were forced into hibernation by Covid-19, this blog has provided daily posts on
the hundreds of shows that opened Off and on Broadway between
1970 and 1975. These have been drawn from an unpublished manuscript that would
have been part of my multivolume Encyclopedia
of the New York Stage series, which covers every show, of every type,
from 1920 through 1950. Unfortunately, the publisher, Greenwood Press, decided
it was too expensive to continue the project beyond 1950.
Before I began offering these
1970-1975 entries, however, Theatre’s
Leiter Side posted over 1,600 of my actual reviews for shows from 2012
through 2020. The first two years of that experience were published in separate
volumes for 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 (the latter split into two volumes). The
2012-2013 edition also includes a memoir in which I describe how, when I was
72, I used the opportunity of suddenly being granted free access to every New
York show to begin writing reviews of everything I saw. Interested readers can
find these collections on Amazon.com by clicking here.
Next up: U.S.A.
