Review by Ron Fassler . . .
In a 2011 interview, the legendary composer Jerry Herman referred to Milk and Honey, his first musical produced on Broadway, as “an extraordinary adventure, filled with love.” With its action entirely taking place in the new state of Israel, it received Tony nominations for Best Musical, and Herman found himself in the Best Score category stacked against Frank Loesser (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and the eventual winner, Richard Rodgers (No Strings). It was a “pinch me-am-I-dreaming?” moment for a thirty-year old raised well outside show business in Jersey City. And even though Milk and Honey ran up more than 500 performances, it was also the first Broadway musical to do so and still lose money, according to theatre historian Steven Suskin. It’s a humbling distinction that perhaps its cast of 50 and an orchestra of 28 had something to do with. But Herman, who saw multiple revivals of far bigger hits like Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage Aux Folles in his lifetime, always had a soft spot for his first-born.
It’s well within its mission statement for J2 Spotlight, the producing organization that has been putting on three musicals every spring over the past five seasons, to take on Milk and Honey for the opener of their 6th. The deft touch required in their deliberately choosing neglected or flawed shows to revive, with nearly every show they do presenting a challenge due to original cast sizes, is formidable. This is when director Robert W. Schneider steps up to the plate, swings mightily with his bat, and connects with the ball. Schneider’s innate sense of how to downsize while also maintaining a musical’s integrity is a rare gift put it to excellent use here. He and co-founding partner Jim Jimirro really know what audiences want, as exemplified by this 8-performance run, which opened last night at the AMT Theatre on West 45th Street, when you consider how quickly it sold out its entire engagement. I mean, where else are you going to get the chance to see an old chestnut like Milk and Honey these days? As one who never has, even with decades of theatregoing under my belt, I appreciate the opportunity more than I can say.
Twenty-eight when he started on the score, Herman’s work on Milk and Honey has been somewhat cast aside after his immense career shift following the back-to-back hits of his next two musicals, Hello, Dolly! (1964) and Mame (1966). With only a serviceable book by Don Appell, for whom Milk and Honey bared his sole libretto assignment for a Broadway musical, Herman’s score sadly contains an unfortunate dichotomy. There are the lush and romantic songs written for its two original stars, Mimi Benzel and Robert Weede, both with their roots in opera, as well as those for the musical’s third lead, Molly Picon. While the Benzel-Weede solos and duets soar, the inconsequential ditties written for Picon, cast as the troop leader of a coterie of Jewish widows touring Israel, don’t amount to much. That said, it’s impossible not to admire one line in the song, “Chin Up, Ladies,” that contains the lyric, “Climb ev’ry mountain to find your Mr. Snow!” But the song is only there because out- of-town audiences in New Haven demanded another number for Picon, a treasured actress from Second Avenue’s Yiddish Theatre who, with at age sixty-three, finally made her Broadway debut in Milk and Honey.
Ther show’s plot has an A story featuring Phil Arkin (Eric Michael Gillett) a wealthy businessman visiting his daughter Barbara (Alaina Mills) and new son-in-law David (Ari Axelrod), a proud Israeli farmer. Among a group of Jewish widows on tour is Ruth Stein (Kelly Lester), still mourning the loss of her husband after four years. As often happens in musicals, Phil and Ruth fall in love before they ever even kiss and the secret withheld (isn’t there always a secret in these musicals?) is that Phil has a wife he barely sees who likes spending his money and refuses to divorce him. That’s really all the dramatic tension there is, save for some conflict with his daughter over his affair with Ruth. The B story involving Clara Weiss (Neva Small) and her prolonged widowhood takes up a lot of time and is truly inconsequential, with lots of jokes that were hoary 65 years ago, for sure.
Still, it’s enjoyable to take this time traveling trip to Israel and I was impressed with the cast employed. Though Kelly Lester and Eric Michael Gillett don’t possess the operatic beauty of the voices of the original Ruth and Phil (listen to Mimi Benzel and Robert Weede on the album and listen to just how gorgeous they sound), Lester and Gillett have enormous charm and play their scenes with touching vulnerability. Lester, in particular, is incapable of a false moment. Honestly, a whiff of the loving warmth she displays as Ruth could be bottled and sold at Bloomingdales. I liked Aliana Mills performance as Barbara very much, hitting emotional moments like so many bullseyes. And Neva Small, whom I first saw when she was nineteen and the female lead in the 1971 one-performance flop Frank Merriwell, is a pint-sized wonder as Clara. Even if her material wears thin after a while, it’s to no fault of her own. Her second act romance with an Israeli widower, an adorable turn from Adam B. Shapiro, allows her to score some extra points late in the show. In other featured roles, Ari Axelrod, Larry Toyter, and Samantha Schiffman acquit themselves nicely.
In his opening night review back in 1961, critic Walter Kerr praised Milk and Honey with the somewhat backward compliment that it had “the sunniness of a travel poster.” Well, sixty-five years later, that sentiment is still an appropriate one. And with next month marking the 78th anniversary of Israel’s founding, considering what how fragile things are today in the Middle East, what’s wrong with a little sweet nostalgia provided by a fictional tale? This well-done production can be added to similar fine work that we have now come to expect from JR2 Spotlight. Coming up next: Carnival! and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
At AMT Theatre, 354 W. 45th St., New York; https://www.j2spotlightnyc.com
Photos by Russ Rowland.
Headline photo: Ari Axelrod, Aliana Mills, and Eric Michael Gillett (foreground) in Milk and Honey.
