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Bells Are Ringing |
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Author: Book & Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green;
Music by Jule Styne
Reviewer: Carolyn Albert for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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A Cinderella tale in which the Prince gets the guy ...
It would've been impossible to revive this hit 1956 musical without the talents of the star, FAITH PRINCE. Originally written by BETTY COMDEN & ADOLPH GREEN for their sidekick in earlier ventures, Judy Holliday, the show exploited her multifaceted abilities to leap into foreign accents and even speak other languages, perform physical comedy, and sing well while also projecting an endearing waif-like persona.
  
After 45 years of waiting for another superstar to appear, we get a welcome revival that is both dated and delicious. The creative team wisely made no attempt to update. It's a charming fantasy or fable about a time in New York that we'll pretend is long gone but really never existed - when you could start conversations among a car full of subway riders or meet and dance safely in a dark and lonely stretch of Central Park. The show opens with a filmed sequence of Fifties events, closing on the one image that suffices: a rotodial telephone.
Like a dancer hovering on the tip of her toes on one foot, the entire story for the show balances on but a single line of dialogue. It's a line we've heard paraphrased for years: "You're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" This line is spoken by the show's ruthless director, Julian Marsh (MICHAEL CUMPSTY) to the little unknown kid from the chorus. She replaces the big-name star just before opening, saving the show along with the jobs of a hundred other kids - and of course the backers' investments. In this show-biz world, talent and hard work are the conduits to fame and fortune - although it's acknowledged, being a looker doesn't hurt.
The fable is about a good-hearted single gal named Ella (Yes, it's a variation of the Cinderella story, but don't look for perfect parallels.) Ella works the switchboard at Suzanswerphone - a bit of word-play on Sue's Answer Phone, a message service owned by Sue (BETH FOWLER). Where Sue takes the messages "straight," Ella assumes the proper voices and accents for each client, speaking French for one client, using a British twang for the Duchess of Windsor's callers, and contracting her vocal chords into an old lady's weary but worldly-wise guise as "Mom," to befriend a blocked playwright, Jeff (MARC KUDISCH).
Comden and Green efficiently present Ella sympathetically: she has lost an account for Sue by matching up two of the clients; she becomes Santa Claus on the phone to help a distraught mom with her little boy; and she can even look up phone numbers in the yellow pages with her toes! But the eager matchmaker has no love of her own - further complicated by her enduring crush on that unseen playwright.
Another phone assistant, Gynne (ANGELA ROBINSON) prefers live guys, even a zippy young Hispanic delivery man (JULIO AGUSTIN) who is also a bit of an expert on classical music - a quality that will turn the plot later on. But Ella's heart is set on the unknown male, singing one of the great musical comedy numbers: "It's a Perfect Relationship." Faith Prince's easy rapport with the audience, her strong belt voice, and fetching clown technique quickly establish her as a suitable heiress to the Holliday legend.
Why, then, was the audience so reluctant to give Faith Prince a standing ovation at the performance I attended? She was flawless. I think the problems had to do with various faulty aspects of the show itself.
Direction by TINA LANDAU took too long in establishing the fairy-tale tone of the show, so that when the heroine began to talk to strangers, she appeared more insane than delightfully eccentric. Sets by RICCARDO HERNANDEZ were a bit flimsy for the Broadway tariff. For example, a "ramp" leading into the playwright's apartment seemed to be constructed out of leftover saw-horses from the Macy's parade, so that the charm of the playwright's royal world never came across.
Most surprisingly, the "prince charming" for our real charming Prince was not a match made in casting heaven. Kudisch is far too young for our heroine; she's supposed to love him, not adopt him. He's not a bad-looking chap, but he sings through his nose, a quality I find irritating. The nasal tones of the lovely ballads, "Long Before I Knew You" and "Just in Time," made me wish for the less-than-perfect film version with Dean Martin as the playboy playwright.
Despite these faults, "Bells Are Ringing" offers some fabulous production numbers. DAVID GARRISON delights as the scoundrel Sandor who plans to use Sue, her business, and even her life's savings in a betting parlor scheme: "It's A Simple Little System." Comden & Green's cleverness as lyricists were never displayed more adroitly than when "Hialeah" substitutes for "Hallelujah," as the bookies get a handle on Handel. Garrison scores again in Act II with the underused Ms. Fowler in another hoot comedy number, "Salzberg."
Musical staging and choreography (JEFF CALHOUN) combine with appealing costumes (DAVID C. WOOLARD) for another comic number displaying Ella/Prince's talents, "Drop That Name." Prince truly displayed her star power when she sang the lovely ballad "The Party's Over" sitting very still and being fully captivating. A great star performing a great song without unnecessary schtick always provides a memorable moment.
The show has its last minute happy ending with the "handsome prince" discovering his true love's true identity. But I wondered how he recognized that "the other one" on the answering service wasn't Mom/Ella, when there were Two "other ones" - Sue and Gwynne. Ah, as someone once told me, musical theater, like opera, needs no motivation. And a few plot holes must similarly be ignored. Convincing work by ROBERT ARI as a detective (He's also too good for this miniscule part) and MARTIN MORAN as a songwriting dentist added zip to this lightweight show.
A final - but urgently important note: in Scene 2 at the playwright's apartment, several of his parasitic pals light up and puff away at cigarettes, adding nothing at all to the scene. Several days ago I attended "A Class Act," another Broadway show in which the central character is supposed to smoke - in fact, he dies young from a smoking-related cancer. The actor playing the role held a cigarette and never lit it. It wasn't necessary to do so - we got the idea. Directors like Ms. Landau who instruct - or even permit actors to smoke onstage are doing a disservice to both performers and audiences.
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Produced by Mitchell Maxwell, Mark Balsam, Victoria Maxwell, Robert Barandes, Mark Goldberg, Anthony R. Russo, and James L. Simon in association with Fred H. Krones, Allen M. Shore, and Momentum Productions, Inc.
CAST: Faith Prince, Marc Kudisch, David Garrison, Beth Fowler, Martin Moran, Robert Ari, Jeffrey Bean, and an ensemble of nineteen additional performers.
Theater: Plymouth Theatre, 236 West 45th Street.
Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday at 8, Wednesday & Saturday at 2, Sunday at 3.
Tickets: $50-85 at TeleCharge: 212/239-6200.
Audience: All. No violent or sexually explicit material.
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