Best of Broadway 1955-1964
Created and directed by Wade Hair
Breakthrough Theater Company
by Carl F. Gauze
Impresario Wade Hair has returned to the stage with another of his massive “Best of Broadway” series, and I think he’s running out of decades. Tonight, we experience hit tunes from the late 1950s to mid in 1960s. It was a time when musical theater was losing traction to television as well as CinemaScope movies. But the musical theater art form retained its vigor and output, and many of tonight’s tunes are timeless standards.
We open with the prescient “Comedy Tonight” from the massive Stephen Sondheim hit A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum. The sexual comedy in this gem is timeless — people get caught in the wrong bed century after century. This raunchy comedy leads in to some lesser-known shows. On the Other Side of the Tracks gives us “Little Me.” Then “Gonna Build a Mountain” points up Stop The World, I Want To Get Off. Next is the treacly sweet “Sound of Music,” another big hit featuring the innocent Julie Andrews. Fun fact about the movie version of this show: When the von Trapp family flees Vienna to dodge the Nazi troops, they actually are shown going the wrong way, and heading for Hitler’s lair in Berchtesgaden.
The cast is a good mix of adult talent as well as a larger assortment of child actors of all ages. There aren’t really any clunks in the song list — director Hair has broad tastes in show tunes and vocal styles. There’s no big message here, just a toe-tapping revue of all the songs you would put on a Broadway mix tape. The path forward for the Best of Broadway series remains unclear, but options abound, and in the worst case perhaps we will see a cabaret using only songs starting with the 1etter “T.” But any way Mr. Hair aims, I’m sure it will be well sung and big fun.
