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Bits & Bytes

Talented, bare-chested Harry Connick, Jr. highlights sparkling Pajama Game revival, Measure For Pleasure delights at Public, Barbara Cook charms at Café Carlyle
by Milton W. Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer NEW YORK, NY - "New York, New York-a hell of a town" is the opening line from the classic 1940's On The Town. Now, 60 years later, the description is still valid. Bits&Bytes is just back from a whirlwind five-night stay "in the city that never sleeps." This scribe crammed in three operas at the Met, a New York Philharmonic symphony concert, the hit revival of The Pajama Game, caught two world premiere plays, spent a late night cabaret with the legendary Barbara Cook and caught up with a good friend who was singing at a Sunday morning jazz brunch in the Broadway theater district. Visits to three museums, a peek at the seven-hour St. Patrick's Day Parade, two fabulous meals at Sardi's and the fabled "21" filled out the week. Hey, it's a hard life, but someone has to do it for loyal SGN readers and fans of Bits&Bytes. This week's column details four theatrical highlights. Reviews of the operas, symphony, museum shows-and more-will follow next week. BARE-CHESTED CONNICK HIGHLIGHTS PAJAMA GAME There's no doubt about it, the sparking new revival of The Pajama Game is the hottest ticket and the one of the biggest success on Broadway. Produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, one of New York's most respected subscription theaters, Pajama Game is the unexpected smash hit of the season. Harry Connick, Jr., headlines the cast in his Broadway stage debut-and his bare-chested final scene is, literally, the talk of the town. Early in his career, Connick sold out a Broadway concert series in 1990 and later won a Tony nomination for his music and lyrics for his short-lived Thou Shall Not, but his work as Sid in Pajama Game is his performance debut in the world's most famous theater town. His personal charisma carries him through some rough stretches in the show's soaring ballads-like "Hey There," Sid's classic duet with himself using the then-new office Dictaphone. Two quiet ballads, one wisely cut from the original Broadway production, are only adequate, but Connick gets to shine in duets with his co-star, Kelli O'Hara as the tough-talking union leader, Babe. Their "There Once Was A Man" and "Small Talk" are highlights of the show-an old fashioned musical full of classic Broadway hits. Connick also gets to shine in an added ragtime piano sequence in "Hernando's Hideaway." Connick started in show business as a skilled piano player before puberty-his jive piano cameo literally stops the show but will undoubtedly be dropped when the productions hits the road on an upcoming national tour. The production-a musical major revival mounted as part of Roundabout's lengthy and challenging season-runs just through early June with no possibility of an extension (or so the company says). Few of Roundabout's stagings have gone on to a national tour, but this Pajama Game is prime for a pick-up by tour producers. Bright and sparkling, the colorful show would delight regional audiences with or without a superstar in the lead. Kelli O'Hara's terrific work as Babe is overshadowed by the media focus on Connick, but she is a major contributor to the success of this Game. Her boisterous "I'm Not At All In Love" and second act encore of "Hey There" mark her as one of the brightest of new stars on Broadway. Seattle audiences saw her two years ago in a minor role-the Italian-speaking sister of the male lead-in Intiman Theatre's world premiere of The Light In The Piazza. When that lyrical musical arrived in New York (and cleaned up at the Tony Awards), O'Hara had wisely been elevated to the starring role of the young daughter, a performance that won her a Tony nomination. She was, by all reports, enchanting in Piazza in New York and she is enchanting again in this spirited Pajama Game. Character actors have always been the real stars behind the success of the 1954 Tony Award winning Best Musical. "I'll Never Be Jealous Again," a classic vaudeville soft-shoe number, always delights the audience. The immortal "Steam Heat," with unforgettable Bob Fosse's choreography, has been a classic since it appeared. Kathleen Marshall, this Game's choreographer and director, wisely honor's Fosse in most of the show's major dances but gives each her own up-to-date twist, especially in "Hernando's Hideaway." The show's technical work is delightful. The colorful unit set, framed by a false proscenium covered with giant, over-sized neon-colored buttons, set the tone for the "don't you love the 1950s" approach. The trees for ("This Is My) Once-A-Year Day" at the company picnic in the park are large circles of green fabric with