[NEohioPAL] Berko review: MY FAVORITE YEAR (Beck Center)

[Roy Berko]

‘MY FAVORITE YEAR’—dated script is misdirected

Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--
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I can’t fathom why Beck Center, which has been on a
positive role for picking good scripts and staging
strong productions, decided to stage the very dated
and poorly written ‘MY FAVORITE YEAR.’  I also can’t
grasp how William Roudebush, who last year directed
the outstanding ‘EQUUS’ got so off course with his
interpretation of this musical.

‘MY FAVORITE YEAR,’ with a book by Joseph Dougherty,
music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens,
centers on  the experiences of Benjy Stone, a young
comedy writer who works on “The King Kaiser Show,” a
program much like the classic “Show of Shows” which
starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. 

When Alan Swann, an Errol Flynn-like movie star is
signed to make a guest appearance on the King Kaiser
Show, all hell breaks lose.  Swann is an alcoholic, in
a state of depression over his failed role as a
father, and a womanizer.  It becomes Benjy’s duty to
“baby sit” the star and make sure he stays sober until
show time.  Of course, many stumbling blocks must be
jumped over.

The script has a troubled past.  After 45 previews in
which there were constant rewrites, the show opened on
December 10, 1992 and ran only 36 performances, in
spite of a cast that included Tim Curry, Josh Mostel
and Lainie Kazan.  It generally got negative reviews,
including one that called it a “barren Broadway
musical.”  Many of the references are dated, only
understood by those around in the early days of
television.  The show was rewritten in 2007 with an
eye to a Broadway opening.  

If the Beck production is anything of what the future
holds, the Big Apple isn’t going to like this version
any better than the last one.

Maybe Beck chose the script because of their successes
with ‘A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE’ and ‘RAGTIME,’ which had
music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. 
Maybe they chose it because no other theatre in the
area has staged it.  Whatever, it was a big mistake. 
The script is bad and the music unmemorable.

Roudebush misdirected the show.  It is a farce!  It
needed lots of shtick.  It needed fast pacing.  It
needed a Sid Caesar, bigger-than-life attitude.  It
had none of these.

And, then there was the set.  Richard Gould went over
the top.  There were so many massive set pieces that
the cast spent more time schlepping and pushing set
pieces than they did singing, dancing and acting. 
Roudebush seemingly spent more time figuring out how
to get the sets on stage than in directing the cast.

Several of the leading actors were quite good.  Shawn
Galligan  (Benjy), has a nice Mathew Broderick look
and quality, and he sings better than Broderick. 
Unfortunately, he proved in the dance numbers, that he
is not a hoofer.

Matthew Wright was right-on as Alan Swann. Wright, as
usual, is a delight to watch on stage.  The guy can
act, sing, dance and carry on a great sword fight. 
(Thanks to John Davis the fight director!) It’s almost
worth going to see the rest of this train wreck just
to see Wright.

Jean Zarzour was fun as Benjy’s mother, but even she
couldn’t get out from under Roudebush’s heavy hand. 
This lady is funny
let her loose to do her thing!  
The same goes for Rachel Spence (who played Alice
Miller, aka Imogene Coca).  She has the right look,
but was way too restrained.

John Polk was either miscast or misdirected as King
Kaiser.  He was absolutely not funny.  Funny was a
requirement for the role.

Choreographer Martin Cespedes tried valiantly to
produce some creative dance numbers, but was hindered
by a cast which appeared not to have a single
accomplished dancer.   He also had to figure out how
to work around all those set pieces which came rolling
in and out.  I’m surprised no one has gotten maimed
from all that stuff.

I took my grandsons—Alex (12) and Noah Berko (11)—the
kid reviewers--to see the show as I had expected it to
be a farcical laugh riot.  They were basically bored. 
They liked the sword fighting scenes.  Noah kept
getting confused with who was who because “the same
people were playing lots of parts.” Alex, a talented
musician, thought the band was too loud at the start
but settled in and Shawn Galligan had a nice singing
voice though he flatted in several songs.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  In spite of a wonderful
performance by Matthew Wright, ‘MY FAVORITE YEAR’ was
a major disappointment.  With a weak script and a poor
directing vision, the show just never took off! 

‘MY FAVORITE YEAR’ runs through JUNE 8 at The Beck
Center for the Arts in Lakewood.  For ticket
information call 216-521-2540.


Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2008, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info
      
His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to subscibe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)