Before new music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell struck up the large and lush orchestra on the Encores! revival of the Jerry Herman-Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee Dear World, artistic director Lear deBessonet strode in front of the curtain.
She was on mic to remind the palpably enthusiastic crowd about the mandate of the series: presenting musicals that may not have completely succeeded first time around. The intention is to give insights into how these misses and near-misses might not have been up to snuff at the time as well as to provide refreshed, full-staging cheer.
What followed effectively — and even gloriously — achieves both purposes. Profuse thanks to all, beginning with director-choreographer Josh Rhodes and certainly with Donna Murphy, who stars as Countess Aurelia, a renowned Parisian who determinedly sets out to improve the lives of fellow denizens in a tuned-up version of Maurice Valency’s adaptation of Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot.
It could be said that Aurelia is the polar opposite of Passion’s Fosca, who Murphy played some time ago and for which she was Tony-ed. That benighted lady stalks her man through song, whereas the hardly mad Aurelia doesn’t so much stalk as steer her followers to higher Paris ground.
Gowned beautifully by costumer Toni Leslie James, Aurelia encourages happiness with songs “Through the Bottom of the Glass” and “Each Tomorrow Morning,” even if having the occasional heavy misgiving, as in “I Don’t Want to Know.” This last might be Murphy’s vocal high point. It’s hardly by accident that by now she could be considered — based on this fourth appearance — The Encores! series’ first lady.
Supporting Murphy are Broadway favorites: Andréa Burns as madwoman Constance and Ann Harada as madwoman Gabrielle, who irritate each other; Christopher Fitzgerald as a jovial sewer man aware of a truly worse nether-sewer; and Eddie Korbich as a friendly cop.
Newer-comers Samantha Williams as young waitress Nina and Phillip Johnson Richardson as her suitor, Julian, also display the tuner’s required charm. (Craig Burns and Rashad Naylor of Telsey Office casting knew what they were doing when they tackled this assignment.)
As usual, Jerry Herman shows himself deft at the songwriting. He’s always ready with the sort of “Open a New Window” morale booster he dispensed in Mame, and he lays it on here. More than once. Late in the second act, he does supply one of his finest — and perhaps his finest — ballad with the soaring “Kiss Her Now,” which Murphy chants as if it unquestionably is the finest ballad ever.
Maybe, though, it’s title tune “Dear World” that’s the clue to the Dear World problem. The musical runs the risk — and likely succumbs to it — of becoming, as Aurelia lays on her wiles, just a mite too dear, too twee, trop gentil, as the French might say.
For Hello, Dolly! and Mame, Herman’s bookwriters were, respectively, Michael Stewart and Lawrence and Lee. But make no mistake, they were writing to Herman’s strengths: shows in which women are the life force. Aurelia even asserts at the Dear World finish that important progress is only made when women attend to it — the villains here being all men, three handling an attaché case.
It may not be speculating excessively to attribute Herman’s salute to the ladies as a salute to his mother, well-known for her unadulterated support, which isn’t necessarily true of all mothers whose sons want to produce hit shows. But this time Aurelia is too, well, too dear to entice a large audience. Herman, Lawrence, and Lee might have hoped for a Dolly-Mame-Dear World trifecta, but it wasn’t to be. (Keep in mind: Herman’s La Cage Aux Folles boasts a man in drag as its impetus.)
What-ho, though. Dropped neatly into the Dear World dialogue, along with Herman’s luscious melodies and words, is a line that has marvelous resonance to our times. The cynical, unfortunately realistic comment posits that where striking oil is concerned, those concerned with it are unlikely to be interested in democracy. Had this Dear World been revised as somewhere in Texas instead of Paris, it couldn’t have been more timely.
Dear World opened March 15, 2023, at City Center and runs through March 19. Tickets and information: nycitycenter.org
