70, Girls, 70: Stealing, the Show

The employment rate for Broadway's elder musical theatre performers increased sharply that April of 1971. Less than two weeks after Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies opened at the Winter Garden, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Norman L. Martin filled the Broadhurst with a decidedly lighter piece, 70, Girls, 70, which recently livened up City Center as the latest Encores! staged reading.

While Follies recalled the opulence and grandeur of spectacles by Ziegfeld, 70, Girls, 70, its title a take-off on a typical Ziegfeld advertising slogan, was steeped in the blue-collar word of vaudeville. The characters in Follies pondered the glories and mistakes of the past, while those of 70, Girls, 70 optimistically looked to the future. Follies had themes involving human follies and unwise life decisions. 70, Girls, 70 had a theme, too. It was, "Go visit your grandmother."

But 70, Girls, 70 did have a serious issue lingering beneath the fluff. By the 1970's Americans were starting to notice that life expectancy was far exceeding the country's ability to care for its senior citizens through existing programs. Senior centers were not terribly abundant and government care for the elderly was minimal. While the hippies of the 60's kept America's youth in the headlines, many of our older citizens were spending their final years lonely and ignored.

70, Girls, 70 was a sillier way of crying out, "I'm still here!" The original plot was to be about an elderly group who figure out a way to send a rocket to the moon for $25, and how the army tries to hush up their achievement after spending billions on the space program.

But instead the authors shifted to a slightly more realistic story, based on Peter Coke's play, Breath of Spring. (The Encores! concert adaptation is by David Thompson) It involves the residents of the Sussex Arms, an SRO on W. 110th Street where those in their later years live in small, affordable one-room apartments. When word gets out that the building is being sold, the residents figure out a way to earn enough money for a down payment, hoping to make it a permanent home where lonely seniors can stay. Their unlikely get-rich-quick scheme involves shoplifting furs from department stores and selling them at cut rates. Since, as they put it, nobody ever pays any attention to old people, they're able to get away with it with a minimum of effort and are even asked by the police to keep an eye out for the gang of kids they assume are pulling off the heists.

Typical of Kander and Ebb, the score contains a collection of songs where the characters are indeed performing, but unlike their Cabaret and Chicago, many of the zippy, vaudeville numbers intentionally have little to do with the plot. This is a casual show that best emulates a fun night out at a community theatre, rather than sophisticated Broadway entertainment.

The main draw here is to see the old pros in action, and if some performances lack a bit of polish (especially with the extremely limited amount of rehearsal time the union allows for such readings) their heart-felt exuberance is enough to make an audience grin ear to ear, especially when you consider what they could do in their prime. 

Anita Gillette, a favorite kooky ingénue of the 60's and Bob Dishy, who once made an art form out of nervous stammering, were perky fun with the slightly naughty, "Do We?", a ditty about sex over sixty. George S. Irving still has that rich, bellowing voice, twisting his tongue over the complex patter song, "The Caper". Mary Jo Catlett and Tina Fabrique, as the show's narrators tore into one of the score's best numbers, "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup", a criticism of our fast-moving society. Carlton Carpenter and Susan Lehman were adorable in "You And I", a scene song where she helps his fading vision and hearing understand what's happening on the TV screen. Flaming haired Carole Cook can still deliver a drop-dead punch line and mug with the best of them. Charlotte Rae and Mark Price (the show's only youngster) brought down the house with the vaudevillian song and dance, "Go Visit Your Grandmother." Ira Hawkins' commanding singing voice could have probably been heard in the second balcony without a microphone and Gerry Vichi is still a delightful second-banana comic. And how can you beat a challenge dance between Harvey Evans and Robert Fitch.

Though the musical comedy vets delivered the goods with zest and panache, Olympia Dukakis, making her musical theatre debut as the gang's ringleader, lacked the musicality to pull off her large role, which wasn't exactly a perfect fit to begin with.

Director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall staged most of the book scenes in chairs or with minimal movement, most likely to let the elder stars save their energy for the songs, which, appropriately, were generally choreographed with the kind of simple movements you might find in a senior center variety show.

Paul Gemignani's 14-piece orchestra played the show's rollicking original orchestrations, in which Don Walker souped up an old fashioned sound with a synthesizer-type instrument called an RMI.

The score's most famous song, the uplifting "Yes", is all about taking risks in everyday life, urging us to say "why not?" instead of asking "why?" Encores! certainly took a risk in mounting 70, Girls, 70, a show that lasted exactly one month in its original, and most likely only, Broadway run. But although it's not exactly a neglected classic, it really is quite the charmer with its heart in the right place.

Photo of Mark Price and Charlotte Rae by Stephanie Berger