Shinbone Alley: The Return of the Philosophical Cockroach

By: Michael Dale Nov. 12, 2006

If the friendship between a philosophical cockroach with the soul of a poet and a sassy, capricious alley cat seems to you an unlikely subject for a Broadway musical, you may not be familiar with the series of archy and mehitabel stories written by Don Marquis. Immensely popular during the first half of the last century, the New York Sun first began publishing this cockroach's view of the world, full of humor and streetwise cynicism, in 1916."archy" would write during the midnight hours by hopping on the keys of typewriters already loaded with blank paper. Since he couldn't hold down the "shift" key, his columns were written exclusively in lower case letters with no punctuation.

Though the musical Shinbone Alley lasted a mere 49 performances on Broadway, the new staged reading at Musicals Tonight! reveals it to be one of those fascinating, if flawed, creations whose satirical sense and intimate whimsy was most likely lost in the cavernous Broadway Theatre.

When this "back alley opera" premiered in 1957, composer George Kleinsinger was the more successful of its creators, having co-authored the children's classic Tubby The Tuba. But his lyricist, Joe Darion, would soon win a Tony for Man Of La Mancha, and Darion's collaborator on Shinbone Alley's book, Mel Brooks, is of course now known to all musical theatre lovers as the bookwriter of All American.

The cast was loaded with future stars. Eddie Bracken and Eartha Kitt played the leading roles (Chita Rivera and Tom Poston were their stand-bys), the great character actor George S. Irving had a large supporting role and led the chorus in the title tune, and future ballet legends Jacques d'Amboise and Allegra Kent were in the dancing ensemble.

Perhaps the main reason Shinbone Alley didn't quite work on stage was that its loosely structured and episodic plot, following archy's attempts to rescue mehitabel from her aimless life of going from tomcat to tomcat ("Why does life have to be one darn litter after another?") and convince her to accept a safe future as a housecat, wasn't enough to sustain a full two-act musical. But despite that flaw, there are still plenty of charms to be had in this boisterous and clever show that retains its freshness today. The book is filled with witticisms of streetwise philosophy ("As a mosquito told me the other day, millionaires and bums taste exactly alike.") and the symphonic jazz score has the hip sound of 1950's cool.

Under director/choreographer Thomas Sabella-Mills, the Musicals Tonight! production boasts an impressive ensemble of jazz ballet dancers, with Elena Gutierrez standing out in featured numbers. The Bowery-accented Lee Zarrett is terrific as a nebbish, but sincere archy and Allyson Tucker nicely mixes a high-class appearance with a low-down style as mehitabel. Fine supporting work is done by Thursday Farrar as the jilted Broken-Hearted Cat, Trent Armand Kendall as the rowdy Big Bill, Erik McEwen as the flashy lightening bug named Broadway, Justin Sayre as the flamboyant and artistic Tyrone T. Tattersall and Gene Jones, who narrates as newspaperman Don Marquis.

The cast sounds great under music director Richard Hip-Flores, the evening's sole instrumentalist who gracefully handles the complex score on piano.

Shinbone Alley may not be one of those shows that musical theatre fans cry out for when companies like Musicals Tonight! plan their seasons of staged readings, but a production like this, full of snazzy energy and smart humor, shows it to be a real forgotten gem. A flawed gem, but a gem nevertheless.

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