54 Sings The Pajama Game
Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, July 17, 2016
Reviewed by Joel Benjamin for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Maryann Lopinto
The 1954 Richard Adler/Jerry Ross musical The Pajama Game (book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, based on the latter’s novel), despite two revivals and a hummable score, has somehow never made it into the pantheon of classic musical comedies. 54 Sings The Pajama Game made a good case for this Golden Age musical, breathing new life into songs we thought we knew so well, most notably with Max Pollak’s a cappella virtuoso tap rendition of “Steam Heat.” Although he, perhaps, went on a bit too long, his robust singing and dancing was the high point of the program.
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One after another, the well-known songs rolled out: the rollicking waltz “I’m Not At All in Love,” sung by the lovely Autumn Hurlbert as the romantic lead, Babe, backed by Victoria Cook, Melissa Rose Hirsch, Monet Julia Sabel and Madeleine Spacapan; the comic “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again” and the grammatically bizarre “Her Is,” both performed by a lusciously lascivious Lucia Spina and the evening’s saucily brilliant emcee, Rob Maitner; “Hernando’s Hideaway,” in a spicy interpretation from the audience by Cook; and, of course, the famous “Hey There,” given a too off-hand interpretation by Michael Halling, who surprisingly managed to turn leading man, Sid’s lament, “A New Town Is a Blue Town,” into a strip tease!
Two of the songs are now credited to Frank Loesser: the aforementioned “A New Town” and the rousing love duet, “There Once Was a Man,” blasted with great comic timing by Hulbert and a second Sid, Michael McCorry Rose.
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Anthony Sagaria’s solo in “7 ½ Cents” stood out from the ensemble.
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Maitner’s running gossipy commentary on the making of the show was the entertaining glue that kept the evening flowing, helped by the brilliant musical direction of Jacob Yates at the piano, whose band was completed by Dave LeBlanc (drums), Mike Preen (bass), Joseph Whittman (guitar) and Ally Jenkins (violin).
