Griffin-Helmed 'Goodbye Girl' is As Good As It Gets

The 1993 Broadway musical The Goodbye Girl, based on the Oscar-winning 1977 film of the same name starring Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss, barely eked out a 6-month run at New York's Marquis Theatre after a pre-Broadway tryout at Chicago's LaSalle Bank Theater (then called the Shubert). The show is getting another shot at life this winter near the place of its birth, in Chicago's suburban Oakbrook Terrace, where local-boy-made-good Gary Griffin has directed a solidly workable, if not fully successful, mounting of the Neil Simon/Marvin Hamlisch/David Zippel tuner for the spacious Drury Lane theater complex. The show opened January 3, 2008 after a week of previews, and will run through March 2 (call 630-530-0111 or visit www.drurylaneoakbrook.com.)

Griffin, known as a musical re-interpreter of the first order (specializing in Sondheim and similarly serious shows), directed the Broadway musical version of The Color Purple to success, and he helmed a recent Broadway revival of The Apple Tree, starring Kristen Chenoweth, to solid viability. He has also recently been named Producer of Drury Lane by new Executive Producer Kyle DeSantis, who is putting together his team to carry forth the legacy of his late grandfather, the legendary Anthony DeSantis. It is the Broadway Griffin who emerges at Drury Lane with The Goodbye Girl, as the show has not been re-interpreted, re-written or re-conceived. Rather, the show has been given a clear emotional through-line, with much that seemed bloated or unclear in 1993 brought into correct size and taut focus (meaning the sets as well as the dramatic action), with real human beings learning to open up, grow up, love and connect in the crazy, busy contemporary world of actors and dancers. However, the script and score are not the best work of their creators, and this production reveals both the strengths and the weaknesses of the now fifteen-year-old stage property.

The show concerns one Paula McFadden, played with lovely, spunky vulnerability by true leading lady Susan Moniz. It is delightful that Moniz resembles the film's Marsha Mason rather than the woman the musical was written for, Bernadette Peters at the height of her powers. Whereas Peters seemed too girly-glamorous in the role, seeming at times to be playing a sequel to her sweetly strong, Tony-winning diva role in "Song and Dance," Moniz brings her flexible theater singing voice and refreshingly lithe dancing body fully to bear in the achingly vulnerable role of the smart dancer/choreographer who has been dumped by one boyfriend too many.

However, into Paula's life, and that of her twelve-year-old daughter Lucy, comes an enormous circumstance beyond her control (with the possibility of yet one more boyfriend to love her and leave her), an actor newly moved to New York from Chicago named Elliot Garfield (played by Bernie Yvon, unfortunately saddled with an apparent case of opening night laryngitis). Yvon in no way resembles the original stage Elliot, Martin Short, who won a Theater World Award for his efforts. Rather, Yvon brings a masculine bluster and charming self-deprecation to the role, winning over Paula, Lucy and the audience with utter believability as a Wrigley Field bleacher-inhabiting Chicago actor type guy, and with his ability to be both a straight man and a comedian in the modern musical theater.  (Short never quite achieved this.) Also,Yvon solidly delivered the show's only really memorable tunes, "I Can Play This Part" and "Paula," with the ease of Tom Hanks and Cary Grant, respectively, no mean feat given that he sounded a little like Jimmy Durante at the time.

The main draw-back of The Goodbye Girl itself, which this production does not conquer, is that both leads are saddled with obstacles that probably no one can ever solve. Paula is given three lovely ballads to sing (remember—Bernadette Peters), which all unfortunately stop the plot in its tracks while the audience is told what the actress singing the songs has just shown us by her reactions and mood during the previous scene. As for Elliot, he is saddled with the dreadful production sequence, "Richard Interred," which in the Drury Lane production actually IS somewhat funny, even while you wonder how the conceit of the number (Elliot playing a woman playing Richard III) could possibly be the funniest example of "bad conceptual continental Shakespeare" that Neil Simon could think of. Surely it's not. It's not THAT funny. And the sight of Yvon in a blond curly wig wearing a hump-swollen doublet and tights somehow reminded me of Bette Davis in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Let's just say that it's not the American musical theater's best number. But Drury Lane does the best with it that anyone could.

The two superb leads of this production are by no means its only strengths. The sets by Brian Sidney Bembridge are lovely and make clever use of the theater's turntable system, as do the actors at certain very funny moments. So does the choreographer, Tammy Mader, providing some excellent Michael Bennett-style moves, executed by the production's attractive ensemble. Janice Pytel's costumes and Jenniffer Thusing's props are right-on for the show's late 80s/early 90s setting, and the serviceable lighting is by Jesse Klug.  (Technically the show ran quite smoothly opening night, with the exception of some inconsistent levels in the microphone and speaker system.) Musical Director Ben Johnson led four other musicians from the keyboard with skill and clarity.

Two other cast members deserve mention. Cherisse Scott brought a nicely modulated singing voice and easy comic style to the role of the landlady, Mrs. Crosby. And young Theresa Moen as Lucy was quite likeable, singing nicely and playing off two highly experienced adult pros with maturity and aplomb. Once she has time to grow into her performance, her facial expressions will remain more consistent, improving on some expressionless moments that threatened to spoil her fully engaged ones. She is a lovely presence in the Chicago theater scene, and hopefully will continue to charm her audiences as an adult performer in the very near future.

Come to think of it, the actress playing Lucy is also saddled with a script difficulty. In the first act, young Lucy repeatedly compliments Elliot, which is noticed by the two adults with some amusement and awkwardness as they joust over whether or not they could ever be friends, let alone lovers. However, in the second act suddenly she doesn't like him, giving the show its only real moment of dramatic conflict (coming at two hours into the show by my watch, intermission included). Will she accept him as her new father, or won't she? I mean, after all, did anyone fail to see that Paula will open up to Elliot's charms, or that Elliot will put aside his career aspirations long enough to woo the woman he clearly needs to help him grow up? Probably not.  There is nothing in the way of their happiness but their own emotions, after all, and, let's face it, it IS a comedy.

But, make no mistake, Drury Lane's The Goodbye Girl is funny, charming, tuneful, and a perfect low-key evening of musical comedy song, dance and dialogue. And its theme of lowering one's defenses long enough to form a solid family, no matter whether that family is the one you pictured for yourself or not, is certainly relevant to many people in today's world.  For two star performances, some Neil Simon one-liners, lovely songs and some charming dance and physical comedy, you could do a lot worse on a cold winter's night than this first-rate rendering of a well-known film title, albeit not a masterpiece of the modern American musical.

 

Photos of Susan Moniz/Bernie Yvon and Theresa Moen/Susan Moniz by Greg Kolack

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