giant white polkadots. The costumes are period perfect and utterly delightful. Babe and Sid's final appearance in the Sleep Tite pajama fashion show-a replica of the original production-finds Babe and Sid centerstage as the chorus sings, in the show's title song, "Married life is so much fun/Two can sleep as cheap as one." Babe wears the brightly patterned pajama tops and Sid wears the pants. The bare-chested Connick-who must have worked out for years for the brief scene-is so muscular, so hard-packed (with a muscular chest that can't be real-but is) that the audience (male and female) literally gasps collectively when he appears. Connick relishes understatement in his "ah-shucks-I'm just a kid from New Orleans who made good" off-stage persona. He is so concerned about the focus on his on his buffed body that he dons a classic white ("wife beater") undershirt for the show's finale and will not let any pictures of him without his shirt be used for publicity purposes. The Pajama Game is sold out for its entire spring run-but a call to Roundabout's box office at (212) 719-1300 might get you last minute tickets (or, at the least, information on the cancellation line-up policy). When Bits&Bytes called for the seemingly impossible, the ticket agent sparkled when this scribe mentioned "I'm from Seattle." Turns out, the young man was a 1996 Roosevelt High School graduate waiting for his big break on Broadway. "Let me look again," he said, "we have to find something for a Seattle guy," he enthused. It's great to have unexpected Emerald City contacts in hard, cold old New York&. MEASURE FOR PLEASURE CHARMS WITH GAY 'MAID' The world premiere production Measure For Pleasure at The Public Theatre-best known as the New York Shakespeare Festival-ends its satisfying run this weekend, but the new play by David Grimm is sure to be staged around the country in the coming years. Grimm, winner of a GLAAD 2000 Media Award nomination-for work celebrating the GLBT community-creates a "new" British histroical comedy that owes at lot to School For Scandal and ends with a stolen plot element from Oscar Wilde. Pleasure is set in 1751 when English theater used characters with names like Will Blunt (who is blunt and direct), Sir Peter Lustforth (who is a silly old lecher), Hermione Goode (who is truly and totally good) and Molly Tawdry (who isn't a Molly but drags up as a lady's maid). The highjinx are constant, the vulgarity truly raw, the language actually shocking-and Bits&Bytes loved. Unlike the Seattle Rep's recent world premiere of the stillborn Restoration Comedy, Grimm's new work is sure to receive numerous regional theater productions-the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland is logical Northwest possibility. Director Peter DuBois is the former artistic director of a theater in Juneau, Alaska (talk about an off-off-Broadway start). The Public Theater's next production, England's David Hare's Stuff Happens, is sure to be a popular and critical success. Bits&Bytes saw the American premiere at a national theater critics' conference in Las Angeles last June-the show is certain to be a New York intellectual sensation in its recreation of the current Bush administration. Daniel Sullivan, artistic director of the Seattle Rep for nearly two decades, continues his busy, busy New York directorial career with Stuff Happens, which opens next month. Ticket information on all Public Theatre offerings is available at (212) 239-6200. SHANLEY'S DEFIANCE SADLY MISFIRES AT MTC The Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) hit pay dirt last year with John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize award winning tale of a stuffy Roman Catholic headmistress who has doubts about a young priest's interest in his junior high school boys. Shanley and MTC team with director Doug Hughes again with the playwright's Defiance, the second in a proposed "D" titled trilogy. Unfortunately, lightning doesn't always strike twice. Many New York critics welcomed Defiance, but this scribe found the entire 90-minute production-beautifully staged and well performed-to be a tedious, rambling, often unfocused mess. The play begins with a grabbing line: "A Marine will be in jail tonight." A long 90 minutes later, he is. And justly so. Bits&Bytes thrilled to the moral complexities of Doubt and found much to like in Defiance-but it's not a very sound play. Shanley, well remembered in the GLBT community for his campy Oscar-winning screenplay for Cher's infectious Moonstruck, dedicated Defiance to August Wilson, "a great American playwright." Wilson, who spent the last two decades of his life in Seattle, died last fall, just after completing his 10-play cycle about the African American experience in the 20th century. The Seattle Rep's recent Radio Golf was the final play in the series. Douglas