It's nonstop laughs aboard the Twentieth Century, a luxury train traveling from Chicago to New York City. Luck, love and mischief collide when the bankrupt theater producer Oscar Jaffee (Golden Globe winner Peter Gallagher) embarks on a madcap mission to cajole glamorous Hollywood starlet Lily Garland (Tony and Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth) into playing the lead in his new, non-existent epic drama. But is the train ride long enough to reignite the spark between these former lovers, create a play from scratch, and find the money to get it all the way to Broadway?
All told, 'On the Twentieth Century' is on track to score big at Tony Awards time - Chenoweth might as well start practicing her acceptance speech. Buy your tickets before the train leaves the station.
What's the trouble? Well, it's tough to love a musical with such unexceptional songs. Several of them are pastiche numbers - Indian Maiden's Lament, Veronique, Babette - tunes from properties that Oscar and his rival Max Jacobs (James Moye) want to produce. The latter two offer a lot of fun to the design team, but they're neither terrific nor terrible enough to really land. The overture and the opening number Saddle Up the Horse/On the 20th Century are nicely exciting and there's a quality comic tune in Sign Lily Sign, but already it's hard to remember any of the others. Without a first-class score to bolster the madcappery, even an engine as forceful as the Twentieth Century's sometimes runs out of steam.
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