Dear Listers:
Personally, I believe that Robert Preston made SUCH an impression in the role of
Harold Hill that ANYONE who attemps to follow him in the role will suffer! Any
Dolly Gallagher Levi who follows Carol Channing will ALSO suffer! Rumor has it
that Bette Midler might do that role on tv in the near future. Probably MUCH
better than B.S., whose turn as Dolly was a total dud that left me and
multitudes COLD!! Enough said! The last role I remember Preston in was when he
played opposite Julie Andrews in "Victor, Victoria". When I saw Preston in
"V,V" I never once thought of his Harold Hill. Broderick, on the other hand
didn't fare so well.
I was socked in with an ice storm (4 inches here!) and couldn't wait to see this
delicious slice of Americana! I guess all the Osama/Saddam news headlines have
taken their toll. After the opening scene, my phone rang and one of my
colleagues asked "Is he the LAST queen or WHAT?!"! I will admit that during
"76 Trombones" I did intone at several key moments "You go, girl!"! I never
once had those thoughts with Preston. Broderick flamed, Chenowith warbled and
the whole kittin-kaboodle seemed at times out of synch during their vocal
numbers! The Broderick voice didn't bother me as much as it did one sour
reviewer who (rather stupidly IMO) stated that he had intonation problems. If
Broderick and/or Chenowith had been my voice student, I'd be grinning like the
cat that ate the canary!
If you get a "reviewer" of any musical performance: i.e.: musical theater,
opera, oratorio or operetta, we the knowing have to bear in mind that these
individuals have stopped whatever they were doing to take up writing their
"learned" opinion on what just happened. There was a hog farmer here in N.C.
who used to write reviews for a major NC newspaper. I swannee! The man slopped
the hogs (here pronounced "hawgs"!) one minute and reviewed performances the
next and didn't know whether to wind his butt or scratch his watch!
"Intonation" was one of the ten cent words somebody tried to teach him, too,
along with "vibrato", "bravura", "coloratura" and God knows how many more, all
usually used incorrectly in his reviews. His legacy continues to this day!
Broderick did well vocally but certainly camped it up a bit. Chenoweth turned
in a performance that was much closer to Jones. I've a friend who recently
heard Jones and says she still sings very well. This comes as no shock.
Broderick's Hill seemed at one point almost as interested in his buddy as he was
in Marion. I had another phone call at that point as well!
The problems in this production were not with Chenoweth and Broderick, but
rather with the director, Jeff Bleckner. We can all sit back and pin the tail
on THAT donkey! In 1912 I'd like to believe the white folks were doing
production numbers with the black folks. (I thought of "Treemonisha" a couple
of times!) Shannon and Garber were a pretty kinky couple in this turn as the
Mayor and Mrs. Yes, we had TROUBLE! Right there in River City! That starts
with "T" which rhymes with "B" and that stands for BLECKNER!!
It was in spite of all the above, enjoyable!
Ed
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