Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . .
If you’re a theatre fan then you are probably aware of Charles Kirsch’s podcast “Backstage Babble.” The now seventeen-year-old has recorded more than 200 interviews over the past few years with an array of some of the most important people of the American stage, like Carol Burnett, Kelli O’Hara, Harvey Fierstein, Joel Grey, and the late Chita Rivera. In his soft-spoken way, Kirsch always manages to get some wonderful new things out of artists who have been interviewed ad nauseum. He is ferociously intelligent and never makes things about himself. He also, from time to time, takes to the stage at 54 Below as a genial host, which brings us to last night’s one-time only performance of “Backstage Babble: Beyond the Walls of Joe Allen Restaurant.” Kirsch doesn’t even use note cards. He’s got all the patter, facts and figures, down cold.
Kirsch centered his show around having songs from unsuccessful musicals that adorn the famous “flop wall” at Joe Allen, the West 46th Street restaurant that will celebrate its 60th birthday in May. What began as a joke (a producer once asked Allen to put his latest bomb on the wall, which he did, then others followed suit). Some of the posters are of truly horrific fiascos, both plays and musicals. But there are also a few that have been re-examined over the years: the most prominent of them Merrily We Roll Along becoming a smash hit last season after its original closed in two weeks. Yet it’s original poster is right up there on the wall with some stinkers it has little in common with, save for the length of its run.
Last night, Kirsch got some original cast members to recreate certain songs they sang in their brief moment in the spotlight. It was really special to see Ivy Austin, who played the title role of Raggedy Ann, which only managed 5 performances in 1986. She even brought elements of her original costume! Her rendition of Joe Raposo’s “Rag Dolly” was joyous even if the show that contained it was funereal. Cass Morgan sang the heartfelt “Long Past Sunset” from Galt MacDermot’s terrific score to The Human Comedy, a 1984 show that deserved longer than its 13-performances. I was particularly taken with Alma Cuervo’s performance of “Nothing Really Happened” from the much underrated Is There Life After High School?, with its 12-performances in 1982 possibly faring better had it originated off-Broadway instead. In terms of shows that didn’t last long, Onward Victoria played just one night—December 14, 1980. Jill Eikenberry, who played Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President, sang her Act II ballad, “Another Life” with more than a touch of nostalgia. Jeff McCarthy, in superb voice, sang from 1997’s Side Show, in which he created one of its starring parts. I would have like to have heard something from another musical he did in 1986’s Smile . . . but I may have to hold out for a Joe Allen Flop Wall sequel.
It was interesting that two last-minute substitutions for actors announced, who then couldn’t make it, were standouts. Then again, leave it to an old pro like Lee Roy Reams to step in and sing some numbers from a show not on the Joe Allen wall— but who cares? He was a major player in 1974’s Lorelei, an ineffective attempt to update 1949’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for Carol Channing, now in her mid-fifties and its original star, who once again took on the role of a young gold digger, though now it was twenty-five years later (it made for a few problems). And Charles Busch dropped by in to sing from Harold Arlen-Truman Capote’s House of Flowers, which failed in its first 1954 production and every attempt at reviving it since (and yet, people still try). That’s because it has a magnificent score and Busch’s rendition of “Don’t Like Goodbyes,” originally sung by Diahann Carroll and recorded by Barbra Streisand as far back as 1964, was a quietly effective reinterpretation.
Others who contributed were Jenna Lea Rosen, delightful with a song from Rachel Lily Rosenbloom (And Don’t You Ever Forget It), which closed in previews in 1973; Jerry Dixon with “Wednesday,” a song he performed in an off-Broadway adaptation of Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City, which was greeted with critical brickbats in 1999; Luba Mason and Natascia Diaz, both in fine voice, sang Paul Simon’s “Chimes” and “Can I Forgive Him,” which they sang in The Capeman (1998); and another pair of songs done were done by Stuart Zagnit and Allen Lewis Rickman from Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (2000) and The People in the Picture (Zagnit was in both).
Two medleys really rocked the room. One was the closer, which featured songs from Ervin Drake’s badly received Her First Roman (1968), based on George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra. It starred Leslie Uggams and Richard Kiley and eked out only 17 performances. No cast recording was made, so it was a treat to hear something from it, especially since the songs were sung by Danielle Chambers, daughter of Leslie Uggams (she was great). And Ms. Uggams was in the audience to cheer her on.
And lastly, Philip Casnoff, who has been in his share of flops, starring in both Chess(1988) and Shogun (1990), chose instead to sing songs from Rockabye Hamlet (1976), a misbegotten, updated rock version of Hamlet (credited to Gower Champion, no less) with aggressively bad songs. But what made it a highlight was Casnoff making a complete meal out of them. A feast, even. Never let anything go to waste, right?
Michael Levine was the sole musician on stage and, as always, did a bang-up job. This was truly one of the best fifteen-person, low-key extravaganzas I have seen on the shoebox size stage of 54 Below. The next time Charles Kirsch puts together one of these, you owe it to yourself to drop in and hang at the party.
“Backstage Babble: Beyond the Walls of Joe Allen’s Restaurant” performed February 19th at 54 Below, 254 W 54th Street, NYC. For information on future programming, please visit www.54Below.org.
Photos by Ron Fassler and Maryann Lopinto.
Headline photo: Charles Busch and Charles Kirsch.
