Tommy Tune's 'Turn:' It's Good and Could Be Great!

Where to begin? I have so many things to say about the world premiere production of the musical "Turn of the Century" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, a show with more than a dash of incisive sophistication, that I hardly know how to start this review. I'll just say that it is an extraordinarily beautiful production, very enjoyable and tuneful and transporting as directed by auteur icon Tommy Tune, one of the pioneers of the "jukebox" musical with "My One and Only," twenty-five years ago. As viewed on Wednesday evening, October 1, 2008 (in a performance signed for the hearing impaired, by the way), "Turn of the Century" played assuredly and stylishly. And yet in many ways the show's potential outstrips its current payoff.

Don't get me wrong-if you attend between now and November 2nd you will have a wonderful, effervescent time. The show frequently looks amazing, and completely unlike anything else. Sets by the popular Walt Spangler, lighting by Natasha Katz and above all gorgeous costumes by Dona Granata are all really first rate. But if the creative team digs a little deeper and thinks a wee bit harder, then future productions of this closely scrutinized script and score will pay off even richer dividends-for audiences as well as for investors.

This new "jukebox" musical comedy, the idea of  Marshall Brickman and now fleshed out by him and his "Jersey Boys" co-writer, Rick Elice, tells a romantic fairy tale not based on any literary or film source, but rather (similar to "Mamma Mia!") based on the songs presented in the course of the evening. And in the case of "Turn of the Century," the songs chosen represent a potpourri of the greatest American popular songs of the 20th century. Unlike "Mamma Mia!," however, the songs for the most part are not character-in-the-moment songs but are performance songs-that is, the characters know most of the time that they are singing songs.

And that is where the parallels with "Jersey Boys" are the strongest. If Brickman and Elice are interested in a second Broadway musical about songwriters and performers, about the music publishing business and how it worked in 20th century America, then they have hit on a fantastic idea. I was afraid that the time-travel framing device of their script (in short, a womanizing piano player and an unlucky singer-actress are somehow transported from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1900 and make a living by "writing" songs not yet written) would just be an excuse, in the way that "Ain't Misbehavin'" is not really about five denizens of a 1940s supper club, but is really a period musical revue with a dramatic "feel" to it. 

On the contrary. This story is really about these two characters, Billy Clark and Dixie Wilson, and how their love story unfurls over nine months and one hundred years. Billy and Dixie are portrayed here, respectively, by film and theater star Jeff Daniels and by Broadway chanteuse Rachel York, the Julia Roberts of the American musical theater. Daniels is a warm, centering presence, even if his singing is not what it could be and he appears a bit older than he seems to be portraying. York is simply magnificent, never less than stunning in appearance, and singing and acting with a beguiling air of eternal confidence and technical mastery. She is giving a performance that demands to be seen and savored. A truly remarkable star "turn."

And I am thrilled that Brickman and Elice have taken their time-travel idea seriously. There is conflict and risk and love to be won and lost amongst all the glamour gowns and Gilded Age gold and Tin Pan penny royalties. But even though this script was recently awarded a 2008 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award, I think its authors can go further. 

The way that the "rip in the time fabric" happens works well enough, and the payoff of the time-travel resolution is almost as effective. But we don't see these two lost souls figuring out how to walk and talk and order a cup of coffee in the midtown Manhattan of 1900 (where do they live?). Nor do we see any lasting impact of their time travel on New York, other than the fact that some songs got written early.

The biggest missed opportunity of the night, from my perspective, is that this show blows in every way but one its opportunity-the best opportunity since "Ragtime," by the way-to help musical theater fans understand that amazing crucible of American, European and African life that produced in turn of the century New York City the type of popular music that the world loved over two world wars and for the entire life cycle of the Iron Curtain.

Young Israel Baline, who actually did turn 12 years old in 1900, appears as a significant character in this show, played alternately by Chicagoans Jonah Rawitz and Matthew Gold. This is a brilliant stroke. It doesn't matter that Izzy doesn't play the piano only in F-sharp Major (as his grown-up self, Irving Berlin, would do), that he doesn't sound particularly Jewish or Russian or Noo Yawk, etc.-none of that matters. The role as written and performed (I saw Matthew Gold in the role) is perfect. 

The Baline family, unfortunately, is in only one scene toward the end (and hardly in a well-researched depiction). And where is the Kern family, or any mention of the Cohans or of Irish or German or Italian music and theater of the time and place? There is only one fleeting reference to the African-American music of the time, in a plot point related to Scott Joplin. 

I longed for "Turn of the Century" to stretch its wings beyond the well-heeled upper classes of Manhattan's WASPy socialites of the time and its depiction of Tin Pan Alley (including as it does another real-life character in the music publisher Max Dreyfus, played by Broadway and Chicago veteran Ron Orbach). The greater world doesn't absorb any impact from Billy and Dixie's sudden appearance (beyond young Berlin's formation), nor does it really impact them back. I strongly urge that these aspects be brought into the script for any future productions.

As a pure love story, the script is fairly successful, though it is only at the end that I realized the dramatic arc really belongs to Billy-it is his story, not theirs equally. This aspect can easily be sharpened by bits of dialogue, making it clear that he is the one with the drive and yet the doubt, etc. And clearly the love story is where the writers are aiming-glimpsed in the Goodman lobby were t-shirts for sale with the tagline, "How far would you go to find the love of your life?" (Scoop them up now, fans.) And using Rodgers and Hart's immortal song "Where or When" as a duet to open and close the show is inspired.

We quickly meet the leading characters at a swanky, private Y2K party, where Prince's "1999" is a fun and effective first ensemble number. After a bit, the time travel miracle occurs, cued to us by the "new" partygoers's rendition of "Auld Lang Syne." Billy and Dixie figure out what is going on (a little too quickly for my taste, but realistically enough), and then realize they can make more than a good living in their new situation when they lead the cast in a rousing rendition of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," one of the very first popular songs in a recognizable 20th century idiom. (Am I the only one who wished that Jerome Kern's "They Didn't Believe Me" had been given its due here as well?)

A montage of quick success follows, which includes "Moon River" sung by Evelyn Nesbit (literally "the girl on the swing"), "As Time Goes By," "My Way" and "I Am Woman," the latter sung in a nice touch by the "Florodora Sextette." I was feeling bad for the royalties our heroes are effectively stealing from the real composers and lyricists, but eventually Dixie Wilson gave voice to my concerns. (Dixie, by the way, has something of a steel trap mind as far as lyrics go, and apparently Billy is quick with handwritten manuscript notation.)

A medley of the duo in performance as the toast of New York is based around "I Write the Songs" (believe it or not, and it works), and includes a brief reprise of "Alexander" as well as "That's Amore" and others.  At this point Rachel York is wearing a dead ringer for Dolly Levi's red Harmonia Gardens dress, and why not?  She is walking star wattage. However, "Turn of the Century"'s conductor, Michael Biagi, rises out of the orchestra pit on some sort of hydraulic lift from time to time, which seemed distracting to me. Pick a height, already, and stick with it!

After we meet young Izzy Baline, another superb production number takes us out of our seats, "Stepping Out With My Baby." The show's choreography, by the way, is by Broadway song and dance man Noah Racey, doing fine work and capturing the feel of a long ago time while maintaining the standards of the very much alive Mr. Tune. 

A somewhat awkward dialogue scene in the Orientale photography studio-cum-boudoir of a rich composing rival's wife, Lily Van Heusen (played by the really excellent New York actress Rachel de Benedet) points out another flaw in the script as it now stands. There is no real reason that the show is performed in one long act, other than the fact that the dramatic tension is never pitched high enough to withstand the reduction naturally brought about by an intermission.

But if this scene were rewritten (or better yet, reconceived) to eliminate the speed at which Billy admits to being from the future, and the accompanying speed with which Lily believes him, then an act break could readily occur, and the next scene, including York's great rendition of the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross classic, "Twisted" (a/k/a "My Analyst Told Me"), would make a great Act Two opener. In that this number is the first one in the show in which a character doesn't know she is singing (think Rodgers and Hammerstein), this change of structure might capitalize on that fact.

Little Izzy returns, and performs his new song idea, "Always," as a lovely gift for Dixie. And, as "Turn of the Century" seems to be eager to use as many Berlin songs as it can, Dixie's dream of playing the lead role in "Annie Get Your Gun" is dramatized next. (I don't think that either Dixie Wilson or Rachel York is right for Annie, but I don't think they are right for other musical theater roles that are discussed, either. Mame? Not yet. Gypsy? Which role? Eliza Doolittle? No. Evita? Maybe.

This sequence is dominated by a pretty realistic and funny portrayal of how "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" would go if performed by a cast not quite sure what to make of it. One also gets the impression that these hapless performers are surrounded by a script probably not very well remembered by Wilson and Clark, and that the thing is surrounded by the somewhat queasy possibility that the real Annie Oakley might get wind of the whole shebang!

As big rifts in their romantic relationship occur, Billy and Dixie sing a quite stunning duet consisting of "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer and the Depression-era "Willow, Weep for Me" by Ann Ronell. The musical arrangement, like the whole show, is lovely, lovely, lovely, and credited to Steve Orich and Daryl Waters. The nine or ten piece orchestra is whiz-bang, as they are throughout, and the players deserve every penny and more of whatever they are earning. All of the night's music is jazzy, witty and seductive.

