One of my favorite musicals of all time is On the Twentieth Century with book and lyrics by the legendary team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green (On the Town, Singing in the Rain, The Will Rogers Follies). Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, City of Angels) composed the lush operetta-like score. The original 1978 production won five Tony Awards, including for lead actor (John Cullum) and featured actor (Kevin Kline). The show also won for its book, score and art deco set design by Robin Wagner which director Hal Prince described as his favorite of all the musicals he staged. Set in the 1920’s aboard a luxury train, the show was based on a play and film of the same name. The musical is perhaps best classified as a screwball romantic comedy farce.
For this entry into the Retrospective Series, I viewed two tapings at the New York Public Library’s Theater on Film and Tape archive. The first was fifteen minutes of excerpts from the post-Broadway 1979 road tour in Chicago with Rock Hudson replacing John Cullum (Shenandoah, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) and many from the Broadway cast including Judy Kaye (a later Tony winner for Phantom of the Opera) and Imogene Coca. Mr. Hudson was a passable singer but seemed to be a fun stage presence. The second taping was on May 27, 2015 during the first Broadway revival with Kristen Chenoweth (Wicked, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown). This version confirmed my earlier memories that the show in its entirety is one of the musical comedy greats.
Madeleine Kahn (The Sisters Rosensweig) opened the show during the original run but quickly began missing performances and Judy Kaye took over the part in a real-life understudy gets to be a star story. On the cast album, Ms. Kahn is her typically hilarious self – with a beautiful voice – and her version of Lily Garland comes across brilliantly as almost self-parody. Kristen Chenoweth seemed more aggressively driven as Lily with every minute on stage venturing between musical comedy perfection and gorgeously sung introspection. It was a bravura performance on every level.
“New York in sixteen hours, anything can happen in those sixteen hours” proclaims the title song of On The Twentieth Century. With a John Barrymore flair, stage director Oscar Jaffe (Cullum, Hudson and a scintillating Peter Gallagher in the revival) has just closed another failed theatrical production out of town in Chicago. He hears that his former discovery, ex-lover and now Hollywood star Lily Garland will be on the train. With his minions, he plots to get her to sign a contract to revive his career. As can be expected there are a slew of quirky characters adding to the larger than life leads singing bombastic and witty songs.
Jokes are everywhere in this score. Oscar’s opening number “I Rise Again” in which he announces he’s “full size again” gets the plot machinations in motion. Recollecting his discovery of Mildred Plotka sets the stage for her first triumph as renamed star Lily Garland in the character of Veronique whose spurning of Otto von Bismarck’s sexual advances precipitate the Franco-Prussian War. In this number, Comden and Green’s lyrics equally combine literary and lowbrow humor. “She close the door, she start the war, she won’t say yes, won’t lift her dress.” All of this is done in Mr. Coleman’s operatic throwback style. In the revival, Ms. Chenoweth equally combines her natural go-for-the-jugular humor along with her spectacularly big and rich vocals.
Lily has a boy toy with her on the train. With his “brutal thighs” the character of Bruce Granit won a Tony Award for Mr. Kline in the original and a nomination for Andy Karl in the revival. In both versions, they stopped the show with narcissism and precision physical comedy. As the religiously inclined Letitia Primrose, the legendary Imogene Coca had a role of a lifetime with the comedic masterpiece “Repent.” She knows “there’s dirty doings going on.” Act II’s “She’s A Nut” was complete with a series of onstage moving trains. The original even had a full size engine barreling straight toward the audience. The revival was not nearly as grandiose but still very good.
The train motif and clickety-clack score keep the proceedings rolling along until the very end. The overture, best represented on the original cast recording, is probably my all-time favorite. The two disc recording of the revival, however, is much longer with much more detail, providing a great opportunity to experience the show, its witticisms and gorgeous score.
One of the many peaks of this musical is Act II’s “Babette.” Lily is deciding between two roles, Mary Magdalene and Babette. Mary sings “our sins shall be forgiven” while Babette laments that “the gin is never strong enough.” Back and forth between the two diametrically opposed characters results in “my cigarette is…. saved.” Babette loves her “loving, boozing, dancing, cruising.” There is all of that and more in On the Twentieth Century, an exquisitely constructed, gleamingly elegant exercise in Broadway musical comedy genius.