Something Greater

Applause gets the Encores season off on the right foot. Well, sort of. The right side of the body, at least.

Christine Ebersole was on despite the flu, and after a shaky start she sounded just fine. She gave perfect line readings (the scratchiness helped, almost as a Davis/Bacall homage), danced energetically, and sang so well you'd never know some of those songs were terrible. (Is there actually any melody to "Hurry Back"?) If the strain of performing doesn't cause her to relapse, I think she'll be at 100% by the end of the run. She still won't be ideal at 100%--her wattage of star quality is great for Grey Gardens or 42nd Street, but not so much for something written expressly for Lauren Bacall--but if the idea is to have a locally beloved figure singing this score attractively, we're good. She still managed to give the requisite chills when closing the first act with "Welcome to the Theater."

The show was more entertaining than I remembered, highlighted by the title song (revised for the occasion; you'll understand when you see it) and by Comden and Green's witty book. Most of the cast was fine, if clearly underrehearsed and clinging to the scripts for dear life. It was fun to see Chip Zien and Kate Burton even if they had the worst songs ("Fasten Your Seat Belt" is so bad it's scary, and "Good Friends" is just pathetic), and I have no idea why the wonderful Michael Park isn't seen more often on Broadway. (The bubbly "One of a Kind," now that both halves are actually sung, is possibly the best musical moment in the show.") Mario Cantone surprised me by being able to sing; didn't they reassign "Another National Anthem" in Assassins to Marc Kudisch because he could barely sing his verses, let alone the chorus? Megan Sikora might not make us forget the great Bonnie Franklin, but she's an asset in both of her (entirely extraneous) numbers.

As Eve, Erin Davie was the only real disappointment--as with Grey Gardens, hers was the hardest role, and it can't have helped for her not to have had Ebersole to rehearse with. But that excuse doesn't stretch far enough to cover her gargly rendition of "One Hallowe'en." Anyway, so much of the role is written between the lines that a weak Eve is really harmful to the show. Still, I doubt you could find ten people in all of City Center who'd never seen All About Eve, so it wasn't as though people didn't understand what was going on.

Thumbs up overall. I can't wait for Juno.