The York Theatre’s latest musical, My Vaudeville Man!, takes us inside the passion that drives every performer, the battles – both inside and out – they must fight to achieve their dreams, and the cost it can have on them and those they love.
Both comedy and drama, My Vaudeville Man! will tap dance its way into your heart before its two and half hours are through.
What ‘My Vaudeville Man!’ is About
My Vaudeville Man! is drawn from letters that 19-year-old Jack Donahue and his mother exchanged in the first years after he left home – over her strong objections – for life on the small-time vaudeville circuit in New England.
Jack would go on to become a legendary dancer and Broadway star, but in 1910, it was him against the world. Talented, ambitious, exuberant, he embraces everything (and everyone) the road brings his way.
Back home, his long-suffering mother (or “mudder,” Jack calls her Mud) fights to keep her life and family together. Years with an irresponsible, irrepressible, irresistible drunk of a husband have left her committed that her son will have steady work and sobriety. His pursuit of a career in show business ends any hope of steady work, and despite Jack’s denials, Mud fears her son is headed down her husband’s boozy path.
What You’ll Like About ‘My Vaudeville Man!’
Even as it take a serious look at the generational curse of alcohol in an Irish family, My Vaudeville Man! never takes itself too seriously, and it never gets too far away from a dance routine. Hats go off to the stars of the two-person show, Karen Murphy (Mud) and Shonn Wiley (Jack), for helping audiences see a turn-of-the-last-century world where good-humored, tough-as-nails Irish mothers did what they had to do to hold their families together.
Wiley raises the roof in “The Tap Drunk,” a five-man tap-off/drinking contest in which we see his dancing and acting chops. We’re laughing and hurting as Jack comes into his own as a top professional dancer and gets his comeuppance for the hard-drinking life he’s chosen.
Murphy is a wonder as Mud, whose plight breaks our heart. She’s a strong woman in an era where that strength had to be spent dealing with the havoc wrought by the men in her life. Murphy keeps us laughing and cheering for Mud through hilarious confession sessions with the local priest and her unfailing love for Jack.
Who Put This Show on and Stars in It?
Murphy and Wiley shine in bringing to life the book and lyrics by Jeff Hochhauser. His epistolary convention moves the action all over New England while Mud and Jack “talk” to each other through their letters. The music and lyrics by Bob Johnston evoke the era with a simple three-piece band. The feel ranges from ragtime to torch song, and Murphy’s aching “So the Old Dog has Come Home” is a high point.
Tony-nominated Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s direction and co-choreography (she shared choreography duties with Shonn Wiley) is vital to the success of the show. Two acts and two people can add up to a slow show, but My Vaudeville Man! never slows down. This is a musical where you’re tapping your toes, not checking your watch.
The show was produced by The York Theatre Company and Melanie Herman.
My Vaudeville Man! is at The York Theatre, Saint Peter’s Theatre, 619 Lexington Avenue.