Hughes, one of New York's most talented directors, has strong Seattle ties from his from his work as an associate director at the Seattle Rep. Hughes, like Dan Sullivan and Intiman's Bartlett Sher, are now major New York directors who established their careers in the Emerald City. Manhattan Theatre Club-one of New York's most prestigious subscription theaters-is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Information on all MTC productions is available at (212) 247-0430. BARBARA COOK CHARMS AT STYLISH CAFE CARLYLE The legendary Barbara Cook, who just made theater history with the debut of her special cabaret/concert show at the Metropolitan Opera, returns to the legendary Café Carlyle for an intimate evening of song through April 1. Cook-a Broadway star since the early 1950s-is best known for creating the role of Marion, The Librarian in Meredith Willson's Tony Award-winning The Music Man. After dozens of Broadway appearances-Candide, She Loves Me, The Gay Life-Cook left the New York stage. She gained a great deal of weight-"I was never happy as a thin person," she famously notes-and recreated herself as a concert performer, a cabaret artist and a champion of human and individual rights. At the start of her concert career, Cook appeared nearly 40 years ago in a special benefit concert for the Seattle Repertory Theatre, then in its early years. Bits&Bytes, who had seen her in She Loves Me in New York, truly fell in love with the talented artist at the Rep's memorable benefit program. At the Carlyle, a stylish club where she has appeared almost every year since 1980, Cook offers a smart program of "favorites" to honor the club which is soon to be moved to more spacious facilities within the Carlyle Hotel. The historic, intimate 1930's room now seats about 85. The proposed new setting will seat nearly 300 when it is relocated. ("New owners&" cooed Eartha Kitt at a backstage visit with Bits&Bytes at Seattle's Jazz Alley last month. Kitt, a staple at the Carlyle, plays April 4-29. "Tell all the boys at SGN to come a see me in New York," Kitt laughed.) Cook started the late-night Saturday evening set with Irving Berlin's "I've Got The Sun In The Morning" from his legendary Annie Get Your Gun. A movie madness tribute followed. "I was mad about the movies when I grew up," she enthused, "Betty Grable, June Haver&!" Glorious versions of "The More I See You" and "When I Fall In Love" charmed the near-capacity crowd (which happily paid the $100 cover charge without hesitation). Cook's long association with Stephen Sondheim-the talented (and openly Gay) composer of Company, Follies, Sweeny Todd, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Into The Woods-produced the a trio of showstoppers. "Stephen picked 50 songs he wished he had written for a 70th birthday concert," Cook explained to the captivated audience. "Hard-Hearted Hannah," "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee" and "San Francisco" delighted the cheering crowd. Sondheim's "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" and "Another Hundred People" contrasted Cook's sprightly comic side and her capacity for anguish in song. A real music rarity, "My Dog Loves Your Dog," surprised and enchanted the fans. Two classics from Kern and Hammerstein's immortal Showboat- "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" and "Bill"-followed, each definitive versions of time tested tunes. "Accentuate The Positive" found her fans cheering again. Rarely heard lyrics, each sung with crystal-like clarity, charmed the already charmed crowd-"The topic will be sin/That's what I'm agin," Cook deadpanned with a trill or two. A hushed, heartfelt "Why Did I Choose You?" ended the evening with Cook singing without a microphone. It was almost a spiritual moment, a collective sharing of the near-pain of love. Cook "hopes" and "plans" to sing in the new room, but this final (or possibly final) cabaret appearance in the legendary Café Carlyle will remain a indelible memory for many cabaret and Barbara Cook fans. Eric Stern, Cook's new musical director and pianist, provided solid support with bass, guitar and banjo (banjo!) accompaniment. Cook continues at the Café Carlyle through April 1. Eartha Kitt follows in May. Woody Allen-yes, that Woody Allen-plays each Monday night through April 24 with The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band. Ute Lemper, Elaine Stritch and Steve Tyrell appeared in recent months at the classy cabaret, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary season. Reservations and information on all Café Carlyle cabaret events is offered at (212) 744-1600. And, yes, you can tell them Bits&Bytes and SGN told you to call. And if you catch Eartha Kitt during her April run, send a note backstage and tell her "one of her boys from Seattle" is in the audience. She'll love it.