With Pal Joey on Broadway, Roundabout Theatre Company excellently revives a classic 1940 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical that produced standards such as “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.”
What 'Pal Joey' is About
There are two kinds of people in Joey Evans' world, those he's yet to charm and those on whom his charm has worn off. And because Joey (Matthew Risch) always wants what he can't have (and never wants what he does have) his charms start wearing off as soon as they've worn on.
Joey is set in the tawdry nightclub scene of Depression-era Chicago's South Side. It's a grand time for people with the good sense to have money and a grim time for those with good sense, but no money. Joey has neither sense nor money. He dreams of opening his own club, a “classy joint,” and when he's challenged, “In times like these?” he responds, “Times like these are just the times.” Joey defined in seven words.
Every moment is his moment, and though people might be passing through them, there's no room in them for anyone else.
Fittingly, Joey's first act opens and closes with stylized dream dance sequences, which, like the musical, contrast the desires and realities of everyone involved. Everybody wants something in Pal Joey, but they all know at some level it's going to get away from them.
Linda English (Jenny Felner), a naïve, new kid in town, wants to make it in the big city and find someone she can connect with and trust. Vera Simpson (Stockard Channing) has everything and everyone her disinterested husband's money can buy. What she doesn't have is love. Gladys Bumps (Martha Plimpton) wants a place to finish out her career as a not-quite-talented-enough song and dance gal.
And Joey just wants it all.
What You'll Like About 'Pal Joey'
The set by Scott Pask uses every inch of Studio 54's stage to let us descend into the dark world of seedy joints under the ever-present El trains and soar to the rarefied high-rise air of high society. We spiral down to the South Side clubs and rise up to Vera's apartment, with those 20-foot ceilings that always seem to signify late-30's wealth.
Joey Evans is the point at which these world collide.
Of course, the music and lyrics are classic. Pal Joey occupies a unique space in American musical theater. It sits squarely between Showboat and Oklahoma! in the evolution of the form from high-class vaudeville to an integration of story, character, song, and dance making relevant statements in the context of its time. It was, in fact, ahead of its time, doing mild business when it opened and earning respect in revival.
Some of the songs fit perfectly in the moment, “Bewitched,” among them and “I Could Write a Book” coming close. Others are just as enjoyable (“Zip,” for example) but need to fall back on a device, a night club act, to make sense in context.
Director Joe Mantello and choreographer Graciele Daniele help the show bridge the gap with “Happy Hunting Horn” by staging it so that it is integrated in its moment.
The night I attended, Joey stumbled out of the gate with the opening number seeming out of sync, but the show found its footing quickly and really hit stride when Plimpton starting singing. Martha Plimpton is simply great as Gladys Bumps.
From Ensemble to Lead
Matthew Risch earned the great and terrible opportunity to step from the ensemble to the title role when Christian Hoff's foot injury sidelined him. Having seen Hoff as schmucky Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys, I was looking forward to his Joey Evans. But the show is better with Risch in the role and that is no slight toward Hoff.
Risch brings a believable, eager likability to Joey that overlays the sharp-edged selfishness at his core. It's important that the first not serve only to set up the second. Joey must have redeeming qualities, even if there ultimately is no redemption for him, for his apparent charm to make sense. Risch doesn't nail every note he sings, but his dancing and his portrayal of the nuances Joey is so unaware of are spot on.
Stockard Channing is in rare form as Vera Simpson. Her money makes everyone happy except her, and though she knows Joey can't make her happy either, she lets herself believe it for a while, and therefore, so do we. Channing chanteuses her way through the upper registers of her songs, but even that seems in keeping with Vera's character.
Is Pal Joey a perfect show? No. Even with an updated book by Richard Greenberg (more on that later) it's a musical from a time before the post-Oklahoma! refinements to the form. But this is a very good show, and if you like American book musicals, you must go see it. The Rodgers and Hart score is reason enough to go.
Ahead of ItsTime
It's interesting that Oscar Hammerstein wrote book and lyrics for Showboat, Richard Rodgers wrote the music for Pal Joey, and Rodgers and Hammerstein came together on Oklahoma!. Hammerstein, with his essential optimism, could not have written Pal Joey. Ahead of its time, Joey isn't redeemed by Linda English's knowing but unconditional love. That's what sets it apart.
Fortunately, book rewriter Greenberg didn't mess with that. I think it's less fortunate that he shoehorned in a back story abortion for Gladys and a gay love story plot device. There could be no objection if these fit in the context of the show. However, we're asked to accept that Joey could have gotten Gladys pregnant, stood her up at the backroom abortionist's, and then, when they accidentally reconnect, expect her to forgive and forget on the strength of his charm. No one is that charming.
Ultimately, like Joey, Roundabout's production has plenty of charm. Unlike Joey, it doesn't let us down.
Pal Joey
Run Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, with intermission
- Studio 54
254 West 54th Street
- Show Times and Tickets