Unfortunately, the show's biggest puzzlement of logic occurs at this point. If Billy and Dixie's time in the past is about nine months, then this moment would occur in summertime. And yet, it seems to be snowing here, and Dixie is wearing a snow outfit straight out of "Dr. Zhivago." The upstage pas de deux couple, perhaps skating on a frozen Central Park Lake, could be retained, but the costuming and lighting need to be adjusted for this number. Surely this is on the list for change. 

Next comes a song which I suspect is newly written for "Turn of the Century" by Daryl Waters (correct me if I'm wrong), a patter and strut, in-performance number for the men's ensemble and the polished Chicago actor Kevin Gudahl as frustrated songwriter Harry Van Deusen. And early in the show, Billy lets Dixie know that he wants to write a real song with her, not just remember one and pass it off as original. So at the emotional climax of the show, the fragment we heard earlier becomes yet another song I suspect is a Daryl Waters original, the full ballad which I think is called "You Are the Music." It is lovely and was given full-throated life by York, with thoroughly committed faux-piano playing by Daniels (I didn't mind one bit all night).

Now for some comments and quibbles. Though the designs are conceived with style and meaning and executed with high polish and beauty, the opening of the show both enchanted and confused me. The show's set is framed by a large clockface, around which a Times Square-style chaser light system periodically shows pertinent messages to the audience. But before the performance began, news items from 1999 were interspersed with odd announcements of the "final concerts" of artists such as Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel and the BeeGees. I didn't get it. And a remarkable, projected starfield that moved and danced and enchanted me within the clockface turns out to be snow, in that the whole stage set is supposed to be a snow globe. I don't know about you, but I don't own any snowglobes surrounded by a clockface. As the summertime snow scene didn't work for me (despite its loveliness), I would recommend that the designers drop any snowglobe concept in favor of a time-out-of-joint cosmic nowhere-type star-based feel, which is what I first thought I was seeing. Just a friendly suggestion.

That said, some of the early projections thrown onto the all-white set are quite inventive and captivating. I think there should be even more. The all-black piano downstage right (it is there all night, though it does rotate) is quite stylish (its keys light up). All in all, the set pieces, the lights, the entire look of the show is creatively different from anything I have seen. Such great talent is amassed here.

And it is great to see some of Chicago's top musical theater performers on display here, working on new material alongside their peers from New York. Nicholas Belton and Tommy Rapley from Court Theatre's recent "Carousel" and James Rank and Jeff Parker from Drury Lane Water Tower's inaugural "Grand Hotel" appear in the men's ensemble, and the After Dark Award-winning Rebecca Finnegan and McKinley Carter are standouts among the women. Most production sequences involve a chorus of twelve or fourteen performers, by the way, so this show never feels slimmed down or "in development."

But as much as I appreciated Jeff Daniels's big-name box office appeal, his commitment to the material and his chops for comedy, I couldn't help but wonder what this show would be like were Billy Clark played by an innately musical, slightly more suave piano man like John Barrowman, Neil Patrick Harris or Raul Esparza. I'm not sure that his acting credits outweigh his musical debits. Rachel York's Dixie Wilson is a beautiful, fragile yet strong creature, struggling for stardom and dignity in her corner of the world and yet thrown into another she doesn't understand. Her star power rises with every performance.

It goes without saying that anyone interested in the future of the musical theater should see "Turn of the Century" if at all possible. But even "regular" theatergoers will have a fun, funny and rapturous time. Any evening spent with songs by our greatest writers, staged by Tommy Tune, is an evening well spent. And there is plenty of high society eye candy on display here as well.

I for one will be watching for announcements regarding the future of this inventive and moving theatrical story. There is too much good here to let it end at the Goodman. But that's my point-don't stop here, keep going to reach the place where you are headed. The romance, the time travel, the colorful origins of American popular music and the character delineations are the places that need some attention. Give those some nourishment, and the fruit this show yields may be juicy and tremendously appealing. My best of luck to all concerned!

Rehearsal photos by Michael Brosilow. Performance photos by Liz Lauren.

Photos (from top): Tommy Tune; Rachel York and Jeff Daniels; Rachel York; Jonah Rawitz and Matthew Gold; "1999" ensemble; "Alexander's Ragtime Band" ensemble; York and company; York and Rawitz; Jeff Daniels; Kevin Gudahl, Rachel de Benedet and Ron Orbach; men's ensemble and Daniels; Daniels.

"Turn of the Century" plays now through November 2, 2008 at the Goodman Theatre's Albert Theatre, 170 North Dearborn Street in Chicago. For tickets call 312-443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org.

 

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