By Lauren Yarger
Gershwin tunes, Matthew Broderick and book writer Joe DiPietro. Nice! Add in humorous performances by Estelle Parsons, Judy Kaye, Michael McGrath and Jennifer Laura Thompson. Nicer! End of review.
Seriously, there's much more to like than not in Broadway's light-hearted, toe-tapping musical Nice Work if Your Can Get It. It's silly funny with a role that almost seems tailor-written for Broderick's nerdy, clueless characterization and well, any show that has "But Not for Me" in the list of songs is OK in my book.
There is an actual story here and the Gershwin songs seem to be selected to help tell it, rather than what we see in "jukebox" musicals, where a number of songs are selected, then some ridiculous story is invented to connect them. That's because DiPietro (Memphis, The Toxic Avenger, I Love You, You're Perfect. Now Change) is the writer here. I am a big fan and have been keeping an eye on him as one of the more promising book writers on Broadway for a number of years. He's funny and skilled at crafting a cohesive book. This show runs a little long (at two hours and 40 minutes) and some of the Gershwin songs selected are a little more obscure but the lyrics seemed to fit perfectly into the story. It's Gershwin. I'll listen -- though I couldn't help but wish the orchestra under the musical direction of David Chase (who provides arrangements) was even larger.
In a send up of screwball comedies and dance films of an age gone by, the story here follows playboy Jimmy Winter (Broderick), taking a fourth wife, modern -- and I use the term loosely -- dancer Eileen Evergreen (Thompson) in the hopes that his formidable mother, Millicent (Parsons), will finally approve and allow him to take over the family business, though he isn't sure exactly what the family does to earn its vast fortune.
Outside a speakeasy, Jimmy meets up with bootlegger Billie Bendix (Kelli O'Hara) and her two cohorts, Duke Mahoney and Cookie McGee (Chris Sullivan and Michael McGrath). The gang decides Jimmy's mother's unused beach house mansion will be the perfect place to store their illegal booze, but when Jimmy, Eileen and others arrive unexpectedly, they are forced to change plans with Cookie posing as the butler and Duke as the cook. When sparks fly between Jimmy and Billie, things get even more complicated. (Sparks didn't fly for me about O'Hara's performance. I'm guessing she was under the weather the day I saw this show, since I know what she can do. I'll give her a pass.) The large ensemble cast is strong.
McGrath and Kaye have some great comic bits -- don't miss Kaye as the righteous, prohibitionist Duchess Estonia Dulworth who gets a little tipsy at dinner -- but this show is just nice to look at too. Besides Derek McLane's opulent sets, which seem to have a cartoonish quality that compliments the mood of poking fun at depression-era musicals without detracting from it, there are lovely period costumes by Martin Pakledinaz (I want them all in my closet) and really terrific stage direction and choreography by Kathleen Marshall (who keeps delivering great old-fashioned, bog-dance musicals to Broadway like Anything Goes and Wonderful Town).
Broderick and O'Hara dance up a storm and for "S Wonderful," the choreography is absolutely furniture and gravity-defying. In other numbers, chorus girls pop out of a bathtub, chorus boys pop out of the wood work and even Thompson's horrible "modern dance" steps are fun to watch. There's a brain-tilting image of O'Hara singing "Someone to Watch over Me" while cocking a rifle -- the audience couldn't stop laughing.
It's easy on the eyes and easy on the ears. Its S Wonderful, and for me, this fun, smile-inducing romp turned out to be the last Broadway show to review for the season. Nice work if you can get it.
Nice work if You Can Get It runs at the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th St., NYC. Tickets: 212-239-6200; 800-432-7250.
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