HEY, LOOK ME OVER! - Encores

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 12:52am

One of the most bizzare things I have ever seen in my life.

A parade of overtures, book scenes, solos, duets, dance numbers and group numbers from a group of mostly forgotten shows, with an all star cast including Bebe Neuwirth, Douglas Sills, Vanessa Williams, Judy Kuhn, Carolee Carmello, Nancy Opel, Bob Martin, and many, many others. 

The Encores orchestra was, as always, amazing. The performers were wonderful.

The material was excruciatingly bad, with a few rare exceptions. There were a few extended book sequences where I came very close to asking the person sitting next to me to slit my throat to save me from the boredom. The songs are almost all terrible. Of course they have "Hey, Look Me Over", from WILDCAT which is at least hummable, and also "Once Upon a Time", which is gorgeous, but for the most part, there is a reason that these shows flopped, and aside from a Theatre 101 type educational look at this history, there is not much logic for this thing to exist.

Bob Martin's narration is the highlight of the evening. He is the perfect host.

I appreciate Encores for the ambition here, but it just doesn't click. I wish it did. 

I feel most bad for the many school groups who were comped into tonight's performance. If HEY, LOOK ME OVER made them think that this is what theatre is, they will never return for the rest of their lives. 

 

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 2:17am

Other than MACK AND MABEL I've always been excruciatingly un-enamored with the scores to these shows, sadly. I'll still look for the "naughty" recordings, as our dear departed Mr. Roxy used to say.

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 8:29am

Interesting to hear.  I just got TDF tickets for Sat night but spending $30~ dollars a tickets is better than 100+.  I'm familiar with a number or the shows (and done a few) so it could be more interesting than not.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 8:42am

I would think that, if performed well by the right person(s), several songs from these shows could be enormously entertaining - "What Takes My Fancy," "Never Will I Marry," "Never Was a Ring," "Let's Not Waste a Moment," "As Simple As That," "Why Do the Wrong People Travel," "You're a Long, Long Way From America," and much of Mack and Mabel. Perhaps this was merely poorly directed/rehearsed. (I confess that the scores to All American, Jamaica, and most of all George M do very little for me.)

Updated On: 2/7/18 at 08:42 AM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 8:42am

I was worried that the show would be bizarre and boring. I have not bought a ticket and probably won't.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 9:55am

I can't wait to see it. Flaws and all , these shows are part of theater history, something lost on most people in this day and age. 

Also, most of these second rate scores are more melodic, have smarter  lyrics, and provide  better entertainment than the, supposedly, top drawer scores written today. No one can convince me that we have anyone today who is comparable to Coleman, Strouse, Herman, Arlen, Cohan, and Coward. I still go back to listen to their flop scores from fifty years ago. However, I haven't revisited Wedding Singer,  Legally Blonde, title of show or a mountain of other bland  "hits" from the last twenty five years since I first heard them.  

Pooh well, to each his own. 

[forgetmenotnyc]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 2:18pm

 

IMHO, the shows that presented strongest were "All-American" "George M" & "Greenwillow" which had the highest musical values going - esp. one terrific # "Never Will I Marry" by Clifton Duncan. Some of the stronger players were Marc Kudisch (less than vocally present with a different sounding wireless mic), Vanessa Williams, Bebe Neuwirth (not sounding as wobbly as she has in the past but still not able to rise above Elaine Stritches take on "Why Do the Wrong People Travel" from Sail Away, Tam Mutu & Doug Sills. Not coming off as well was "Milk & Honey" & "Wildcat."

Updated On: 2/7/18 at 02:18 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 10:59pm

This was indeed a strange evening, but let's not blame the shows presented, but rather the way they were presented. We didn't need any book scenes or even multiple songs from the different shows. I would much rather have gotten song, song, song and included more shows.

