Broadway Originals: A Living History of Musical Theatre

By its very nature, musical theatre is a fragile art form that cannot truly be preserved. Some stars may get the chance to re-created their original stage roles on film and entire productions may be videotaped, but once a camera gets involved you cannot accurately replicate the experience of watching an Ethel Merman, a Jerry Orbach or a Gregory Hines in a dramatic form that demands they be larger than life and yet extraordinarily human.

Also by its nature, very few of musical theatre's great stars can even become known to the average American (even the average New Yorker) without appearing on television or film. The finest talents on Broadway have the opportunity to be seen by roughly eight to twelve thousand people a week while an actor on even the lowest rated TV show gets seen by millions every week.

So how do you communicate the excitement in the air as a packed house at Town Hall prepares to hear Liz Callaway sing "The Story Goes On", that brilliant song she introduced in Baby, to the average person who has never heard of her, the song or the show? In the culture of musical theatre, this is comparable to Vivien Leigh declaring she'll never be hungry again.

How do you explain the cool aloof intelligence of Karen Akers as she makes a three act drama out of "My Husband Makes Movies" from Nine? Garbo sings? Could people who only know A Chorus Line as some bad film about dancers understand why Priscilla Lopez's performance of "Nothing" should be considered a national treasure?

Broadway Originals! the final program of the First Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival may not have provided all the answers, but for musical theatre lovers it was like having their CD collections come to life. Hosted with his usual wit and affection by Scott Siegel, the show featured 21 performers, including those mentioned above, reprising songs they introduced either in original Broadway productions or in Broadway revivals. Forty-four years of musical theatre history stepped on stage that afternoon, from Pat Suzuki's feisty "I Enjoy Being a Girl" from 1958's Flower Drum Song to Melissa Errico's glistening "Somebody" from 2002's Amour.

Actors from more recent shows replicated their magic moments almost exactly as we remember them. Chuck Cooper easily filled the theatre with a commanding presence during "Don't Take Much" (The Life) while Jack Noseworthy's quietly intense "I Cannot Hear The City" (Sweet Smell of Success) was subtly nuanced. Cady Huffman proved she can still stop a show with "When You've Got It, Flaunt It" (The Producers) even while standing in one place, and Randy Graff's "The Next Best Thing To Love" was just as warm and bittersweet as it was at the closing performance of A Class Act, when the audience refused to stop applauding. "Blues in the Night" was already a great American standard by the time Ann Hampton Callaway performed it in the original company of Swing, but it's alway a pleasure to hear her deep sensual tones embracing this classic jazz piece. She quipped, "I'd like to dedicate this song to all the single and bitter people here this afternoon."

There were older performers who introduced songs early in their careers and sang them now with the seasoning that comes with maturity. Evan Pappas sang "Larger Than Life" (My Favorite Year) with a sentimental wink to his character's childhood, while Penny Fuller's "One Halloween" (Applause) was performed by a colder, more calculating Eve Harrington. (Her "Screw you, daddy!" must have surprised a few people who only knew that song from the cast album.) Jim Walton sang a lovely "Not A Day Goes By" closer to the age he was supposed to be playing when Merrily We Roll Along first opened and Rachel York found even sexier vocal interpretations to add to "Lost and Found" (City of Angels). Sarah Rice declined the microphone for her stunning "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" (Sweeney Todd).

Perhaps the most memorable evolution of interpretation came from Walter Willison. In 1970 the 23-year-old actor received a Tony nomination while singing "I Do Not Know A Day I Did Not Love You" (Two By Two) with the passionate fire of a young man confessing his first love. Thirty-five years later he turns the lyric and melody into a mellow remembrance of all the years that have gone by in a committed relationship, giving this post-Hammerstein Richard Rodgers ballad the majestic wisdom of "Some Enchanted Evening."

Then there were those performers who just refuse to grow old. The evergreen Alice Playten was just as funny and raucous as ever belting out her Henry, Sweet Henry showstopper, "Nobody Steps on Kafritz." And though Austin Pendleton certainly doesn't look like a lad anymore, his heartwarming "Miracle of Miracles" (Fiddler on the Roof) was still filled with the bewildered excitement of a timid young man who just swayed the heart of Zero Mostel's Tevye.

Imagine if the only way an actor like Brian Stokes Mitchell could star in a Broadway revival of a musical like Kiss Me, Kate would be if the show were cast entirely with black actors and the racial makeup of the company was used as a selling point. Pearl Baily starred twice in all black productions of Hello, Dolly! and in the 1975 revival, veteran performer Mary Louise had her one solo song Broadway. At Town Hall she once again graced the New York stage with a dreamy "Ribbons Down My Back." James Randolph made his only Broadway appearance as Sky Masterson in the 1976 all black company of Guys and Dolls. His strong voice and smooth style delivering "My Time of Day" and "Luck Be a Lady" gave hints of what a charismatic Broadway regular he might have been in another time.

Representing the great Broadway gypsies was Lee Roy Reams, who, in Applause, played the first openly gay character in a Broadway musical. ("I played the role that was played in the film by Thelma Ritter.") "I'd like to sing a medley of my hit.", he joked before singing his few solo lines of "She's No Longer a Gypsy." Then, in honor of his 42nd Street leading man, Jerry Orbach, Reams warmed the hearts of the audience with a glorious "Lullaby of Broadway"; a song that, for this crowd, is a national anthem.