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April 2, 2015 — Twice Visited

April 2, 2015 — Twice Visited

 

visit 1

 

My introduction to the seminal musical pairing of Kander & Ebb came in the form of the 1991 review of their work titled AND THE WORLD GOES ROUND, one of the most solid and refined book-less reviews ever to hit Off Broadway. Oddly, the title song to KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN was featured in the show, even though the Broadway production wouldn’t open until 1993 (it was already in development at SUNY Purchase). …SPIDERWOMAN also had a West End run prior to Broadway, where it landed with perfection, first with the great Chita Rivera as the ‘Spiderwoman’, then replaced by a very different but also stellar Vanessa Williams. Maria Conchita Alonso also played the role at one point, but I was, uh, cleaning for that leg of the run.

It’s no secret that …SPIDERWOMAN is one of my favorite shows of all time. I mean, the story, based on the brilliant Manuel Puig novel, waffles back and forth between a Gay window dresser and South American revolutionary sharing a prison cell to the window dresser’s heroin-induced delusions. It’s dark, to say the least. Also, Kander & Ebb’s score is stunning, violent and haunting—which has become a trademark, at least, to me.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that I rushed out to see their final collaboration (Fred Ebb sadly passed on September 11, 2004) called THE VISIT. As in …SPIDERWOMAN, the duo worked with iconic playwright Terrance McNally as book writer, so I was certain this production was going to knock me out of my cheap seat and unto the lip of the stage.

Sadly, it didn’t. Full disclaimer: this show is in previews and it’s completely unethical of me to review, in any way, a show that has not yet opened. As you know, a production has every right to tweak and polish and even radically change during previews, according to audience response and producer neuroses. However, I will share some thoughts on this yet-unfinished work.

 

a scene from Boho Theatre Company's KISS...
a scene from Boho Theatre Company’s …SPIDERWOMAN

 

I liked it. Overall. And you probably won’t. And if you think you might want to see this final Kander & Ebb creation, you should RUN to the theater, because I have a feeling it won’t stay long. By-the-way, get your tickets from the Today Tix app—I got some balcony nosebleeds for $35 plus the TT fee.

So… what happened? Well, first the positives: The music was typical K&E, and if you’re a …SPIDERWOMAN fan, having Ms. Rivera sing the score is nostalgic and familiar, for sure. It was full of all the haunting musical discord you’d expect, eerie keyboard melodies that sound like they’re coming from a music box that’s been dropped from a high place at least twice.

Here are the negatives: The book is terribly thin. I know, I’ve been fairly unkind to Mr. McNally these last couple of years, but hand to God, I find such a difference in the quality of his pieces from yesteryear versus recent works. The book, based on a play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted by Maurice Valency, is absurdly simple—like, I could sum it up on the back of a postage stamp. Basically, a now-wealthy woman returns to her now-impoverished hometown to seek revenge; she offers the townspeople an unprecedented amount of cash to kill her former lover, who jilted her for the girl whose father owned a business. That’s it—seriously. Here was an incredible opportunity for Mr. McNally to explore how individual town members slowly cross over to the dark side—instead, their we-won’t-kill-anyone-for-cash morality quickly turns to self-serving dreams of materialistic bliss. Mr. McNally glosses over any nuances and at some point, well, everyone just decides in unison that they “want nice things”. Only a schoolmaster receives special attention, letting the Anton Schell character (aptly played by Roger Rees of CHEERS fame) know that he was the lone townsperson that didn’t want him to die.

In addition to a totally absent book, the production felt under-directed. The stationary set of a town hall in disrepair was striking but the rest of the pieces consisted of about nine suitcases and a smugly foreshadowing coffin that never left the stage. Was the budget exhausted on Chita? One clever conceptual element of the production was the use of bright yellow in an otherwise bland color palette, to represent materialism. Very Spielberg-girl-in-the-red-dress. Also, to the credit of K&E, the lead character’s castrated manservants singing appropriately in falsetto and wearing eerie identity-less masks, were visually disturbing in a Clockwork Orange sort of way.

Ultimately, I’m glad I saw THE VISIT. But I don’t dare recommend it to anyone who’s not a die-hard Kander & Ebb fan. Regardless, Oprah Winfrey comes out the winner. She’s been hankering to make her Broadway debut next season in a non-musical version of THE VISIT; it’s being adapted right now by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner. Since this musical production might be more of a drive-by than a prolonged visit, it may just pave the way for a sooner-than-expected Broadway-Oprah moment.

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