Coca Nuts

From the Theater Vault Dept.: The madcap excesses of the “Barber of Seville” we discussed last week reminded me of a very different, very funny musical: “On the 20th Century.” I saw it in 1987, when the Broadway tour came to Schenectady. The musical opened on Broadway in 1978, where Judy Kaye replaced Madeline Kahn after a few performances, and it made Kaye’s career. Also in that cast was Imogene Coca, the incredibly funny foil to Sid Caesar for so many years. We were fortunate to have both Kaye and Coca in the cast of this tour, as noted below.

                                                                                           

THE DROP THIS TOURING COMPANY USES for a curtain has giant postcards painted thereon, as if written on board the Twentieth Century, a train that once connected New York and Chicago. The portraits cleverly used on the stamps are of the songwriters responsible for the musicalization of this vintage play: composer Cy Coleman and librettists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Imogene Coca

Might as well be so bold as to display their faces. It needed a team this good to take an already good play and make an entirely convincing musical out of it.

It started as “Napoleon of Broadway” by Bruce Millholland. Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht fashioned it into “Twentieth Century,” placing the emphasis on board the train.

Comden and Green added lyrics and some dramatic touches of their own, with a Coleman score that is a throwback to the operetta-ish stuff of Jerome Kern’s day.

The spectres of great actors hang over this show. Thanks to the 1934 movie, it’s easy to recall John Barrymore and Carole Lombard as the irascible producer and mercurial star. Which gives Frank Gorshin and Judy Kaye a hell of a tradition to top, but they did so with gusto.

My only reservation about Gorshin’s character is that it remains too plausible. As he fires his press agent for the umpteenth time with the admonition, “I close the iron gate on you!” we should marvel at the power of the silly statement; Barrymore infused it with fried ham, and I suspect that Gorshin (who is, after all, best known as an impressionist) is doing his best to avoid a Barrymore impression.

Judy Kaye is a showstopper. Great presence, great voice, and marvelously funny, pushing her character to the manic brink without ever seeming less than the goddess she’s supposed to be.

The role of a religious kook has been Imogene Coca’s since the musical first opened on Broadway. She just has to walk out on stage and squint and I’m helpless. She has one big number, “Repent,” that reminds you of the magic a great performer brings to good material.

Kaye is on the train with her leading man, granite-brained Bruce Granite. Played by Keith Curran with cartoon zest (and the agility of a spider), it was a marvel of controlled lunacy. I would have liked more of the same from David Green and Bruce Daniels as Gorshin’s sidekicks, although their ensemble work can’t be faulted.

Kay Cameron led a small, vigorous ensemble with superb results. The music sounded good and, wonder of wonders, the amplification never got out of hand. It was positively unobtrusive throughout much of the show.

On the 20th Century
Directed by Jeffrey B. Moss
Proctor’s Theater, March 21

– Metroland Magazine, 26 March 1987