PAINT YOUR WAGON -- CITY CENTER ENCORES

Keith Carradine hoists a glass in Paint Your Wagon

PAINT YOUR WAGON. City Center Encores; Manhattan. Live. March 19, 2015.

First, let me make it clear that this is the stage musical "Paint Your Wagon" and not the awful film adaptation that had Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin croaking out songs, and which has a completely different (and stupid) plot from the Lerner and Loewe musical. In the show, Ben Rumson (Keith Carradine) is a grizzled prospector hoping for a gold strike while living in a ramshackle town where his daughter, Jennifer (Alexandra Socha), is the only woman. Eventually more women of "ill repute" show up in town, while Ben buys a Mormon woman from her first husband, and Jennifer goes east to school pining for her Mexican lover, Julio (Justin Guarini). She returns only to find that Julio has gone off again and nobody knows quite where he is. Will these two lovers be reunited despite the fact that this is decades before cell phones, ipads, fast planes and the Internet? "Paint Your Wagon" has an interesting book and some wonderful music, with the tunes including "I Talk to the Trees;" "They Call the Wind Maria;" and "Another Autumn;" as well as several rousing numbers, including "I'm On My Way" (which could have used more dancing). Carradine makes an effective leading man. He hasn't got a great voice by any means, but he gets the songs across without any problem. Guarini, formerly of American Idol, also does a very nice job with both his acting and singing, and Socha is charming as Jennifer. She has perhaps more of a pop style than a Broadway style, but somehow that isn't a distraction. Nathaniel Hackmann as a prospector named Steve is handed one of the show's most beautiful numbers, the aforementioned "Maria," and while he has a very nice voice -- and the song is great -- it didn't quite knock my socks off like it should have; maybe his interpretation wasn't quite dramatic enough. There's some wonderful dancing in the show, the orchestra is fine, and the whole production -- presented by Encores at City Center -- is pretty much outstanding.

Verdict: Excellent revival of a time-lost Broadway classic. ***1/2.

THE MOST HAPPY FELLA

The cast of City Center Encores' The Most Happy Fella

THE MOST HAPPY FELLA. New York City Center Encores. April 2014.

Arguably lyricist-composer Frank Loesser created the finest version of Sidney Howard's Pulitzer prize-winning "They Knew What They Wanted" with his musical theater masterpiece The Most Happy Fella. City Center Encores presented a semi-staged production with lots of singing and dancing in April 2014, and it served to remind the very appreciative audience of just how memorable this musical/opera is. Awash in sensitive melody from start to finish, it tells the story of vintner Tony Esposito (Shuler Hensley), an uneducated middle-aged man who falls for a young and pretty waitress he calls Rosabella (Laura Benanti). Foolishly he sends her the picture of his young friend and worker, Joe (Cheyenne Jackson), instead of his own, setting up a situation that can only culminate in, as his sister Marie (Jessica Molaskey) would put it, trouble. Rosabella agrees to marry Tony, but gets a bitter surprise when she shows up in Napa Valley ... Besides this triangle, there's a secondary, comical romance between Rosabella's friend Cleo (Heidi Blickenstaff) and another of Tony's workers (Jay Armstrong Johnson). Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, this production boasts a remarkably talented cast. Benanti has a wonderful voice that wraps itself around such numbers as "Warm All Over" and "Somebody Somewhere." While he may not be a Robert Weede vocally (Weede sang the role in the original production), Hensley still has a good voice and his acting is excellent. Jackson demonstrates his beautiful singing with Joe's big number "Joey, Joey, Joey," and Blickenstaff, Molaskey, and Johnson also give superior performances. I was also especially impressed with Zachary James and Kevin Vortmann, but I must say the entire company performed with verve and enthusiasm. But if The Most Happy Fella doesn't bring out the best in everyone, what will? One final note: We don't learn that "Rosabella's" real name is Amy until the very end of the show, but of course Tony had to know her real name because of their exchange of letters. This production makes a few cuts, and Marie's number (Eyes of a Stranger, but don't quote me) rarely is included these days.

Verdict: A masterpiece. ****.