Book Review: MARY & ETHEL ...and MIKEY WHO? Is a Fun-filled Time-traveling Show Biz Adventure

What starstruck musical theatre-loving fan — while relishing old cast albums, filmed performances, and books about Broadway history  — hasn’t wished for the chance to have been present to see the legendary productions and performers of yore?  And, as if being an eavesdropping fly on the wall would not be enough, what if you could interact with the people and even get paid to do so?  In Stephen Cole’s entertaining new fanciful historical fiction project, having been born too late turns out to be no obstacle for maven Mikey Marvin Minkus, as he slips, slides, steps, and strumbles into time warps, landing in various decades.  He learns the good, the bad, and the ugly truths represented by the statement that “There’s no business like show business,” to quote the song from Annie Get Your Gun, a title role played first by his idol, Ethel Merman, and later by Mary Martin. 

Mary & Ethel…and Mikey Who? is a whirlwind of dramatic adventure, frequently funny and often quite touching.  The tale begins in the 1980s when 25-year-old Mikey is alarmed to learn that Merman, whom he’s worshiped from afar (“afar” being his mother’s basement in Brooklyn) is seriously ill and he is determined to somehow meet her and wish her well. Thanks to her Manhattan doorman’s assumption that he is that day’s expected workman, Mikey is pointed to the elevator and moments later encounters not only the long-admired, short-tempered object of his obsession but Mary Martin, who is visiting (both are senior citizens at this point), and the no-nonsense nurse whose first name is also Mary (the increasingly enigmatic lady is dubbed “Mary 2”). Then he goes into a storage closet and he opens the door and sees a very different world, like Dorothy entering Oz.  It’s the 1930s and he’s backstage in the Broadway theatre housing Leave It to Me, in which Mary Martin gained fame with the song “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”  

He encounters Merman and the two Marys in each mysterious trip through the years and careers.  Rubbing his eyes with disbelief, he’s rubbing elbows with celebrities who sometimes rub each other the wrong way.  At one puzzling point or another,  Mikey becomes an assistant to each diva, a press agent, a confidant, and the writer for the Tony Awards ceremony when both stars are among the nominees in the same category.  Incidents that are true, truth-adjacent, and fanciful intermingle.  It’s a vivid vicarious feast for dyed-in-the-wool devotees of musical theatre, but those newer to the lore won’t feel shut out because the other is quite scrupulous in never simply name-dropping without dropping in relevant facts to bring newbies up to speed. Even perhaps erring on the side of caution with repetition, the author uses a few different methods to make these identifications and contexts more lively: the basic facts are colored with a character’s opinion-shaded memory, sometimes contained in quotes from chatty correspondence that also serve as “catch-up” on what happened in other years and outside of Mikey’s presence. Also, there’s a handy appendix that gives capsule explanations. 

I drank in this delightful diversion in two ways: first, reading through it in print and then listening to the audio version read by bubbly Anita Gillette who impressively (and sometimes impudently) takes on each character with contrasting voices, energies, attitudes, perspectives, and levels of sympathy.  It’s like listening to a radio play that is well paced and nails the essence of the interesting interactions and reactions. As a bonus, when a line or two from a song lyric is in the text, she sings it!  The actress brings a special connection to Merman, whose expletive-sprinkled dialog she delivers in a frequently gruff, snarky tone, the abrasive sandpaper to the silk of the daintier Martin.  

Both Cole and Gillette knew Merman: Cole befriended her in later years, and Gilette was a Broadway castmate playing daughter June in Gypsy.  She also played the steamrolling star’s mother in another Cole concoction: the merry musical comedy Merman’s Apprentice (his lyrics and book, with music by David Evans, preserved as a cast album).  I’d love to see M, M & MW? adapted for the stage or screen.     

Recounted are close encounters of all kinds (some contentious, some baffling, one sexual) with performers Sophie Tucker, Jane Fonda, and Benay Venuta (Merman’s BFF), waiters, cab drivers, nurses (where Mary Martin’s boozy, bossy husband/manager is confined for a while), director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, songwriters Dorothy Fields, Richard Rodgers, and Cole Porter.  Mikey’s dramatic catharsis dealing with his personal (family) past gives the book gravitas and psychological depth in surprising ways, broadening its appeal to a general audience not addicted to show biz.  There are memorable images in this nostalgia-fest, such as 62-year-old Ethel Merman’s appearance in the bright red costume for the title song of Hello, Dolly: “looking like an overripe cherry pie dipped in bugle beads.”  That’s just one tiny slice of the novelist’s way of making the reader feel like being in the room where it happened (in this case, one of its several dressing rooms).  A nice place to visit!!      
 

Mary & Ethel ...and Mikey Who? was released by Moreclacke Publishers. It's available for purchase here.

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