Milk & Honey may have a problematic book (I saw the recent Mufti production) but the score is wonderful and the OBCR a joy. Why have Nancy Opel out there as Clara if you're not going to have her sing any of her songs? The segments were all so padded and as delightful as Martin's narration was, it bogged down the evening and never let things catch fire.

Look, anyone in the audience at an Encores like this (or any other) already knows all the songs/cast recordings and we don't need all the connective tissue, especially when it wasn't very informative.

I would have thrown in more numbers like Not On Your Nellie from Darling of the Day, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer from The Rink (or more ideally, Angel's Rink and Social Center), The Thank You Song from Maggie Flynn, Here and Now and/or The Coconut Girl from Girl Who Came to Supper, Steady, Steady from Bravo Giovanni, Any dance number from Seesaw, Swing Your Bag from Cry For Us All, The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous from Mr President. You get the picture: a crowd pleaser from these flop scores that we so desperately want to hear again live.

Mack and Mabel is a fantastic score, but for these purposes I would have had Mack sing I Won't Send Rose and Mabel do Wherever He Ain't and move on.

The best parts were the overtures to Wildcat and Subways; I Was a Shoo-In would have killed in this setting!

I do hope we see full versions of these shows at Encores, or maybe like a live version of an OBCR. The Grass Harp act one and The Gay Life act two. No book. Just the songs and original orchestrations.

It wasn't like this was painful by any means, and any chance we get to hear these scores live makes me feel guilty about complaining, but to think what could have been...

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 2/7/18 at 11:08pm

What was the runtime for this?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:10am

JayG 2 said: "I can't wait to see it. Flaws and all , theseshows are part oftheater history, something lost onmost people in this day and age.

Also, mostof these second rate scores are more melodic, have smarterlyrics, and providebetter entertainment than the,supposedly, top drawerscores written today. No one can convince me that we have anyone today who is comparable toColeman, Strouse, Herman, Arlen, Cohan, and Coward. I still go back to listen to theirflop scores from fifty years ago.However, I haven't revisited Wedding Singer,Legally Blonde, title of show or a mountain ofother bland "hits" from thelast twenty five yearssince I first heard them.

Pooh well, to each his own."

Dear God you are a miserable old coot!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 12:14am

WhizzerMarvin said: "This was indeed a strange evening, but let's not blame the shows presented, but rather the way they were presented. We didn't need any book scenes or even multiple songs from the different shows. I would much rather have gotten song, song, song and included more shows.

Milk & Honey may have a problematic book (I saw the recent Mufti production) but the score is wonderful and the OBCR a joy. Why have Nancy Opel out there as Clara if you're not going to have her sing any of her songs? The segments were all so padded and as delightful as Martin's narration was, it bogged down the evening and never let things catch fire.

Look, anyone in the audience at an Encores like this (or any other) already knows all the songs/cast recordings and we don't need all the connective tissue, especially when it wasn't very informative.

I would have thrown in more numbers like Not On Your Nellie from Darling of the Day, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer from The Rink (or more ideally, Angel's Rink and Social Center), The Thank You Song from Maggie Flynn, Here and Now and/or The Coconut Girl from Girl Who Came to Supper, Steady, Steady from Bravo Giovanni, Any dance number from Seesaw, Swing Your Bag from Cry For Us All, The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous from Mr President. You get the picture: a crowd pleaser from these flop scores that we so desperately want to hear again live.

Mack and Mabel is a fantastic score, but for these purposes I would have had Mack sing I Won't Send Rose and Mabel do Wherever He Ain't and move on.

The best parts were the overtures to Wildcat and Subways; I Was a Shoo-In would have killed in this setting!

I do hope we see full versions of these shows at Encores, or maybe like a live version of an OBCR. The Grass Harp act one and The Gay Life act two. No book. Just the songs and original orchestrations.

It wasn't like this was painful by any means, and any chance we get to hear these scores live makes me feel guilty about complaining, but to think what could have been..."

WhizzerMarvin you will forever be the voice of reason here. You are just so spot on!

[bk]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 2:03am

Well, who put the evening together - names.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 7:01am

A miserable old coot with taste, Carlosalberto ( and I won't reduce myself to name calling. I'll leave that for President Trump and his ilk.)

[msmp]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:09pm

Did anyone happen to do the stage door for this production? I'm curious who, if anyone, came out to sign/take pictures.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:24pm

I'll echo the other opinions on here. The singing is wonderful and it's nice to hear some of these tunes, but it makes for an unsatisfying evening. I would have rather they just did a concert presentation of some of these shows instead of just performing a song or two out of context.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 1:31pm

So are these seven shows represented musicals that Encores is considering doing? Or shows that they haven't been able to get the rights to do full presentations of? Why would they only do two songs from MACK AND MABEL and a long segment from GREENWILLOW which isn't nearly as audience friendly?

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:00pm

^No clue if they're planning on doing these shows, but Mack & Mabel totally needs it's own Encores! production. Although I'm not sure that Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha are the two performers that I would want to see lead it.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:42pm

The evening felt like an in the know talent show fundraiser instead of an actual show. The narration and scene work should gave been trimmed. I would have gone song to song and not worried about costumes and props. As with all talent shows some things worked better than others. The evening was rather long for a musical review.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:56pm

There must be some reason why Mack and Mabel hasn’t been done by Encores already.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 3:57pm

QueenAlice said: "So are these seven shows represented musicals that Encores is considering doing? Or shows that they haven't been able to get the rights to do full presentations of? Why would they only do two songs from MACK AND MABEL and a long segment from GREENWILLOW which isn't nearly as audience friendly?"

Hasn't Jerry Herman been fairly vocal about not wanting his work done in an Encores!-type setting? Maybe that's all he let them have the rights for. Jo Sullivan Loesser was probably much freer with the rights to Greenwillow. 

(Of course, I have no idea how the rights for things of this nature work, so I could be totally wrong.)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 4:00pm

Queen Alice, I had heard the evening described as "worthy shows that we hadn't gotten around to doing (yet)." I don't think they have these lined up necessarily, but they are all the types of shows you would expect Encores to put on. As much as it would thrill me, I knew this wasn't going to be about Into the Light and Via Galactica.

These were not unknown rarities- at least for the Encores audience. Most of them had somewhat decent runs, all had official cast recordings and many were big star vehicles. We certainly weren't dealing with esoteric, 3 performance unrecorded flops here.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 4:02pm

As fair as rights go, Jerry has allowed his shows to be put on at Mufti, so I can't imagine why he would entrust them to Jim Morgan and not Encores.

[raddersons]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 4:02pm

How does this compare to Prince of Broadway?

[fredric47]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 8:23pm

I am very undecided about whether I am going to come up from Philadelphia to see "Hey, Look Me Over,' as much as I love the songs from most of the shows being presented. I grew up in the 50's and 60's and either saw or have collected the original cast recording from all of these shows. Of these shows, "Milk and Honey" was the biggest hit. It had a decent run on Broadway and then tour with most of the original cast with the exception of Mimi Benzell, who was too ill and towards the end of her life, to go on the road with a show.. I also remember "George M!" being a hit at the end of the 1967-'68 season. Certainly, it was one of Joel Grey's longest running shows after "Cabaret."

If anyone who has attended "Hey, Look Me Over!" and could provide the song list for me. It would help immeasurably for me to decide whether I should see this show. Ironically, York Theatre Company is doing "Bar Mitzvah Boy," as its Musicals in Mufti production starting this weekend. I saw the original production of it in London on my first visit in 1978. I didn't think much of the show but the songs grew on me after I purchased the original cast album when I got back home to NYC, when I lived in Long Island at the time.

Thanks,

Bruce Winston, the original Man in Chair

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 2/8/18 at 10:47pm

And the Times review is in:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/theater/review-hey-look-me-over-encores-city-center.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftheater&action=click&contentCollection=theater&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront